I am a woman. I am a fan of Ghostbusters. And I hate the new Ghostbusters trailer.

In case you are unaware, the new trailer for the latest edition of “Hollywood Doesn’t Understand It’s Audience,” the new Ghostbusters movie, is the most disliked trailer in YouTube’s history. The revamp of the 1984 classic, originally starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and the late Harold Ramis, now features an all female cast, with Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.

And it is because of this that I, and over 687 thousand people, are apparently misogynists.

I am not going to act like not everyone who disliked the trailer has issues with women in leading roles. I haven’t personally sat down and talked to everyone who disliked the video, so I can’t claim that none of them have an anti-woman agenda for disliking the trailer. But, neither have a lot of the publications that have cried out in feminist rage that every person who didn’t love the first look at the new adaptation is a disgusting, pig of a human being that just doesn’t like women in films.

I am sorry, but I am tired of hearing how women are some kind of film repellent that makes cisgendered males run for the hills, shrieking and shaking their fist in rage at those damn dames who won’t get off their silver screens and back into the kitchen where they belong. Last I checked, women in popular franchise reboots are not a new thing, and Ghostbusters 2016 isn’t the first to do this.

But that hasn’t stopped publications like the Huffington Post, Forbes, and Fusion to claim we are all just hating on these incredibly popular and well liked female comedian leads because we, God forbid, have an opinion on this trailer.

“It’s sexism, I tell’s ya!,” they all cry out.

Actually, it isn’t. I wasn’t scared away from this trailer because it was women donning the famous, tan jumpsuits. I hate this trailer because it looks like absolute garbage. And while it would be unfair to say that it will be a bad film on the trailer alone, the trailer doesn’t give me much hope that it will be faithful to the spirit of the original film.

The jokes in the trailer are lame. The ghosts look cheaper than the 1980’s affects. It seems more scripted and less improved than the original (though I could be completely wrong about this). It lacks the charm of the original, which is a shame because I genuinely like all of the leads. I know they can all be funny and we have seen them all in fantastic comedies. In fact, the cast is the one thing I did like. Which is funny, considering that I must be anti-woman because I didn’t like this trailer.

And this is why people in the fan base, like myself, are so frustrated with this film. Despite how good I think the leads are, this is a grand example of the reboot problem facing Hollywood today: this film is completely unnecessary. The original still holds up. By all accounts, it is a classic. The effects, while a bit dated, still work fine. While you could argue that perhaps the CGI for the latest film is not yet finished (it is not uncommon for affects to not be perfected before being released into trailers), what we have been presented with is a joke, and not a good one. 

So when publications come out and say that everyone who dislikes the film is sexist and that, really, we aren’t the majority despite the overwhelming public outcry, I can’t lie and say that my opinions don’t feel belittled and overlooked. This film doesn’t exist to make fans happy, and that’s not because there is an all female cast. If you want proof that fandoms will accept strong, female characters, just look at Rey in The Force Awakens. Geek culture will accept women in leading roles, but you have to give them a strong story and concept. And many of us are simply not seeing that here.

Yes, there will always be sexists. But it makes no sense to say that one of the largest, most recognizable franchises of all time, Star Wars, can handle a female lead but the fandom behind Ghostbusters cannot. It makes no sense and, frankly, it is insulting. It is awesome that women get to have these sorts of starring opportunities in major Blockbusters. But with that limelight comes criticism, and it is the same criticism films starring men face. Equality means equality, which means we have to put on our big-girl pants and deal with backlash when it is presented, sexist or not. And, when not all criticism is sexist, acknowledge it or ignore it without acting like womankind is under some kind of misogynistic attack because people don’t like your trailer and how it completely misses the mark of what made the 1984 original so great.

Just because I am a woman, does not mean I have to toe the line and praise this film because there are more vaginas in it than the original. That isn’t equality, and that isn’t how you judge good film making.

And, I hope to be proven wrong by this film. I will go see it to give it a proper review, and I may or may not like it. And if it is good, I will say it is good. But if it is bad, I will call it out for the bad film that it is. This trailer isn’t the death stroke for the film, but defaming honest criticism as hate against women will kill this movie before it even has a chance to hit the screens.