#gbfemcrit

Fans response to Ghostbusters was immediate and swift. Fans immediately latched onto the characters and, displeased with the way the intersectional characters were treated, immediately turned to the age-old fix-it tool of fandom: fanfiction.

Abby, who was given no overt sexuality or romantic identity, was turned into an asexual lesbian. Fans saw her admiration of Gertrude Aldridge (“We saw a real life ghost, and she was beautiful.”) as context that she might be queer. They backed it up when Abby appeared mystified with Erin’s attraction to Kevin. Abby, who also seemed to not be sexually interested in anybody, was determined to be asexual. Fanfiction immediately sprung up about Erin and Abby’s college relationship and what it might have entailed, as well as her close relationship with Holtzmann in canon. (1)

Erin, with her history of bullying, was fleshed out by becoming a character with mental illness, including anxiety and depression. Fanfiction writers wrote her as to taking medication and attending therapy to help manage these mental illnesses, turning her into an icon for positive mental health representation. With her interested, and flustered, reaction to much of Holtzmann’s canon flirting, the fandom determined her to be bisexual. The relationship between Erin and Holtzmann (named Holtzbert) quickly became the fandom’s most popular romantic pairing, with Erin specifically mentioned as bisexual in the fanfics—a turning point in fandom, as until recently bisexuality was not well represented in fandom. Erin close friendship with Patty was also explored, as well as her previously mentioned pre/post college relationship with Abby. (2)

Patty’s storyline was quickly fleshed out by fans to give her an education to match her history degree.  History, architecture, and/or architectural history became educational paths that Patty had pursued before Ghostbusters, or would pursue with support from the Ghostbusters after the events of the movie. Her friendship with Holtzmann was explored as something more romantic, and fans provided ways the movie could have involved Patty more in the exposition. (3)

Holtzmann was given the biggest fandom overhaul. She was immediately accepted by the fans as gay and proud—a suave lady killer with impeccable bed sport manner. The fandom fights back and forth about whether or not her background is a tragic kid of the system or a girl who grew up with loving family that supported her idiosyncrasies. This dichotomy comes out of the fandoms desire to break out of the tragic lesbian stereotypes that so often haunt Sapphic characters.  Many fans also immediately embraced her as nuero-atypical, taking her canon eccentricities and turning them into headcanons that place her somewhere on the autism spectrum and as some flavor of mentally ill. (4) (5)

One of the most interesting things that came out of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was the fandom deciding to involve all of Ghostbusters in a polyamorous relationship.  This ship, called #Polybusters by the fans, is a fandom rarity. Generally fans fight over romantic monogamous pairings of characters in so called “ship wars.” One of most famous incidents of this sort of ship war is the Katara/Aang versus Zuko/Katara ship war of the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom, and the Bella/Edward vs Bella/Jacob ship war of the Twilight Fandom. (6)

Instead of devolving this way (at least, at first), fans of Ghostbusters decided that a healthy, consensual polyamorous relationship between the four women would be a better solution than ship wars or love triangles. This interpretation of Ghostbusters provides great representation to those in the fandom who identify as polyamorous and is a welcome change from usual fandom behavior of arguing over which monogamous ship is superior.  

This is not to say the Ghostbusters fandom does not have its own ship war—the ship of Holtzmann and Erin (Holtzbert) is constantly under fire for being racist and fat shaming, as the fandom immediately paired the two thin white women together over all other options (this was before the infamous “we’re dating” deleted scene became public knowledge). Despite the existence of this ship war, it is encouraging to see a fandom thinking about intersectionality when it comes to their romantic pairings, as it means the fandom is particular about their media in a way that feminist humor would approve of.

Ghostbusters takes a page from the Lesbian Humor book in the way it portrays women on screen. While not making any direct lesbian references (at least, not in the theatrical version, but more on that later), Ghostbusters definitely celebrates women, showing them in a positive light, which is the height of Lesbian Humor. (1)

Ghostbusters shows women as strong and intelligent by letting them flaunt it throughout the movie.

