I realized the importance of Ghostbusters as I was sitting in my theater waiting for the trailers to begin, when four young teenage girls walked in together, and their excitement was so palpable it vibrating. They were gleeful at the chance to see a group of brilliant, funny, fearless, and kick-ass women, whose exceptionalism, it turns out, would not allow itself to be reduced to sexually symbolic value. 

So many girl and women heroes of the screen have traditionally been suited with a skin tight ass-kicking uniform, tailored to open extra cleavage, or leather pants and unmanageably high heels.Ghostbusters features four women who don’t rely on any of that to grab slack-jawed, mouth-breathing attention. I’m all for a woman’s right to own her sexuality rather than shying away from it, but sometimes we need to be reminded (or taught from scratch) that the lack of fabric a woman is wearing doesn’t directly relate to her ability to be a superhero.

The concept of acceptance and belief is one that reverberates throughout Ghostbusters, proving that Feig’s film is trying to send both a cultural and political message that goes beyond fanboys’ spewing hate at the concept of a women-led reboot. Erin Gilbert not only abandons her passion for the concept in the existence of ghosts, she actively buried it after no one in her life believed what she had experienced when the only proof she had was her word. How often still is the word of a woman’s experience doubted today?

Ghostbusters, for me, is the most important film of the year because it’s speaking a language that this generation needs to hear in order to spark change, and those three excited girls I saw in the theater are part of the group who will be responsible for pioneering that change. Because of this film, they’re listeni.

BETH REYNOLDS ON JUL 26, 2016 

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