Older women in movies

_Rookwood_ · 2016-08-03T07:06:41+00:00

LOL, ghostbusters will go down in history as one of the biggest marketing fuckups. Let us break down the "strategy"

Take a "classic" - alienate the core nostalgia audience. Take every opportunity to try and shame men into coming to watch .

Release a truly terrible trailer and lie to everyone about why people hate it.

If the movie studios want me to go see their movie the might want to get some basic marketing down at the very least.

I really have no idea how they thought shaming/abuse of men would work out.

SunnyFoxes · 2016-08-03T09:10:52+00:00

Wait! Wait! Wait!

If you think this is a problem, then why don't you fix it?

Write a screenplay with your script and agenda. Produce and direct it yourself. Hell, you can even act in it too, if you want to.

But I hope you realize that it has to be entertaining to get people to want to go pay to see it. And to make a profit.

People want to escape reality and feel good, when they go see a movie. If they wanted someone's agenda shoved down their throughts, then they would watch a documentary.

Good luck with that.

By the way, I refused to go watch Ghostbusters because I had already watched the original movie and did not like it that much. And making it an all female cast does not in itself improve the plot, themes, etc. There was no reason to believe that this one would be any better or even worth the time and money.

anitapk · 2016-08-03T06:19:10+00:00

And this is a problem because....?

The outside world isn't a safe space, movies need to sell.

Nobody forbids producers from doing non mainstream movies.

On the flip side lots of young good looking women become actresses just because of their looks, sometimes their looks get them through the front door faster other times they simply don't have talent.

MagicGainbow · 2016-08-03T06:35:55+00:00

It was successful, but not as successful as it could have been without all the thumbsucking baby men who refused to go see it because ... women. As if the fucking odds weren't stacked so high against women in the first place.

Hilarious. Ideologues such as yourself want to blame men for the movie's failure? Judging by your above statement, you're clearly biased. The truth is people without an agenda (the wider population) thought the movie sucked. It turns out people watch movies for entertainment, and don't like having an agenda pushed on them.

[deleted] · 2016-08-03T23:00:54+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Rhunta · 2016-08-03T08:22:00+00:00

Why does it better if there is an female lead for you? Isn't male and female the same for you? Or are you just a sexist? /s

Business doesn't care about equality it cares about money.

exit_sandman · 2016-08-03T09:32:49+00:00

There's a reason old actresses feature less in movies - it's pretty similar to the reason why life isn't easy on older women in general: because they skates through life on their looks when younger, they never really had to develop a skillset that helped them later on.

Look at the actresses in their 20s - their main selling point is that they're pretty. "Actresses" like Megan Fox will always be more of an audience draw (especially for blockbusters) than actresses like Anna Paquin and Keisha Castle-Hughes, and as such will also be more numerous. However, while I can easily imagine the latter in leading roles in their 40s, 50s and 60s, the beauty brigade will inadvertedly lose their marketability with their looks. There's a reason why Meryl Streep basically has the market for the role of the older white woman cornered.

Also: Women are to blame themselves. If they prefer movies with pretty but untalented actresses that wouldn't pass the Bechdel test if the future of mankind depended on it (hello, Twilight) over feminist pieces with dignified older women, it's on them that the movie industry continues to churn out the latter.

[deleted] · 2016-08-03T12:02:12+00:00

Ghostbusters seems like it just sucks based on the trailer, cheap humor, bad graphics etc. You can't say everyone who doesn't want to see it is a sexist.

However, I do think non-attractive male actors are more accepted in the industry. I can think of quite a few actors who are just ugly and are very famous (Morgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker,John C. Reilly,
Willem Dafoe , Sylvester Stallone etc.) I'm not sure what we can do about it though.

shoup88 · 2016-08-03T13:18:03+00:00

Sigourney Weaver in Alien - it works. Sigourney is set to star in more Avatar movies - her star power will continue.

Alien worked in no small part because Weaver spent part of the movie running around in her underwear. And it was a good script, with good action sequences, a horrifying villain, well acted with taut direction.

thumbsucking baby men who refused to go see it because ... women. As if the fucking odds weren't stacked so high against women in the first place.

People didn't want to see Ghostbusters 2016 because it wasn't funny. Snark, laconism, and dry sarcasm mixed with a little slapstick comes off better when men do it. When men do snark and sarcasm (especially when Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd do it), it's funny and entertaining and charming. Murray's scenes with William Atherton (who plays Peck, the EPA guy) are classic asshole game. It's funny. Murray's scenes with Weaver -- that is how you do cocky-funny.

Women can't do snark and sarcasm without coming off as mean spirited nasty bitches. It's not funny, it's cringeworthy and repulsive. That's why GHostbusters 2016 failed.

When Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson do snark and sarcasm, it's funny. When Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig do snark and sarcasm, it's a fat chick and an average chick just being fucking obnoxious and loud.

