The reaction to that video is insane. He gives very valid reasons why he won't watch it. Quickly says it's nothing to do with it starring women. Yet every comment or article written about it makes him sound like a woman hating piece of ****.
Yep. However, I'm gonna throw this out there: people who dislike the movie are not sexist, the filmmakers are.
Look at almost every joke in the trailer. The humor all stems from antiquated gender (and racial) stereotypes. Almost every joke is a woman screaming, giving an over-the-top hormonal reaction to a situation. Those that do not fit into that category seem to fall into the category of "woman is overweight and/or not living up to traditional gender roles...isn't it funny when fat woman dances? How absurd!" So, based on the trailer, the humor seems to stem almost entirely from these two premises; "women are irrational" or "woman is fat and that is funny." The only character who doesn't seem to fall into this category is McKinnon's. And its worth noting that she is barely featured in either trailer.
Or, in the alternative, there is one other source of humor: Leslie Jones screaming and acting like a really racist person doing an impression of a black lady. Her character seems to be written and acted as less of a fully formed character and more of an over-the-top caricature. Let me ask all of the social crusaders who are claiming people who dislike this movie to be either sexist/racist opponents of progression: when is the last time that a comedy portrayed a black female as anything other than an over-the-top caricature? Why can't the black woman be the straight man rather than the fall guy?
Further, when is the last time a comedy portrayed women as anything more than hormonal, reactionary, messes of human beings, who really just deep down, need a man? Its not progress to have women headline movies if the movies portray them as little more than two dimensional caricatures. For all of his so called "feminist" movies Paul Feig sure seems to fall into these traps quite a bit. In fact, all filmmakers do.
The only example I can think of that does not do this is Veep. In Veep, the female characters (one of whom is the lead and the other is the main supporting character, Dryfus and Chlumsky) are strong, assertive, driven by something other than men, and are in no way cliches. You could take any bit of dialogue on Veep and switch it to a male role without missing a beat. The characters are written as people, not men or women. Similarly, it is the only comedy I can think of in which an African American woman plays the straight man. Sue, the President's assistant is the only professional character on the show (in fact, her humor derives from her being overly professional). There is no fall back on cheap cliches.
Incidentally, Veep is one of the most beloved comedies on TV right now, having just won an Emmy for Best Comedy Series.
So, I suggest this: perhaps the issues people have with this movie have nothing to do with it being headlined by women. Perhaps the issue is the fact that it isn't particularly funny (based on the trailers) and despite being headlined by women, Feig feels the need to present women in the most marginalizing and patronizing light possible and then paint it as "feminism" and "progression."
