Ok, I know, how corny, but come on ... I'm his mother!!!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
So Cute I Just Had to Share!
Ok, I know, how corny, but come on ... I'm his mother!!!
Feminist Star Wars
Of course a movie with a woman and a black man as its heroes would be a feminist film, but the thrust of the message doesn't come from casting the protagonists alone. It's not just that we have a powerfully progressive duo at the center of the film, but more to the point that they are also the icons of a new generation of progressivism. They are heroes not just of the film, but of the current era of inclusion that we'd like to imagine we're approaching.
Finn and Rey are, of course, fighting the bad guys in the movie, and it should be eminently clear who the bad guys are modeled after, the Nazis, of course. Largely white men, with the occasional chic but cold frau who uses sex to help meet the Empire's needs or violence to quell insurgencies, the army of the Dark Side literally Sieg Heil's at one point to a commander wearing an insignia that looks suspiciously like a swastika. In a call out to both slavery and the practices of African warlords who strong arm child armies, Finn explains that he was taken from his family at a very young age and trained from his earliest memories as a loyal killing machine. In many ways, Finn is the escaped slave crossing the Mason Dixon Line to fight for the Union, or even a Lost Boy.
Of course, the opposite of the organization Americans most closely associate with pure evil is the Rainbow Coalition of genders, races, languages, and even species. Princess Leia leads the Rebel Forces with grit, though we have seen the Star Wars franchise give wise and powerful roles to female characters in the past and from its inception the men around the hologram planning table (and they are still, with the exception of Leia, still all men) have hailed from the seeming four corners of the Galaxy, but now we have female fighter pilots and pilots of color (as well as pilots of creature :), though it would have been nice to have had at least one black woman in a named part. How telling this is at a time when the U.S. military has just agreed to allow women into combat roles. The Rebel Army is, of course, our idealized view of American society, a mixture of immigrant peoples, perhaps more rag tag at first but emerging as a strong fighting force for good. The ideal itself is a blending of the values around freedom and bravery in the face of evil that characterized the Greatest Generation and the Millenial values of race and gender equality.
So it makes a lot of sense that while Finn is the one who kickstarts the action, the climax and denoument belong to Rey. As a black man, Finn must prove himself to be gentle (but strong and brave - he is, after all, still a man), smart, and good from the gut. This he does from his very first act, and we accept it immediately, as do all the characters. But Rey has more to prove, and like all strong women, must fight even her allies to make them see her fortitude, her physicality, and her mental ingenuity. In the end, it is her fight against the Dark Side because she is the least likely, though in the days of Catness and the Frozen duo, it is also true that we are living in an age in which the lady is likely to save not just herself, but the whole kingdom.
If superheroes are our modern mythology, and if Star Wars could be considered a very human superhero franchise, then both the movie and its popularity say a lot about our current cultural moment, who we are, who we were, and who we are likely to become. While it was once a big deal fro a tough talking Leia to even hold a gun the first time her two rolled buns appeared on screen, it feels natural today to have her leading the Rebellion. She didn't even get a medal the first time around, but in The Force Awakens, Rey wins the ultimate prize.
Finn and Rey are, of course, fighting the bad guys in the movie, and it should be eminently clear who the bad guys are modeled after, the Nazis, of course. Largely white men, with the occasional chic but cold frau who uses sex to help meet the Empire's needs or violence to quell insurgencies, the army of the Dark Side literally Sieg Heil's at one point to a commander wearing an insignia that looks suspiciously like a swastika. In a call out to both slavery and the practices of African warlords who strong arm child armies, Finn explains that he was taken from his family at a very young age and trained from his earliest memories as a loyal killing machine. In many ways, Finn is the escaped slave crossing the Mason Dixon Line to fight for the Union, or even a Lost Boy.
Of course, the opposite of the organization Americans most closely associate with pure evil is the Rainbow Coalition of genders, races, languages, and even species. Princess Leia leads the Rebel Forces with grit, though we have seen the Star Wars franchise give wise and powerful roles to female characters in the past and from its inception the men around the hologram planning table (and they are still, with the exception of Leia, still all men) have hailed from the seeming four corners of the Galaxy, but now we have female fighter pilots and pilots of color (as well as pilots of creature :), though it would have been nice to have had at least one black woman in a named part. How telling this is at a time when the U.S. military has just agreed to allow women into combat roles. The Rebel Army is, of course, our idealized view of American society, a mixture of immigrant peoples, perhaps more rag tag at first but emerging as a strong fighting force for good. The ideal itself is a blending of the values around freedom and bravery in the face of evil that characterized the Greatest Generation and the Millenial values of race and gender equality.
So it makes a lot of sense that while Finn is the one who kickstarts the action, the climax and denoument belong to Rey. As a black man, Finn must prove himself to be gentle (but strong and brave - he is, after all, still a man), smart, and good from the gut. This he does from his very first act, and we accept it immediately, as do all the characters. But Rey has more to prove, and like all strong women, must fight even her allies to make them see her fortitude, her physicality, and her mental ingenuity. In the end, it is her fight against the Dark Side because she is the least likely, though in the days of Catness and the Frozen duo, it is also true that we are living in an age in which the lady is likely to save not just herself, but the whole kingdom.
If superheroes are our modern mythology, and if Star Wars could be considered a very human superhero franchise, then both the movie and its popularity say a lot about our current cultural moment, who we are, who we were, and who we are likely to become. While it was once a big deal fro a tough talking Leia to even hold a gun the first time her two rolled buns appeared on screen, it feels natural today to have her leading the Rebellion. She didn't even get a medal the first time around, but in The Force Awakens, Rey wins the ultimate prize.
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