Female ‘Lord of the Flies’ reboot garners online scorn

Warner Bros has made a deal to produce a female-led Lord of the Flies adaptation and the concept has raked in the criticism already.

Set to be helmed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel (What Maisie Knew), the film will remain faithful to William Golding’s classic novel in which students stranded on an island descend into savagery — except for the small change that the students will be girls.

“Taking the opportunity to tell it in a way it hasn’t been told before, with girls rather than boys, is that it shifts things in a way that might help people see the story anew,” McGehee told Deadline. “It breaks away from some of the conventions, the ways we think of boys and aggression.”

In less than a day, “Lord of the Flies” was trending worldwide on Twitter — though the reception was less than positive.

Many pointed out that Golding’s novel used boys for a specific purpose: to highlight how toxic masculinity and systemic male violence replicates itself.

Um, having taught Lord of the Flies a few times, and reading Golding’s reasoning behind it… an all-female remake misses the point.

— joe. (@unequalized) August 30, 2017

uhm lord of the flies is about the replication of systemic masculine toxicity
every 9th grader knows this
u can read about it on sparknotes https://t.co/EQFyuSA3MV

— froy (@froynextdoor) August 31, 2017

In a famous quote, Golding said there were a few reasons he didn’t write about women. The first is that he has experience being male, “a brother, a father”, and none being a woman.

“Another answer is of course to say that if you, as it were, scaled down human beings, scaled down society, if you land with a group of little boys, they are more like a scaled-down version of society than a group of little girls would be,” he said. “I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”

An all women remake of Lord of the Flies makes no sense because… the plot of that book wouldn’t happen with all women.

— roxane gay (@rgay) August 31, 2017

Lord of the Flies starring only girls: “Girls get marooned on an island. Band together to find food, shelter, rescue. Nobody dies. The end.”

— Clara Mae (@ubeempress) August 30, 2017

But these aren’t the only qualms people have with the idea: many are annoyed by the fact that the adaptation is being written by two men, and that all-female reboots deny women their own unique stories.

Why are men writing this lol https://t.co/8I9l3L6s2A

— Ira Madison III (@ira) August 30, 2017

imagine having such little interest in seeking out original stories about girlhood by women that you remake LORD OF THE FLIES with girls

— JamesHurleyVEVO (@soalexgoes) August 30, 2017

It seems women don’t want to see themselves be what men already were — not to mention most people seem to think there already was an all-female Lord of the Flies remake.

All female Lord of the Flies? I thought they made that already and it was called Mean Girls. #topical pic.twitter.com/7dfaeui8EO

— Bit (Neat!) Raptor (@bit_raptor) August 31, 2017

new all female lord of the flies is just a reboot of mean girls with spears

— Friedrice Nietzsche (@tinynietzsche) August 31, 2017

The female version of LORD OF THE FLIES is just the movie MEAN GIRLS tbh

— dosa luxembourg (@TwerkForTwerk) August 31, 2017

Featured image: Alaina Buzas via Flickr (CC BY 2.0, edited)