Skip to main content

"Bitches Ain't Gonna Hunt No Ghosts": Totemic Nostalgia, Toxic Fandom and the Ghostbusters Platonic.

Proctor, W., 2017. "Bitches Ain't Gonna Hunt No Ghosts": Totemic Nostalgia, Toxic Fandom and the Ghostbusters Platonic. Palabra Clave, 20 (4), 1105-1141.

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF
Ghostbusters.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

571kB

Official URL: http://palabraclave.unisabana.edu.co/index.php/pal...

DOI: 10.5294/pacla.2017.20.4.10

Abstract

In March 2016, the trailer for Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot debuted online and suffered the unfortunate accolade of being the most disliked trailer in YouTube history. Popular news media, including professional, pro-am, and amateur commentators, picked up on the resulting online kerfuffle as clear indication that there is something rotten in the state of fandom. Feig himself frequently turned to the echo chamber of social media to denounce fans as “some of the biggest arseholes I’ve ever met in my life”. Addressing fans that singled out the reboot as “ruining my childhood,” Feig poured fuel on the fire by criticising such a perspective as merely the product of “some whacked-out teenager,” overdramatic, pathological and, perhaps more pointedly, “toxic”. In so doing, Feig—and, by extension, the cast of the Ghostbusters reboot—replicated and re-activated traditional stereotypes of the fanboy—living in his mother’s basement and obsessing over trivial entertainment.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:0122-8285
Uncontrolled Keywords:Ghostbusters ; Toxic Fandom ; Nostalgia
Group:Faculty of Media & Communication
ID Code:29864
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:13 Oct 2017 15:02
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 14:07

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...
Repository Staff Only -