At this point the Alamo Drafthouse is delivering better marketing for Wonder Woman than Warner Bros. or DC Comics. The Drafthouse is an Austin-based theater chain, which serves food and drink during films. They’re renowned for their celebration of all movies, with a strong fondness for genre fare, and often host specialty screenings for movies new and old. These specialty screenings have included military screenings, watching Jaws while floating in a lake, and Quentin Tarantino showing some of his favorite movies.
For DC’s upcoming Wonder Woman, the Drafthouse created a screening event that would be women-only as a way to celebrate the film’s heroine and women everywhere. Even the wait staff and chefs serving delicious treats would be women. The event would be a strict “no boys allowed” club, though men would have various opportunities to see the film at the Drafthouse over the course of its opening weekend.
Some guys did not like this at all. That is, if you only listen to the loudest dissenting voices on the internet anyways.
Trolling comments filled the Alamo Drafthouse’s Facebook when promoting the event. To their credit, they clapped back quite humorously to the silly boys who had a problem with this.
Here’s the thing: You don’t need me telling how outrageous it is these guys are finding offense in this. The attention placed on this women-only screening actually encouraged the Drafthouse to extend the event to their other non-Austin locations nationwide. Why should you care a bunch of women are hosting other women to watch a movie about a bad-ass woman while eating food cooked by women? You shouldn’t.
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Imagine a boy who was allowed to eat all the chocolate chip cookies he ever wanted. Friends, family, the government even structured rules around him eating chocolate chip cookies wherever and whenever. Then a girl in this boy’s class threw a chocolate chip cookie party that was “no boys allowed.” The girl would host the party in her bedroom, out of sight and out of mind, and this boy found out. He could still eat all the chocolate chip cookies he ever wanted wherever and whenever—just not in this girl’s bedroom for two hours on a random Tuesday.
Now imagine that boy somehow being upset by this. Imagine a boy being so upset about not eating chocolate chip cookies in this girl’s bedroom for two hours on a random Tuesday he’d protest loudly about it (on the internet) (while eating two boxes of chocolate chip cookies).
This is what’s going on. The outrage is dumb and really a non-controversy whatsoever. I hope the Alamo Drafthouse—my hometown theater of which I’m a huge fan—hosts even more female-only events and continues creating indelible theater experiences for their fans. The Drafthouse is a rare beacon of championing film and deserves all the credit it receives. To the rest of you somehow nonplussed by any of this—shut up and eat your damn chocolate chip cookies in silence.
