Wonder Woman at The Alamo Drafthouse
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 at 12:00PM Please welcome guest contributor Shannon Fox with a report from the all female screening of Wonder Woman at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Photo Credit: Proma Khosla/Mashable (Right to left: Stephanie Barnes, Annemarie Mancino, Shannon Fox)
Be careful.”
This was the general response by friends and family, both male and female, upon learning that I had secured tickets to the women-only Wonder Woman screening at my local Alamo Drafthouse. And, I mean, sure, we live in a scary world nowadays-- crazy things happen. But it’s a pretty atypical response to catching a flick, you know? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I usually hear “let me know if it’s any good” rather than “please don’t get murdered” when it comes to going to the movies.
But if that isn’t telling of the female experience in today’s society, I’m not sure what is.
Alamo’s women-only screenings have garnered quite a bit of press over the past week, thanks to the multitude of mostly-male detractors on the internet. There have been lawsuits, threats of storming the theater, and demands of men-only screenings in the future (for the female-led The Last Jedi, inexplicably) to name a few. Because of that, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this past Sunday...
However, for those who pictured throngs of angry men, foaming at the mouth and straining against a line of police and security lining the escalators up to the Brooklyn Alamo, you’re going to be disappointed. The exclusive screening was a fairly low-key affair, with a few exceptions: our arrival to the Alamo, in particular.
My friends and I, donned in our cardboard Wonder Woman tiaras and gauntlets and “Nasty Woman” shirts, were immediately approached by multiple reporters upon our arrival at the theater.
Why is this screening important to you? Why is it significant?”
What do you have to say to the people calling the screening sexist and illegal?”
Our pictures were snapped multiple times, microphones thrust in our faces, our names taken, and we had only made it a few steps inside the doors of Alamo.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Barnes (Right to left: Annemarie Mancino, Stephanie Barnes, Shannon Fox)
Thankfully, it became a much more normal movie-going experience once we got to our seats in the theater.
Well, other than the moment when some Alamo reps had us yell “we are wonder women, hear us roar” for a camera crew. I’m sure we’ll be seeing that up on their website at some point. But I did appreciate their welcome to “everyone that identified as women”-- a very inclusive statement at a fairly exclusive event.
Was there a difference in seeing Wonder Woman with an all-female audience, staffed by all women? It’s hard to say. There were jokes in the movie that probably landed more than they would have with a mixed gender audience, and moments that were clearly more appreciated by us ladies than I imagine any man would have. It did make me wonder, at times, if Alamo’s strict “no talking” policy might’ve hurt a more vocal response to the movie-- there were plenty of times I was tempted to stand up and shout “YASS KWEEN” but didn’t, in fear of getting kicked out. I’ve heard of people outright cheering during certain scenes, and that didn’t happen in our screening. But there was definitely an air of both rebellion and solidarity amongst our crowd of ladies, and you know what? I did leave feeling empowered.
And yes, the movie was awesome. More than I expected, as someone who didn’t know much about Wonder Woman beforehand. Diana Prince was never, well, my Wonder Woman, growing up. My heroine was Princess Leia, but even she didn’t get her own movie, nor did Carrie Fisher get to say or do the things that Gal Gadot does in this one. Patty Jenkins does an impeccable job directing, particularly with those fight scenes. Beyond that, it’s impossible to deny that this is a film from the woman’s perspective, and therefore impossible to deny the effect that it will have on women audience members, women in entertainment, and women in storytelling. With the constant inundation of superhero movies we’ve had over the past few years, Wonder Woman is refreshing and different. It has a woman’s touch. With that alone, the bar for the genre has been raised.
But going back to the question we were posed when we first entered: why was the screening significant? Because in all the superhero movies that have come out, none of them have been ours. Because in the span of 45 presidents, none of them have been either. Because of the fact that people were worried about my safety when going to a women-only screening. Because every cent of the proceeds went to Planned Parenthood, who desperately needs it right now. Because women still make less than men, are still told how to act and behave by male-centric society, are still seen as the weaker sex, and are killed and beaten every day for just being born a woman.
Because in our current reality, where nightmare-fodder stories like The Handmaid’s Tale seem a bit too real, Wonder Woman came crashing through that ever-present glass ceiling, saving the day and bringing us hope.
Diana is, and will always be, our superhero. And we deserve to get her all to ourselves, just once.
Shannon Fox is overly enthusiastic about most things, really, with the exception of ketchup and Disney's Frozen. A frequent contributor to NerdHQ.com, she lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two dogs and has a boring "real-life" job when she isn't writing. She can usually be found screaming about Star Wars or other pop-culture-related things over on Twitter.
Reader Comments (10)
Sounds fun. Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice write-up. And I'm glad you called attention to the annoying family-and-friends response of being female. I'm headed to London in a couple of weeks and I've heard a lot of this kind of thing recently. I've spent a lot of time overseas in places like India that have not-so-favorable reputations in the US regarding women. I attended a military academy. And always it's the same "aren't you afraid" bullshit. And the really shitty thing is that no one thinks you're brave for doing the shit anyway. When bad things happen (as they do) the response is always "what did you expect" condescension rather than being empathetic and/or angry.
All of this is to say good for Gal fricken- Gadot wonder marching into no mans land and standing strong despite getting the shit blasted at her non-stop. The refreshing thing about this scene was that men--her colleagues--rushed to her aid, not to rescue her but to keep her from catching all the fire herself. I grateful to the great men and women in my life who share the shit. We need more.
Sad and ironic how the ego of the privilieged can be so gigantic and fragile at the same time. Horrible that you can't even have a good time (or worse, feel safe) without their permission.
C'mon backwards idiots: If you want to ask Alamo to try a "Men's Only screening"? As backwards and VERY redundant as that idea is (I really hope Alamo doesn't do it), All Eyez on Me, Baby Driver and Dunkirk all seem like way more valid AND way more recent options to try this.
All of those men whining about these all-women screenings are just bitches w/ sand in their vaginas.
I gotta say, this article really moved me. I'm so touched and delighted by the success of this production. Congrats to everyone involved.
Volvagia: Alamo Drafthouse had a golden opportunity last summer. Had they staged a men-only screening of SAUSAGE PARTY, they could argue a women-only WONDER WOMAN screening balances things out.
Any screening is already a men-only one. Even with females in it.
"...and are killed and beaten every day for just being born a woman..."
It was a great write-up until this part. Honey, please. You're a white woman in America. Don't take the struggles of women in third world countries and think that the movie screening did anything to change their lives.
^ Ah yes, the "injustice doesn't matter if there's a greater injustice happening elsewhere" commenter. Somewhere, an abused woman in a third-world country is being told that she doesn't know how goddamn lucky she has it, unlike her grandmother and the other woman who lived centuries earlier.
Loved this writeup Shannon, and glad you enjoyed it!