“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been” (William Golding). Lord of the Flies is a story of a group of pre-pubescent schoolboys being dropped off on a desert island and left to fend for themselves, eventually turning almost feral. Two men, Scott McGehee and David Siegel are in the process of writing and directing an all female casted version of this tale, which has ended up taking a lot of backlash. This leads me to wonder if this movie is a good idea at all. There have been complaints of all forms listing from the directors being male, the storyline not matching with female attributes, and if this really passes the Bechdel test.

Writer Philip H. Devoe spoke out against the film saying how, “The directors don’t seem to understand Flies at all. The book already demonstrates the problems with a society dominated by males, and, by its inverse and Golding’s own words, how much better a woman-led society would be in important ways”. Golding originally wrote this during WWII to show the awful things he had seen throughout the war, which is why he chose a group of boys. He thought this would help display the ‘savagery of man’ far better than it being portrayed by women. While the strong counter argument presented in the new day and age of a female Ghostbusters movie and such arises the question of if this film is really going to properly represent women. There are rising movements of people believing both men and women should be treated equally, which leads to a very good counter to all the claims made, but the author originally wrote it the way he did for a reason: to show the once again stated ‘savagery of man’ that Golding had seen during wartime.

A piece that some are trying to fight on is if this film is going to pass the Bechdel test: a way of evaluating whether or not a film or other work of fiction portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. For a work of fiction to pass, there must feature at least two women, these women must talk to each other, and their conversation must concern something other than a man, which if the directors were to make the film just as previously done or as it is in the book, would most likely pass with flying colors.

The savage nature of the boys in this story is going to be different portrayed by girls, but it definitely won’t stop people from seeing it either out of curiosity or general interest. They say that this portrayal is going to be a wreck since people are already destroying it for being directed by men, not following the real theme of the story (the savagery of man), and the overall lack of faith that it will be any good. I say that while it at least deserves a chance, I don’t really support the creation of this remake. I believe that Golding had a vision for his story and this remake won’t do anything more than upset the real fans of his writing and the original story itself.