ok listen i work at a movie theatre and this past week, because of the new ghostbusters, i’ve had to put up with a lot of annoying (mostly male) costumers complaining that they’re being dragged to watch it by their date/friend or that they don’t understand the hype because they’re so sure a female remake is gonna be monstrous and im not gonna lie its been very tiring dealing with so many narrow minded sexist people but you know what??? i’ve seen dads bring their little girls. i’ve seen dads bring their little boys. today a little girl no older than 6 jumped up and down and said “we’re gonna watch ghostbusters! i’m so excited!!” to me with the biggest smile ive ever seen. i’ve seen moms bring their teenage daughters. i’ve seen two boys probably around 13 come out of the theatre talking about how cool the movie was.
please go out and support ghostbusters. it’s honestly such an important milestone for the film industry. little girls are finding rolemodels. little boys are watching strong women. this shit is important and we need more of it
7-year-old Matilda decided to dress up as the characters from “Ghostbusters” when she went to see the movie. Her favourite characters from the film are Holtzman and Patty, but she “likes them all”, said her dad. “It’s awesome to have movies with strong female characters.”
Okay nerds, y’know what? Money where my mouth is time, literally. I have just purchased two Patty Tolan Funco POP figures and & I will give one away to someone who likes or RTs this post, and the other who likes or RTs the link I will post on Twitter. I will pay for shipping in the US or Canada! #loveforLeslieJ
As a sidenote, haters and racists are ALSO giving the fucking TOYS negative reviews for ugly, racist reasons, so dropping by Amazon to give the Patty Tolan action figures and POPs some love would be awesome.
Hello I would like to take up a moment of your time to explain why I firmly believe Jillian Holtzmann from the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters has a form of high functioning autism (I’m thinking Aspergers aka now referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder/ASD but I’ll keep it as Aspergers). ALSO, THIS SHALL HAVE SPOILERS maybe I’m not sure but I’ll give the warning anyway. AND this is going off of what I know of Aspergers and how I have experienced it over my 25 years of life.
First off, here’s some reference for you all. I loved the first Ghostbusters films and was beyond excited to hear that Kate McKinnon was cast to be one of the leads in the 2016 reboot. I saw it on the Friday release and I’m so happy that it was in the Ultra Screen. I absolutely loved it, I knew it was going to be great and it was even better than I could have hoped for. Later, I got home and got to thinking about it. Now, for those who don’t know/follow me, I have mild to moderate Aspergers but I wasn’t diagnosed until late/post high school. This means I am high functioning enough to “pass” as neurotypical (aka “normal” or non-autistic) but others still see me as “eccentric” or a bit odd but can’t exactly put their finger on why.
Here we go! Aspergers, also known as Pervasive Development Disorder, is a high functioning form of autism, and the biggest component that I can think of is not being able to pick up on social cues and also hyper-focusing (I abhor the word “obsess” because we cannot exactly help it) on 2 to 3 things at the exclusion of others. Those with Aspergers also tend to be considered clumsy and use unusual language (which you’ve probably noticed by now that is what I’m doing). Also, not that I really need to mention this but, those with Aspergers are of normal or higher intelligence (for example, I had a college grade reading level in middle school). ANYWAY, on to Holtzmann.
Before I start, this is just my opinion and anyone can have whatever headcanon their heart desires. Also, I’ll try to not gush over how beautiful and perfect she is but no guarantees okay here is why I believe she has Aspergers:
1. Her sense of presence is outside the norm, from the way she dresses to her actions.
She doesn’t really have a set style of clothing, though her staples (comfort items??) are her yellow-tinted [safety] glasses and her “Screw U” necklace. Her outfits can be kind of “grungy” (though always put together, I noticed) but not dirty.
She does also wear graphic tee’s (which I don’t remember any other character doing) and mismatched socks. She wears things that on their own, you wouldn’t think go together until you see someone wearing them and you’re like DANG that looks good actually.
Kate McKinnon even calls her a genius and bizarre. How she talks to others is unconventional and very expressive in that regard.
How she acts is always messing around, and only at the end does she get serious. The social cues part comes in when she’s making jokes when other characters, namely Erin, are trying to do their jobs and they need to be serious (though Abby and sometimes Patty also like to poke fun at her).
Not to mention her mega badass gun-licking before kicking some ecto-butt
2. She gets really excited about her inventions…
…to the point of talking really fast when explaining which gadget does what and not really letting the girls ask questions before she straps them in for a field test.
I’m thinking that her “topics” of “focus” are her inventions and also the paranormal sciences.
Also, she got so into celebrating their first ghost caught that she grabs a guitar from one of the band members and smashes it on stage
3. She corrects others on words at some point
Which I personally remember doing on several occasions.
