A League of Their Own was pretty progressive for 1992. The film told the story of All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which helped keep the nation’s favorite pasttime alive while many male ball players were overseas fighting in World War II. It was enthusiastically pro-woman. It was also pretty white and pretty straight. The Abbi Jacobson-led TV reboot on Amazon fixes that, adding people of color and queer characters. But some people aren’t having it.
On Monday, Jacobson — who is wisely not on Twitter — used the show’s account to express her gratitude about all the strong reactions her show’s received…and slam those steamed about its diversity.
“I’ve been pretty blown away by the response this weekend. I was really changed learning about this generation of women. I feel really proud of this show + to know its resonating with people really means a lot,” Jacobson wrote. “On the flip side,” she added,”I have seen a lot of people angry and mad at our inclusion of more experiences (POC, QWOC, queer) and that anger (aka fear) has only made me more sure about why this reimagining needed to be made. Why representation matters so much.”
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Jacobson, who created the show with Mozart in the Jungle showrunner Will Graham, said they were always talking about how they were “not remaking the movie,” that instead they were “trying to reimagine it and tell those stories that weren’t told in the film.”
A League of Their Own now streams on Amazon Prime.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)