Why the Ghostbusters Women Are the Role Models My Daughter Needs

Last updated on: August 3, 2016 at 8:55 am by Libby Anne

Why the Ghostbusters Women Are the Role Models My Daughter Needs 2016-08-03T08:55:56-04:00 Libby Anne

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So, Ghostbusters! The much-awaited movie is now in theaters. I took my second grade daughter to see it this past weekend—yes, Sally really is in second grade now—and she loved it. Well, she mostly loved it. She found it a bit scary at moments, and I have yet to convince her to go back to sleeping in her own bedroom. But overall, Sally gave the film a big thumbs up. She even expressed a desire to see it again, noting that “it won’t be as scary now that I know what happens.” One of the things I loved about the movie—besides the overturning of a variety of gendered movie tropes—was the ease with which the movie did what it did. That its four leads were women never felt forced.

As Sally has followed the news coverage this election cycle, she has had quite a number of moments of confusion. For example, I had to explain to her that we’ve never had a woman president before. She didn’t know that. I showed her a list of pictures of former presidents. She was shocked. She’d assumed we’d had woman presidents before. I had to explain to her that some people don’t think a woman should be president, and again, she was aghast—why? And again I had to explain. Again she was shocked. She’d taken it for granted that women were just as qualified and just as able to be president as men were—I mean, wasn’t that obvious?

It didn’t seem at all odd to Sally that Ghostbusters starred four women. She takes it for granted that there are movies with female leads. The children’s movies she’s grown up on have plenty of female leads—Tip in Home, Elsa in Frozen, Riley in Inside Out. Why shouldn’t a movie like Ghostbusters star female leads? It also doesn’t seem odd to Sally that women would be scientists. She has woman scientists in her extended family. Sally takes it for granted that women do all the same things men do—not simply that they can do those things, but that they do do those things. I’m sure this is partly the result of growing up in a home with parents who teach her that girls (just like boys) can do anything they put their minds to. But partly this is a result of living in a society where it is no longer strange to see women in all sorts of positions, across careers and subject areas.

In other words, Sally has grown up assuming that women have all of the same opportunities that men do. That seems natural and right to her. What does not seem natural or right is clothing sections in box stores. She gets annoyed to all get out with the explosions of pink and purple and ruffles. It’s not that she doesn’t like dresses—she does! It’s that she gets annoyed with the expectations of gender presentation. I’ve always told Sally that she can wear what she wants, and that’s what she does, but that means choosing a mixture of clothing from the girls’ section and the boys’ section, and that means dealing with being told off for that by adults or other children.

It’s to the point where defending her clothing and style choices has become a sort of reflexive habit for Sally. “I’m a girl!” she’ll tell the adult who just referred to her as my son. “There’s no such thing as boy shoes or girl shoes, just shoes,” she’ll tell the little girl on the playground who told her she was wearing “boy shoes.” If you want to hear Sally go on a rant, just ask her about gendered clothing and marketing. There may come a day when she faces gender-based discrimination in hiring or promotion, but right now her struggle starts (and ends) with her dresser.

What does all of this have to do with Ghostbusters? The magic and allure of Ghostbusters, for me at least, is that the film takes down gender tropes with an ease that makes it feel completely and totally real, and not at all put-on. The four female leads come across as believable and authentic. They’re just four people following their passion and creating jobs for themselves doing something they love. And their sense of fashion and style? That’s very individual (and very real) as well. They’re confident, they’re capable, and they forge their own way.

Gender-based discrimination in hiring and promotion, obtaining paid maternity leave and childcare subsidies—these things are not on my daughter’s radar, and are (largely) absent from Ghostbusters. The things that are on my daughter’s radar? Being allowed to be who you are, with no excuses and no apologies, no matter who laughs at you or thinks you’re nuts? Those things are threaded through the movie. Those things are, in some sense, the heart of the movie. Ghostbusters hits at exactly what children like my daughter need to hear—and see. I’m having a hard time thinking of better role models for my daughter—or a movie with a better message.

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