Way to keep Austin weird, Mayor Adler.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler stepped into the debate over Alamo Drafthouse’s female-only “Wonder Woman” screenings, posting a letter from a man threatening to boycott the city over the screenings, along with his own hilarious response to the critic.
According to Adler’s website, the mayor received an email on May 26 from Richard A. Ameduri, who wrote, “hope every man will boycott Austin and do what he can to diminish Austin and to cause damage to the city’s image. The theater that pandered to the sexism typical of women will, I hope, regret it’s [sic] decision.”
The letter continued, “Does Austin stand for gender equality or for kissing up to women? Don’t bother to respond. I already know the answer. I do not hate women. I hate their rampant hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the ‘women’s movement.’ Women do not want gender equality; they want more for women. Don’t bother to respond because I am sure your cowardice will generate nothing worth reading.”
Despite Ameduri’s pleas for Adler not to respond, the mayor did just that. Quite humorously, at that.
“I am writing to alert you that your email account has been hacked by an unfortunate and unusually hostile individual. Please remedy your account’s security right away, lest this person’s uninformed and sexist rantings give you a bad name. After all, we men have to look out for each other!” Adler’s response letter read.
“Can you imagine if someone thought that you didn’t know women could serve in our combat units now without exclusion?” Adler continued. “What if someone thought you didn’t know that women invented medical syringes, life rafts, fire escapes, central and solar heating, a war-time communications system for radio-controlling torpedoes that laid the technological foundations for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS, and beer?”
Alamo Drafthouse’s decision to hold a female-only screening — a second no-boys-allowed screening was subsequently scheduled due to high demand — was almost immediately met with cries of sexism from men who felt slighted.
“The most iconic superheroine in comic book history finally has her own movie, and what better way to celebrate than with an all-female screening?” Austin-based Alamo said in an announcement of the June 6 screening. “Apologies, gentlemen, but we’re embracing our girl power and saying ‘No Guys Allowed’ for one special night at the Alamo Ritz. And when we say ‘People Who Identify As Women Only,’ we mean it. Everyone working at this screening — venue staff, projectionist, and culinary team — will be female … So lasso your geeky girlfriends together and grab your tickets to this celebration of one of the most enduring and inspiring characters ever created.”
Alamo Drafthouse’s Facebook page was quickly flooded with complaints.
“Imagine the s–storm if there was any male only showing of anything … or a private showing for a specific race or sexual orientation … Nah, it’s SJW [Social Justice Warrior] approved,” groused one male.
“I love Alamo Drafthouse and watch all my movies with y’all (and still will), but separating any group from another is very odd,” observed another.
“Could you imagine the anger and outrage from the liberal staff of Alamo if Trump held an all male screening at the white house or even if another theatre did an all male screening?!” vented another male.
In a statement to TheWrap, Alamo Drafthouse said, “Obviously, Alamo Drafthouse recognizes ‘Wonder Woman’ is a film for all audiences, but our special women-only screenings may have created confusion – we want everybody to see this film.”