Three of the four women are doctors in STEM, a field that is notoriously hard on women. Erin introduces herself with “Hello, my name is Erin Gilbert, doctor of particle physics at Columbia University” and Abby and Holtzmann’s title of “Dr.” are clearly shown on the door of their lab at the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute. Not only do these women have STEM degrees, they use them, too. Holtzmann repeatedly goes into long, rambling science-y explanations of her devices, and builds multiple iterations of nuclear-powered equipment.  Erin is shown doing complex math in the first few minutes of the film, and directly after that a shot of her office shows the walls of her office covered in Physics-related accolades and awards. Not only that, but Erin is shown wearing an MIT sweater and an MIT class ring, and Holtzmann canonically also attended MIT, showing that these two women were accepted to and received degrees from one of the best STEM schools in the nation.

Ghostbusters shows women praising and supporting other women, providing direct representation of positive female friendship for young girls to model themselves off of.

Abby calls Holtzmann a “brilliant engineer” and in a deleted scene, Holtzmann encourages Patty’s sassy attitude, saying “You’re mouthy. I like that.” Holtzmann empowers Erin by giving her a swiss army knife and telling her that “no woman should walk around unarmed.” Abby and Erin are shown rekindling their friendship. The four women are repeatedly seen watching out for each other, saving each other repeatedly from death or harm. The Ghostbusters are shown fighting together, working together, and hanging out together—it starts off a bit rocky, but as the four of them become closer, they become a seamless ghostbusting machine. The bond and become friends over pizza and sharing traumatic stories of their childhood. At the end of the movie, Erin, Abby, Patty, and Holtzmann embrace on the roof of their newly acquired firehouse, strongly cementing the importance of female friendship to success. The empowerment of women and girls through the celebration of female culture and friendship cannot be understated; it is extremely important to see woman holding each other up, not tearing each other down.

Ghostbusters shows women as badass and dominant.

Finally, Ghostbusters shows women as badass. They wear nonsexualized outfights (jumpsuits! Their hair is pulled back in ponytails!) and fight villains in beautifully choreographed and beautifully filmed fight scenes. Holtzmann gets a whole scene to herself in which she takes out approximately twenty ghosts single-handedly, all while a sweeping and epic score crescendos behind her to highly her accomplishments. It is beautiful and incredibly powerful to watch.

The Ghostbusters not only subvert social laws, but they break actually laws, too. Instead of letting their equipment get taken by the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute after Abby and Holtz are fired, they steal it back and use it to start their ghostbusting business. Instead of letting men profit off their work, they assert their dominance by taking it back.

Showing women as strong, intelligent, aggressive, funny, positive role models in exactly what Lesbian Feminist Humor is about. Ghostbusters definitely does this, and it is a really great thing to see in media after countless films that have women fighting each other and clawing for a better position at the top.

Introduction: Ghostbusters: Answer the Call

Hi, folks! Before we get theoretical (and then critical), let’s set the stage. For those of you who aren’t fans of the “new Ghostbusters,” as it is called by fans, let’s give you a run down on the new film and the firestorm it created.

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was released on July 11, 2016 by Sony Pictures. When director Paul Feig announced in October 2014 that he was directing a female-led reboot of the classic Ghostbusters franchise, the internet exploded—but not in a good way.

Almost immediately male fans of the original Ghostbusters franchise lashed out against the new series, accusing it of being gimmick-y and trying to push feminism. (1) Much of the criticism was vitriolic and misogynist. The controversy was not that the movie franchise was being rebooted—no, the controversy was that it was being rebooted with women playing the lead roles.

When Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (also referred to as Ghostbusters 2016, 2016 Ghostbusters, or GB: AtC) released in theatres, reviews were mixed. Female fans and critics seemed generally in favor of the movie; Manohla Dargis said the film was “enjoyable…fun” and that “Girls Rule. Women Are Funny. Get Over It.” (2) Many younger, female fans went to see the movie upwards of five or six times while it was still in theatres. (3)  While women and minorities seemed to enjoy the film, male fans and critics were not as kind. Movie critic James Berardinelli called the movie a “horrifying mess”­­ while and Richard Roeper declared it the “worst movie of the year.” (4) (5) Old fans, who were disproportionately male, accused the new movie of “ruining their childhood.” (6)

 Ghostbusters grossed a total of $229.1 million USD worldwide, below it’s needed $300 million USD to break even. (7) The film has been called a flop and the public reaction “mediocre,” and a sequel is unlikely. (8) Despite this tepid response, Ghostbusters was #1 in DVD/Blu-Ray home video sale in North America when it became available for purchase, and the online movie reviewing site Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 73% and certified it as “fresh.” (9) (10) The film has an active fan following (or fandom) online, especially Tumblr, AO3, and fanfiction.net.

After a somewhat troubling look at Erin, now we look at Dr. Jillian Holtzmann. And, unfortunately, the intersectionality of Ghostbusters seems to get worse.

Holtzmann, like Erin and Abby, is a white cisgendered woman. Two’s company. Three white women leading a giant blockbuster film? Hmm….

Holtzmann is a PhD nuclear engineer and a gear-headed grease monkey. She makes nuclear power gadgets and gear.  She’s not just a scientist—she’s a fabricator. Showing a woman who makes high-tech devices is incredibly important representation for young girls because it shows them they are allowed to get dirty and make things just like boys.

Holtzmann is weird. She has no mental filter and says the first thing that comes into her head. She dances to no music and flails when she runs. She makes faces and strange noises. Her eccentric, unapologetic nature acts as a great reflection of all the oddball kids in the world, especially the girls, who are supposed to be quiet, collected, and ‘normal.’

That being said, some of her behaviors—including chewing on objects/licking things, wearing yellow-filtered glasses and/or goggles for most of the film, copying the physical behaviors and gestures of other characters–are also potential symptoms of ADHD, autism, and/or sensory processing disorders.

There are no known connections between any of these nueroatypical behaviors and Holtzmann, leaving a broken intersection that could have been incredibly important to people with ADHD, autism, and/or sensory processing disorders. These individuals rarely get representation outside of documentaries and disability porn; any characters in films that have these behaviors are generally caricatures, not fleshed out and fully realized characters like Holtzmann obviously is.

In the theatrical version of the movie, Holtzmann’s sexuality is never explicitly stated. However, her character has all of the readings of a butch or soft butch lesbian. Her swagger, her manner of dress (masculine), her flirting and touching with the other female characters, and her overtly sexual overtones with phallic-esque objects (the blowtorch, the fire extinguisher, and the failed proton beam in the subway) all give her a very queer vibe. Not to mention at the end of the movie she declares the Ghostbusters her equivalent of a found family, a very important aspect of LGBT culture, as many queer people have to put together their own family units.

Many fans rightfully assumed that Holtzmann was Queer. At least bisexual, most likely a lesbian. However when Kate McKinnon was asked about Holtzmann’s sexuality, a Sony representative forced her to move on to the next question without answering. (1) Similarly, when Paul Feig was asked about Holtzmann’s sexuality, he gave a vague response, citing Sony’s studios as his reasoning. (2)

It got worse when the deleted scenes were released; Holtzmann quite visibly points to Erin and said “We’re dating.” However, neither the production company, Feig, or McKinnon would comment or confirm, leaving Holtzmann’s sexuality technically up in the air.

Holtzmann being gay would have been amazing representation for gay women on television, especially gay women in STEM. However, Sony’s refusal to confirm or deny her sexuality leaves Queer fans with the feeling that they have been queerbaited—or lead on to believe a character is queer only to have it never confirmed. Considering the fact that McKinnon herself is gay, this erasure and queerbaiting is unacceptable.

That’s not a good look, Sony. It’s not a good look at all.

…Also, considering how much the film uses Lesbian Feminist Humor, they might as well have thrown Holtzmann’s coming out story in there, as coming out stories are a large commonality in lesbian feminist humor. Definitely a missed opportunity for some great intersectional representation.

So, after all of that, what do we know? What did we learn? And why is it important?

