There has been a lot of news and talk lately about the new "Ghostbusters" film with Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, and Kristen Wiig. When the movie was announced there was an outcry about not only a retelling of the classic movie but due to the fact that it would star female leads. When I read about the new movie, I knew one thing.
This was important.
Not only would this film star four of my favorite female comedians but it would give the opportunity to cast women in a role that isn’t often seen. This film had four incredibly talented, strong, smart and funny women playing four incredibly talented, strong, smart and funny.
As I sat down in the theater, I looked around and saw people my age, people older than me, and few young children. Just behind me sat two little girls. A few minutes into the movie I realized two things.
The first was that the characters were talking smart. Women in films are written two ways. They are written as accidently smart in which they happen to come across something ingenious or they are written as unlikeable know-it-alls with little to offer but a few snarky comments.
But these characters weren’t. They spoke like they knew what they were talking about. Like they were leaders in their field. They were written like male characters are written. They were given actual voices.
The second thing I realized was that I couldn’t think of a single movie in which the leads were females who didn’t have a love interest, spent time drunkenly crying in the bathroom or were the odd misfits who struggled to fit in. In just over two decades of life, this was the first movie I had seen where the characters were true. They weren’t written to highlight the stereotypes or with the worst qualities of a woman.
After I made this realization I looked around. Every person in that theater was engaged in the story. But what was most smile-inducing was the two little girls sitting in the row behind me. Both of them leaned forward in their seats—practically crawling over into the next row. Their eyes were as big as saucers and their mouths hung open. This wasn’t the look of two kids simply memorized by the glowing and bright screen in front of them. These were the faces of two kids who were thinking, “that could be me.”
That is why I’m excited about this movie. It is a representation for women. These are characters that kids can look up to and adults can relate to. These aren’t characters who's only value resides in the perkiness of their breasts and the size of their butts. These aren’t characters who attract interest only due to the clothing they put on. These characters mean something.
For once, Kristen Wiig isn’t playing the goofy, drunk, oddball who is trying to win the guy back. Melissa McCarthy isn’t playing the chubby, clumsy, barely put together mess. Leslie Jones isn’t playing the overly aggressive black woman. Kate McKinnon isn’t just doing an impersonation.
These characters, these women, are real. That is what we should be striving for in our movies, plays, and books. Let’s work to create characters that make little girls realize that their worth is not in the guy that they date, the clothes that they wear or the way that they look. Their worth is determined by their own individuality, not by the mold that society has made.
"Ghostbusters" may just be another movie this summer, but it's hopefully the start to a beautiful and equal representation of women in media.