648262 · 2016-08-03T08:01:22+00:00

Women aren't put in lead roles because women tend to not be believable as leaders. Especially young women.

I thought the problem with Hollywood was that women couldn't find a job there in the years 29-45? Young girlfriend and moms.

cateml · 2016-08-03T10:45:34+00:00

I think it's just an extension of people who make films wanting to appeal to - for want of a less horrible way of putting it - the lowest common denominator. Perhaps also the way audiences stereotype films and the studios being scared of that. That people will see a poster/trailer with an older woman on it and associate older women with only being in serious intellectual films you have to concentrate hard on, and assume it isn't a fun blockbuster, so avoid it - and of course serious intellectual films make less money anyway. Sort of a vicious cycle, rather than an honest belief that men in general will not go see a film that otherwise appeals to them because it includes a woman they don't want to fuck.

It's annoying because it makes films (even films with aliens and explosions and shit) feel even more unrealistic and unrelatable on a human level when every woman in it is under 30 and looks like Megan Fox.

But movie studios think we're all idiots and they want to make money, so we'll keep getting explosions and hot pants, patronising drivel about women who like shoes and two dimensional rich men, and be forced to consider anything outside that as 'highbrow'.

scrantonic1ty · 2016-08-03T12:14:25+00:00

Capitalism is not idealistic, it doesn't care about your identity. It cares about who will buy their product. Hollywood is very good at selling their product and, as your post suggests, they're careful to construct their movies as such.

If the demand for more old women in movies grows such that it will make more money, then older women will appear in more movies.

It was successful, but not as successful as it could have been without all the thumbsucking baby men who refused to go see it because ... women.

Comments like this seriously harm you credibility. I didn't go see it because the trailers looked awful. I'm not even a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters, so I don't care about changing the cast for women.

ifelsedowhile · 2016-08-03T15:30:06+00:00

women could become directors, screenwriters, producers and do their own thing but they lack the same drive of men so they rather bitch and moan about a non-existing discrimination.

holyjesusitsahorse · 2016-08-03T17:52:57+00:00

The Good Feminist's Guide To Cultural Criticism:

1) Declare that there's a great unfulfilled audience out there clamouring for a Spiderman movie where the lead is a lesbian transsexual with an anxiety disorder. Suggest that the only reason that this movie doesn't get made is bigotry/The Patriarchy/Jeeeews.

But the older, male producers of Hollywood are still churning out the same-old same-old, resulting in older movie-goers flocking to indie movies to find the movies they want to watch:

2) Watch said movie flop. Attack the audience for not clamouring to see a Spiderman movie featuring a lesbian transsexual with an anxiety disorder, almost as if the demographic demanding this wasn't actually that interested in movies/video games/comic books in the first place, or indeed representative of the interests of the public at large. Declare that the failure of the movie is due to bigotry/The Patriarchy/Jeeeews.

Recently, a studio tried a remake with all women - ghostbusters. It was successful, but not as successful as it could have been without all the thumbsucking baby men who refused to go see it because ... women. As if the fucking odds weren't stacked so high against women in the first place.

3) Ask people, "hey man, you gonna eat all those donuts"?

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99_Problem · 2016-08-03T17:50:44+00:00

I refused to go see the new Ghostbusters because I generally don't see any of the modern remakes of old classics. They're never as good as the original.

The credits of the original Ghostbusters read like an all-star list of 80's movie excellence. I mean, I can't think of any trio of modern actors - male or female - that could match the on-screen chemistry of Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, and Harold Ramis.

Lonny_zone · 2016-08-03T18:09:09+00:00

It was successful, but not as successful as it could have been without all the thumbsucking baby men who refused to go see it because ... women.

I think most people who didn't see it chose to stay at home because they are sick of cash grab reboots and it looked like shit.

Lonny_zone · 2016-08-03T18:13:21+00:00

I think the only reason that "women make up 50% of blockbuster moviegoers is because dudes bring their GFs.

TheSonofLiberty · 2016-08-04T16:47:56+00:00

but not as successful as it could have been without...

You know what would have made it more successful? A better script. Better actors (Poehler, Fey, I like Wiig, change from Jones, etc.). A different marketing campaign that relied on selling the film (implying it deserves to be called "film" instead of "flick") instead of labeling critics as "thumbsucking baby men," but then again if it was actually a good movie that could stand on its own legs, they wouldn't have to stoop to use that kind of marketing.

This is coming from a guy that likes series like Buffy and Charmed, and you think that I don't want to see a shitty flick because of "women?"

Title	Older women in movies
Author	StickItInTheToilet
Upvotes	3
Comments	144
Date	August 3, 2016 6:07 AM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/4vx2lo/older_women_in_movies/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/older-women-in-movies.273762 https://theredarchive.com/post/273762