4. She’s (somewhat) clumsy
Now this really isn’t much to go off of because I only remember the one scene but when she was dancing around with two propane torches (I think that’s what they were) and lights something on fire.
Let the neurodivergent!holtzmann headcanons begin. For my money she is, inevitably, bipolar (hypomanic during the film) but oh the relatable possibilities.
what’s that? some miscellanoues fluffy Ghostbusters headcanons? okay, if ya’ll insist*
Abby and Holtzmann got into some disgusting food-related habits while they were working in their seedy basement lab together, namely never throwing anything away ever. Every couple of weeks Erin and Patty have to strap on gas masks and excavate the fridge to keep it from becoming a study in the various stages of decomposition.
Holtzmann: the friend who will literally pull your pizza crust out of the trash and eat it if you don’t.
There’s a part of the lab known as the Patty Corner that contains most of her very impressive NYC history library, which consists of both conventional books and a lot of scans of historical documents, newspaper clippings, and black and white photos. There are two duct tape lines separating this corner from the rest of the lab and if any freaky ghost science or god forbid the slime gets near Patty’s books there will be Trouble.
Every once in a while Erin feels compelled to remind her friends how much she loves them by feeding them, finds a recipe online, and makes them dinner. They love her back, so they all very nicely pretend it’s edible and wait until she’s not looking to drop the leftovers out the window. The woman can’t cook for shit.
Abby’s been putting with this literally since high school, bless her soul.
Abby will unironically rock a fanny pack over her jumpsuit. Content includes: batteries, tampons, shit that lights up when there’s a ghost nearby, band aids, wet wipes, glasses wipes, pepper spray, duct tape, whatever Holtzmann crammed in when Abby wasn’t looking, probably a single fortune cookie.
Somebody gets pictures of said fanny pack while they’re out busting and the internet goes wild. There are actual talk show segments dedicated to the fanny pack. Patty keeps sending Abby youtube clips about it and Abby can’t wrap her head around how this is even something people care enough to discuss it’s just practical
The firehouse gets paid for but cash is still pretty tight, so on ghost-free weekends the girls are usually driving out to the suburbs for garage sales or digging through dumps for spare parts. Even if they don’t find anything else Patty usually goes home with like seventeen books that she haggled down to like a nickel.
All hail Patty Tolan, Garage Sale Queen
If they find something really heavy they’ll sometimes stop and consider calling Kevin to help them move it. And then they’ll consider what the process of trying to direct Kevin out to their current location would be like and how they’d like to get home before midnight, and they find miraculously find the motivation to lift things themselves.
Erin never learned to drive and after what happened when the first time the other girls tried to teach her in the (new) Ecto-1 she is never going to. They don’t talk about it.
Holtzmann would probably rather cut off a finger than waste time shaving. Every so often she walks into the lab, announces the jungle is flourishing, and hikes up her pants for the other girls to admire. They’re all duly impressed.
You know that post about how Clint Barton would totally ask if he can get an Avengers discount at Starbucks? Abby. Abby all the time, almost anywhere she goes. It almost never works and it’s getting a little embarrassing.
Erin was almost definitely an only child, but Abby really hits me as one of those people who has like 8 siblings and had to learn to be loud and fighty really young to survive with them. What I’m saying is that going over to Abby’s house in high school was an Experience for Erin.
Kevin starts an Official Ghostbusters Twitter and it’s like a month before any of them even notice. It consists almost entirely of Kevin selfies and deeply unflattering candids of the girls that they didn’t realize he was taking. They can’t get verified because nobody thinks it’s real and Erin is pissed.
She starts holding hours long Q & A sessions and then gets even more pissed when she realizes there are far too many questions to ever practically answer.
“Holtzmann a lot of thes people just really want to know if you’re gay”
*Holtzmann cackle*
And most importantly THE GIRLS OF NYC LOVING THEIR GHOSTBUSTERS
Patty let’s one of her friend’s kid’s Girl Scout groups come visit the lab, and suddenly they’re getting requests from groups all over the state. Boxes of free cookies show up. Crayon drawings of the Ghostbusters get hung up all over the lab. The girls posing for awkward selfies groups of elementary girls dressed up in little jumpsuits. Bless.
*nobody asked for this at all. i just needed this.
yes please
Headcanon vigorously accepted re Patty Corner in particular. I want to see it.
I didn’t think this reboot was the right place for romantic love. The love story here is four weirdos coming together to form a club, and learning to belong to each other. My feeling is, the world is a lonely place. If you can find people who are like you, and find some camaraderie, that’s special. I wish there was more of that in the world, in general.
Katie Dippold on the lack of romantic storylines in Ghostbusters (x)
