There is a lot of hate going around and I talk about it.
I was listening to some older episodes of a podcast and they were talking about the TWILIGHT films (they were just being released when these episodes were recorded and one of the hosts talks about the new TWILIGHT trailer (for which film I have no idea because they never mention the film title by name and the release dates for these episodes are messed up so there is no telling what day or month this was recorded. I can only go by the films they discuss) and the host talks about how bad the film looks (normally, when you hate a film it usually doesn’t look good to you) and how these films need to be stopped.
My question is: why does it matter to you? The guys on this show were in the 30’s at the time these episodes were recorded, why does it matter if a film like TWILIGHT is made? The film is not directed toward you. The audience for these films is female teenagers or young adults. Sure, there are a few guys here and there that like these films too, but it is 95% female. Why would it matter if a girl likes something that guys can’t really get into because it is “girly”?
When the TWILIGHT films were all the rage, my wife went to see one of them (can’t tell you which one but it was one of them) in the theater at the midnight showing. She called me from the theater to tell me that she was at the theater and most of the audience is teenagers. She sounded so happy to be in the theater, about to watch the new film in a series that she really loves. This in turn made me happy. I love when my wife is truly happy doing something. It makes me smile. She loved the TWILIGHT films and she was seeing one on the big screen. I told her to have a good time and that I will see her when she gets home. When she got home, she woke me up and told me all about the film. I have to admit that I didn’t care about anything she said about the film. I was actually looking at her body language. She was truly happy. There was no way that anyone in the world would have read that any differently. She was happy, so I was happy.
Do I care about the film? Absolutely not. They are not my cup of tea. However, they are good to a lot of people. Millions and millions of people bought the books the films are based on, paid to see each of the films in the theater (sometimes more than once), and bought the DVD when it was released. This series has done a lot of good for a lot of people. Why would I want to shit on that because the films are for me? I can not like a film but recognize that it's worth to others. However, I don’t hate the films either. They are just not for me. My wife made me go see one of them in the theater and I didn’t like it. I didn’t hate it either. It just was. I went to see it because I wanted to see my wife happy. I would never watch any of these films again unless she wanted to, then I would. I just don’t like the films.
So, the question is: Why was the hate so big for these films?
The answer is: I don’t know.
For some of the men being offended by these films are assholes. And not any kind of assholes. They are the kind of assholes who can’t talk to women and hates them for it. There are a lot more out there than we think. They can’t stand when the thing that everyone is talking about doesn’t have to do with men. All they want to talk about, and hear being talked about, is Marvel and other geeky things. This is not to say that the geek community is all like this. They are not. They do have members that are just like this. Just wanted to get that out of the way. Anyway, these guys hate women because they just do. We all know that one guy who loses his shit when they hear a coworker talking about going to the Taylor Swift concert over the weekend. They really hate when women are the center of attention. They will deny it up and down, but it’s the truth.
I remember when Brie Larson was at some award show and she talked about how she doesn’t want to hear if a film she made was good or not from a man. She only wanted to hear of someone’s opinion if that person was a girl. All of the geek sites went nuts. How could she say that? That’s sexist!!! All of the geek YouTubers started making videos crying foul about what Larson said and how the MCU was now dead. I even fell for it a bit. I thought that she was very closed-minded about the whole thing. I saw it from my point of view. After a bit, I started thinking that I was wrong about the whole thing. I watched her speech again and actually listened to what she was saying. The message was actually right. What she was saying was very true. It was the way she said it. All of the mouthbreathers only heard Larson say that she hated men and all men should die. They were all wrong.
What Larson was really saying was she wanted there to be more female movie bloggers and movie critics. Most of the websites and blogs that focus on film are done by men. There are very few movie bloggers and reviewers that are female. There are many out there but the ratio of men to women is mostly on the men’s side. Because there are so many of us out there, the voice of the female film fan needs to be louder to be heard. Larson already heard what men had to say about film. She wanted to hear the female voice and what her opinion is about a film. She also wanted to hear from a female voice because a female’s experience to film is quite different than a man’s. A woman sees things differently and she wanted to hear that. What Larson DID NOT do was put down men, wish them harm or death, or announce that she will be shooing away any review or opinion from a man. All she wants is to hear the voice we don’t normally hear from.