Well, lets start from the beginning.

We know that Ghostbusters was attacked as a feminist movie from the beginning, and in some cases the haters were right. Ghostbusters does indeed incorporate aspects of female humor, feminist humor, and lesbian feminist humor in order to tells its story, and that is one of the reasons it is not understood and attacked by men. The shared cultural experience of women that is portrayed in Ghostbusters, along with its portrayal of strong, smart, and funny female characters subverts dominant male culture comedy in which the woman is supposed to be submissive, demure, and stupid. It was attacked because it pushes back against this dominant male culture and turns the tables on men.

Ghostbusters passes most, if not all of the feminist media tests, including the Bechdel test, the Mako Mori test, and the Sexy Lamp test. It also created its own feminist media test, the Pizza test. However, Ghostbusters is not intersectionally feminist.

Ghostbusters features four female leads in a non-demeaning comedy/action movie, and the movie’s humor is based on feminist and female comedy, overall Ghostbusters: Answer the Call seems to throw the stories of the intersectional characters under the bus to uphold a white, straight, neurotypical feminist narrative.

The reaction of fandom to the erasure or downplaying of intersectional characters by giving them intersectional background of their own shows a growing movement in fandom to tell diverse stories. It also shows a demand for media that portrays intersectional characters in the first place.

So What?

Why does all this matter? Why does Ghostbusters matter? Or does it not? Is Ghostbusters: Answer the Call just another movie to fall through the cracks, forgot as just another mediocre summer movie flop?

Well, Ghostbusters was the first all-female reboot of a male-casted movie, and the reaction to it shows that we as a culture have a long way to go. We need to take a harder stance in dealing with sexism and racism in our media and in our population. If feminist media is already non-mainstream, we should go all the way and tell intersectional stories that represent the intersection of being female and being a minority instead of just telling the stories of white women. We need to actually give our intersectional character concrete diversity in our media instead of baiting minorities with half-issued promises of diversity and inclusion.

A brief run down on the batches:

Batch 1 is going to cover introductions and the problems this blog is going to be looking at.Including but not limited to Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (GB:AtC), the players involved in it’s filming, directing, and release, and the firestorm around it. (#introduction)

Batch 2 is going to be about Humor. Humor in general, male humor vs female humor, feminist humor, and how they work. (#humor)

Batch 4 is going to be a breakdown of the humor in GB:AtC, including what humor is used the most in the film. (#gb humor)

Batch 5 is going to be about Feminism, some measurements of feminism (Bechdel Test, Mako Mori test, etc), Intersectional vs White Feminism, and how that relates to GB:AtC. (#feminism)

Batch 6 is going to relate to the intersectional characters of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and how the movie did or did not fail to tell their stories. (Spoilers: GB:AtC fails it’s intersectional characters. Big time.) (#gb feminism)

Batch 7 is how GB:AtC could have treated its intersectional characters better in a way that is still true to the storyline and the script. I’ll also talk about fandom and fandom fixes (fanfiction, ahoy) here. (#gb improve)

Batch 8 is going to be my conclusions. (#fin)

All of these batches will be tagged accordingly and a lirect link to each Batch will be posted to the top.

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Now we look at Dr. Erin Gilbert.

Erin, like Abby, is also a white, cisgendered woman. Which is fine.

Erin is a female doctor of particle physics (i.e. a female in a STEM field) and she works at the Columbia University. Despite the odds, and all the forces against her, she has done pretty well for herself. Another great example of good representation for young girls looking to go into STEM.

Erin has some money, but does not come from money. The Ghostbusters novelization says that the money she uses to initially funds all of the Ghostbusters operations comes from her savings, meaning as a professor at Columbia University she is paid relatively well.

Erin spent most of her childhood being bullied. She is scared of being outcast from society and being fired from her job. She shows some nervousness at being asked to tech in front of a large amount of people. That being said, these are normal human fears. It is incredibly refreshing to see a character who has been bullied not use their traumatic background to be a total asshole to everyone else, especially when there is another character in the film who does just that.