sasha_feather (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sasha_feather) wrote2016-07-17 10:48 pm
sasha_feather) wrote2016-07-17 10:48 pm
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the fly in your honey
Spoilers for Ghostbusters ahead. Overall I loved this movie but there was some weird racist stuff going on.
While it's great to show different kinds and styles of intelligence in a team, ie some are professorly (Erin) and some are working class, self-educated types (Patty), it can become a problem when there is only one black woman in the film and she's the working class one, and all the more academic ones are white.
As in the original, Patty is the last to join the team; the others have previously established relationships. I'd have liked her to be Jillian's friend, someone she knows from engineering school or something. An inventor, or a business woman. I wasn't sure why she wanted to join the GhostBusters, and if she was previously friends with Jillian that would have made more sense.
There is a scene where Patty suggests her cousin as a receptionist, instead of the incredibly incompetent Kevin. This suggestion gets ignored. Why? Why put that line in the film just to have it drop?
A scene at a rock concert: Abby jumps off the stage and crowd surfs. Patty is about to follow suit and I'm prepared to grin as all the Ghostbusters crowd surf. Instead, inexplicably, the crowd moves out of her way and she falls to the floor. "I don't know if this is a race thing or a woman thing," she says. The film is commenting weirdly on its own racism.
In contrast, there is a scene where Kevin (the white receptionist) falls after being de-possessed. Two of the ghostbusters literally throw their bodies underneath him to save him from injury.
In another scene, Abby is briefly possessed by the villian's ghost. Patty saves both Jillian and Abby; but when she slaps Abby to get the ghost out, she says "the power of Patty compels you!" This falls into the trope of the "Magical Black Person".
While it's great to show different kinds and styles of intelligence in a team, ie some are professorly (Erin) and some are working class, self-educated types (Patty), it can become a problem when there is only one black woman in the film and she's the working class one, and all the more academic ones are white.
As in the original, Patty is the last to join the team; the others have previously established relationships. I'd have liked her to be Jillian's friend, someone she knows from engineering school or something. An inventor, or a business woman. I wasn't sure why she wanted to join the GhostBusters, and if she was previously friends with Jillian that would have made more sense.
There is a scene where Patty suggests her cousin as a receptionist, instead of the incredibly incompetent Kevin. This suggestion gets ignored. Why? Why put that line in the film just to have it drop?
A scene at a rock concert: Abby jumps off the stage and crowd surfs. Patty is about to follow suit and I'm prepared to grin as all the Ghostbusters crowd surf. Instead, inexplicably, the crowd moves out of her way and she falls to the floor. "I don't know if this is a race thing or a woman thing," she says. The film is commenting weirdly on its own racism.
In contrast, there is a scene where Kevin (the white receptionist) falls after being de-possessed. Two of the ghostbusters literally throw their bodies underneath him to save him from injury.
In another scene, Abby is briefly possessed by the villian's ghost. Patty saves both Jillian and Abby; but when she slaps Abby to get the ghost out, she says "the power of Patty compels you!" This falls into the trope of the "Magical Black Person".
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(The moment with "the power of Patty compels you" struck me as less Magical Black Person - she was quoting The Exorcist while trying to exorcise a ghost, and not with magical means - and more "look how powerful and physical this black woman is", so a different kind of racism.)
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