Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot has received a lot of negative press from fans and critics ever since the concept of an all-female lead cast reboot was first mentioned. Those with feministic views have blindly defended the movie which was green-lit at the expense of an eagerly awaited sequel that had been developed for over a decade by the franchise's creators Dan Aykroyd and the late Harold Ramis. Publicly only the director Feig has defended the movie while former Sony co-chairperson and executive producer of the movie Amy Pascal has remained tight-lipped. Some of the cast, old and new have seemingly shown their support, but in reality only towards the cast members or the director, never has any cast member outright defended or praised the movie.
Considering why she was sacked from Sony it is no surprise that Amy Pascal has remained quiet considering the recent backlash against the forthcoming reboot which has criticized the trailers not only for their lack of comedy and scares but also for the racist depiction of Patty Tolan portrayed by Saturday Night Live regular Leslie Jones.
Not content with having an overzealous feminist band of followers and not content with being called racist, this new featurette for the new Ghostbusters adds sexism to its ever-growing list of social offenses. Chris Hemsworth's depiction of "Sexy Kevin" is an outright, in-your-face depiction of inappropriate sexual discrimination, being employed by the female ghostbusters purely for his looks.
Now, I get the joke and the social commentary at play here - how often do we see attractive secretaries employed in businesses in movies with a male driven cast. The problem with this is depiction two-fold. Firstly Janine Melnitz, as portrayed by Annie Potts in 1984's Ghostbusters was not employed because she was hot, or flaunted inappropriate amounts of flesh; she was employed because she was a damn good secretary. Secondly, Ghostbusters is meant to be a family movie filled with action, comedy, and a few small scares, it was never meant to be a platform for social commentary - feminism, racism and sexism have NO place in a Ghostbusters movie.
