[light saber noises]
-Hey, Anita! Whatcha doing?
Oh! Ok, so, I'm rehearsing for our next video:
we're going to have all these, like, CGI light sabers
and I'm going to mow down stormtroopers
and look real cool.
-Uh...we don't have a budget for that.
[record scratch]
We have a budget for that.
-Uh, that's not how Jedi mind tricks work.
[light saber noises]
_ Ok! Good talk! Good talk!
Given the reactions of some men to the recent
slate of Star Wars movies,
you'd think that these films were themselves
powerful Jedi mind tricks meant to dupe
an unsuspecting populace into believing all that
feminist nonsense about women actually being people.
Now, to be fair,
there were two whole Star Wars movies in a row
with female leads.
Talk about going overboard!
Clearly there should be at least six movies with male leads
to every one movie with a female lead.
That's just science!
Well, actually, it's about as scientific
as those midichlorians introduced in The Phantom Menace.
Sure, in 1977, Princess Leia might have seemed
like a bold feminist icon.
Here was a smart, confident, resourceful woman
who didn't take crap from anybody --
not even that creep, Grand Moff Tarkin.
But did you know that she's one of only four
women to have any dialogue across all 3 films
in the original trilogy?
A New Hope has Aunt Beru:
"I promise."
"Luke's just not a farmer, Owen.
He has too much of his father in him."
Return of the Jedi has Mon Mothma:
"We also know that the weapons systems of this Death Star
are not yet operational."
And then there's The Empire Strikes Back,
which has, um, this person?
"Standby, Ion Control. Fire"
Leia herself is definitely a cool character
who no doubt provided a valuable on-screen
representation of a heroic woman --
at least until the 3rd film shoved her into a
chainmail bikini and made her a sex object.
Yes, I am still bitter about that one.
But the movies themselves make it clear that
the Star Wars universe is a universe of men.
Aside from the examples mentioned before,
literally every single other person who says anything
in these films is a man --
from the lowliest Stormtrooper to the highest-ranking
Imperial officer.
So the Star Wars movies don't do anything
to disrupt the cultural notion that overwhelmingly,
it's men, not women, who get to be heroes
or who get to do anything of any real significance.
So it was a huge deal when
The Force Awakens came out and didn't just
have a heroic woman among the core cast,
but actually centered her in the story.
Rey gets to be the central hero of these films.
They are concerned first and foremost with her
journey as a character, and that is
awesome!
To have it followed up by yet another
Star Wars film with a female lead was
even more cause for celebration.
I mean, it shouldn't be.
It should be no more remarkable for mainstream
movies to center women
than it is for them to center men --
but let's be real:
we have a long way to go before that's the case.
Still, it's pretty hilarious that some anti-feminists
found two Star Wars movies centering women
to be beyond the pale.
You can relax, guys:
patriarchy is alive and well.
For now.
[evil laugh]
We're thrilled that these films star women
and numerous people of color, too.
It really matters.
And if you don't believe me,
check out the #SWRepMatters hashtag
for tons of heartwarming stories about
how much it's meant for viewers,
adults and children alike,
to see people who look like them in the biggest
media franchise in the world.
It's also great that women are now marginally more visible
in the textures of these worlds.
But we also have to acknowledge that we're still
a far cry from anything resembling equal representation.
As members of the core cast,
both Rey and Jyn Erso are lone women
surrounded entirely by men.
General Leia appears in The Force Awakens
but is not much more than a cameo.
Though hopefully we'll see more of the late, great
Carrie Fisher in The Last Jedi.
It's like there's this unspoken rule that you
can have as many men in these movies as you want,
but there's a hard cap on female members
of the core cast
and that cap is 1.
Also the leading women are both white,
and while we're seeing more men of color
with significant roles in these films,
women of color are still relegated to the background.
And no, Lupita Nyong'o as the voice of Maz
doesn't count,
even though she's so, so wonderful!
It seems that if you're an important character
in a Star Wars movie,
you can either be differentiated from white men
by your race or your gender,
but not both.
So we still have a ways to go.
Hopefully soon,
we'll have a depiction of a galaxy far, far away
where the ratio of women to men onscreen
is closer to 1:1
rather than 8:1.
You know, something approaching equality?
That's what we feminists want!
Equality!
Well, first we want equality,
then we want to beam all the women
onto spaceships and go exploring the galaxy
on our own while all the men
have to stay here on earth.
Ha ha!
-Uh, "beaming up" is a Star Trek thing.
Ugh. Whatever.
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