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A Tasting Menu of Female Representation:

rehfan:

madlori:

qfeminism:

thisisrabbit:

priscellie:

cl-hilbert:

The Bechdel:

two or more women talking to each other about something other than a man

The Mako Mori:

at least one female character with her own narrative arc that is not about supporting a man’s story

The Sexy Lamp:

a female character that cannot be removed from the plot and replaced with a sexy lamp without destroying the story.

Chef’s Specials:

The Anti-Freeze:

no woman assaulted, injured or killed to further the story of another character.

The “Strength is Relative”:

complex women defined by solid characterization rather than a handful of underdeveloped masculine-coded stereotypes.

Furiosa test.

^^

“Ghostbusters” blows all of these tests completely out of the water.

And generates at least one that I think ought to be added:

The Pizza Night Test

Women are shown eating non-salad food and no comment is made about anyone getting fat or breaking their diet.

I love everyone in this bar.

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This is not new

hades-pa:

thebrazenegalitarianbraixen:

darkumbreondiscourse:

out-there-on-the-maroon:

Mad Max Fury Road: women, and a man with disabilities, defeat the embodiment of male entitlement 
Star Wars the Force Awakens: a white woman and a black man defeat the embodiment of modern male entitlement
Ghostbusters: women defeat the embodiment of modern male entitlement 
Bitter Fanboys: do not like this one bit

Except Mad Max and TFA were good movies. Ghostbusters was a sad excuse to pander for representation.

Funny how the first two just made strong characters and didn’t just point out their gender every five seconds while the last one never shut up about it and defeated a ghost with a crotch shot but hey. Also? The villains in the first two weren’t embodiments of male entitlement. One was a guy running a cult that had a lot of sex slaves and the other was a villain that I’m pretty sure would do the same if he was a woman. That’s not really gendered entitlement. That’s just bad people doing bad things.

Funny how bitter fanboys are ok with two disabled people take down the epitome of male libido and machoness. Funny how they’re ok when racial barriers are broken as our heroes take down the obsessed fanboy with abusive tendencies. Funny how when it’s a band of strong women from diverse backgrounds take the lead to save the world from a former bullying victim who thinks the world owes him something and interact with gatekeepers (Bill Murray’s character), entitled fuckboys (Chris Hemsworth’s character), and a paranoid government trying to cover up the pressing issues in the world THAT is where the line is drawn.

The new Ghostbusters deserves love and attention for a poignant storyline as well as representing another set of demographics in comedy which?? Why would that ever be a bad thing????? 

It passed the Bechdel test, the Sexy Lamp test, the Furiosa test, and one or two more internet spawned tests that I can’t even remember off the top of my head.

It is a damn good film, and the people who can’t see the tropes of society being put on display and destroyed onscreen in the form of both characters and the actions they take sound no better than the villains themselves.