Photo: Columbia Pictures
We?re on our way to see the new Ghostbusters and I?m trying to talk about Big Issues with my stepkids, which you know kids love, especially on super hot days.
?So what do you think about all the man babies making a huge fuss about how recreating the movie with women is destroying their childhood"? I ask neutrally.
?It?s bad"? guesses my stepson, who is eight, and who has an older sister, and who therefore will be stunned to someday realize that women don?t rule the universe.
?Yes, it?s very bad,? I say. My stepdaughter rolls her eyes.
?I don’t understand the big deal,? he shrugs, and I wonder if we?ve been doing too much talking about how we want the world to be and what the world should look like, and maybe not enough about the realities of what life is really like outside of our bubble. Our lovely girl is 10, and she and I have had a date for months to see the new Ghostbusters. (It?s rated PG-13 for scary scenes and some violence, which I felt she could handle.) Then I realized, yeah, of course she needs to see women being strong and awesome and funny and brave, but our boy needs to see it too. She needs to be told you can be anything you want. He needs to be told everything in the world doesn?t belong to him, which is pretty much the opposite of what boys are taught from the day they?re born.
During the movie, I think of what I watched as a kid: Porky?s and Revenge of the Nerds and 16 Candles, and how casually and easily sexism an...