The hate for both of these examples was huge. I was also very loud. You couldn’t go to any film website without running into the TWILIGHT or Brie Larson hate. These two things were everywhere and it grew tiring very quickly. I grew to hate the hate and stopped going to certain websites and blogs because they wouldn’t stop talking about this shit.
There is one more where the hate was lobbied at both men and women. Remember the remake of GHOSTBUSTERS in 2016? Well, the internet hated that too. They went after all four of the actresses in the film especially Leslie Jones, who got the worst of it. She quit social media because of all the racist shit she was getting. The four women went on various talk shows and attacked the people who were attacking them which resulted in even more hate being flung at them. I never thought the four women deserved the hate they got, at least for the way they got the hate. The film deserved the hate, not the actresses.
Then James Roulfe made his video.
It was around the time that the first trailer for GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 was unleashed on the internet. Rolfe is a huge GHOSTBUSTERS fan. He has talked about the first film on his channel a ton of times and he considers it one of the best films ever made. He was getting asked if he was going to see the remake and he made a video that focused on why he wouldn’t be seeing the film. In the video, he talks about his love for the original film and everything that came from it along with his dislike of remakes. He questions why the film was remade in the first place and how he doesn’t think that the film is going to be any good. This video went viral and the hate for what Rolfe said came flooding in. He was called a misogynist and the hate was really rough at times. The hate wasn’t nearly as much as the stars of the film got, but it was rough nonetheless. Hollywood people even got in on the hate with Patton Oswalt making fun of Rolfe’s breathing. (I know what he meant by it but that is how it read for me.) I never really liked Oswalt all that much before this and I like him even less after. Rolfe never attacks the people who made the film. He states very quietly and nicely, why he doesn’t want to see the film. There is nothing wrong with this. There have been a lot of mouthbreathers who have made videos hating on things all the time and they use a lot of hateful words to get their point across.
Rolfe didn’t do this. All he did in that video was talk about his love for the first film and talked about his very sensible reasons for the fact that he wasn’t going to see the new film. Out of all the haters out there, Rolfe was the most respectful, patient, and kind. He never raises his voice or gets angry. This, of course, meant that he was going to get the most hate. Every news outlet covered the “controversy” and most of the hate that came from this went directly toward Rolfe. It was weird because the mouthbreathers who were hating on Rolfe were also the very same ones who hated on the actresses so, that means that they are siding with the actresses if they agree with Rolfe but hate him if they don’t. It was a very Catch-22-type situation.
So, what does all of this have to do with the topic at hand? Well, what I am trying to say is: You can hate a film but don’t be hateful about it. No film is worth the anger that many people displayed in the examples above. There are many films I hate. In fact, the worst film I have seen in 2023, at the time of this writing, is SHE CAME FROM THE WOODS. I hated this film more than anything I have seen in the last few years, but I never attack anyone or wish for anyone’s death. I hate the film but I don’t hate the people who made the film. This is how people should act when it comes to entertainment. Yes, films are a form of entertainment, nothing more. These guys are getting all work up over something that doesn’t really matter in the long run. It also feels like they are attacking women for doing things that "only men can do" or something like that. Going after something that wasn't made for you is a stupid thing to do and most YouTubers go after these things because they get views. Can you imagine if these assholes got this worked up over health care or taxing the rich? We would live in a much better world. Actually, we would probably live in a more hateful world so maybe their getting mad about films is better in the long run.
PS: Fuck Patton Oswalt. Seriously. What was the reason he needed to make fun of a person who gave clear reasonings about why he didn't want to see a film and Oswalt has to make fun of the guy? Why? That tweet was incredibly short-sighted and mean-spirited. There was no reason for it. I am all for making fun of people who deserve it but Rolfe did nothing wrong.
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