Supergirl has been a massive flop. Must be men’s fault. That’s the refrain, isn’t it? The moment a female‑led film underperforms, the internet’s Greek chorus warms up its vocal cords and belts out the same tired tune: “Men hate female-led films.” It’s become a reflex, a pre‑packaged explanation that saves everyone the trouble of actually thinking. People post articles insisting this is the grand truth of cinema, and even film stars like to toss in the “It’s men’s fault” theory as if it’s some profound sociological insight. Don’t believe me? Emma Watson says it’s true.

Emma Watson: “It’s something they’re not used to, and they don’t like that. Anything that deviates from the norm is difficult to accept. You go, ‘Well, that’s a girl, she doesn’t look like me. I want it to look like me so that I can project myself onto the character.’”

“Durrrr, men is stoopid, dey don’t like girls!” Emma, please, stop spouting utter bollocks. I’ve got another theory, one grounded in reality rather than vibes. Men don’t dislike female-led films. Men dislike bad films. Male or female protagonist, if the character is written like a cardboard cut-out dipped in cliché, the audience will tune out. And let’s be honest, a lot of modern female characters are written with all the nuance of a torn motivational poster. That’s not the audience’s fault.

Whenever men get blamed for a female-led film flopping (and they do… constantly), the usual suspects get wheeled out as counterexamples: Aliens, Terminator 2, and someone has a hard-on for James Cameron. But the list is far longer (and no James Cameron). Throw in Kill Bill, Ms .45, The Silence of the Lambs, Thelma & Louise, Hidden Figures, Fargo, Million Dollar Baby, Black Swan, Nikita. I could go on. Generations of men grew up watching female-led films. Generations of men still enjoy female-led films. Generations of men genuinely couldn’t give a fuck whether the lead is male, female, or a talking raccoon. We’re simple creatures: we want to be entertained.

Female-led films flop for various reasons. They’re not very good, bad writing, bad casting, bad directing. Pick one, or some, or all. I haven’t watched Supergirl yet, not because a female is playing the main character (I kind of suspected a female would play Supergirl), but because I didn’t even know it was out. I thought it was a late-summer release. Well, a late-summer release made sense to me. That’s another reason films fail: nobody knows they exist/bad marketing. And then there’s the release date. Supergirl hit cinemas at the end of June… sandwiched between Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters. That’s a brutal place to be. Two animated juggernauts with built-in fanbases, nostalgia, and guaranteed family audiences. And then Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings in at the end of July. That’s box office seppuku.

People are going to the cinema less these days, mainly because ticket prices are now roughly equivalent to a small mortgage payment, so audiences are more selective. If you’re on a budget, especially with kids, and you’ve got to choose between Supergirl, Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters, or Spider-Man: Brand New Day for some summer entertainment, what are you picking… honestly? Did Supergirl flop because it was bad, because it had a female lead, or because it had the marketing strategy of a well-used teabag and a suicidal release date? According to some people (like Emma Watson), men are to blame.

Here’s another fun fact: around 49.74% of the world’s population is female, that’s roughly 4.13 billion people. So why, exactly, are men getting blamed for female-led films flopping when almost half the planet is female? Why aren’t women supporting their sisters at the box office? Answer that one, Ms Watson, with some of your feminist bullshittery.

Now, I’m not claiming misogyny doesn’t exist, of course it does. I’ve seen comments slagging off Supergirl because Milly Alcock “isn’t pretty.” They post single frames where she’s pulling a face, straining, mid-action, you know… acting, and declare she’s not attractive enough to be Supergirl…

Yep. Milly Alcock, the very attractive woman pictured above, apparently isn’t pretty enough to be Supergirl. Then you click on the profiles of the people saying this and they’re overweight neckbeards who closely resemble a recently unearthed potato more than a functioning human. The kind of bloke who has probably never had female company that wasn’t his mother’s sympathy or someone he had to pay. These “men” don’t count. Their opinions are null and void. Yes, they’re probably among the tiny handful of males who would boycott a film purely because it’s female-led. But they’re not even a microscopic dint in the 4.13 billion women who also exist on this planet.

So why are men getting the blame for female-led films flopping while the women of Earth get off scot-free? There are many reasons why female-led films fail. And here’s something that very rarely gets mentioned in this argument: male-led films flop too. One of the biggest bombs this year has been Masters of the Universe (though I thought it was great). Very, very male-led (with a female side-character). Why aren’t men blaming women for that one? Where the the articles calming that women made it flop? Over to you Emma Watson…