Hah... I should explain (Rogue 1 Spoilers) (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 06:58 (2445 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
edited by Kermit, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 07:22

Why where those characters written that way whereas the female characters are consistently presented as wise and heroic? Because Joseph Campbell has been jettisoned in favor of promoting what I don't hesitate to call toxic identity politics. This is precisely why the film has been so praised as being a product of our time and having important things to say, but this privileging of message over story is also why 40 years from now it will seem, unlike the original Star Wars, embarrassingly dated.

I don’t think the female characters were written as purely wise and heroic.

Eh, close enough for government work, especially in contrast to the male characters. I don't really count Phasma. She's little more than--how shall I say?--toy service.

Heh, I’m with you on Phasma :)

Staying on that track just a bit longer though, what female characters were portrayed as other than wise and heroic in ANH? Or ESB? Or RotJ? I’m purely working from memory here, so I might be missing something, but I don’t remember any female characters in the OT aside from Leia, and a short list of background characters with 1-2 lines (like Luke’s Aunt).
I’m not in favour of doing a head count and making sure male and female characters match up exactly, but the OT was clearly 1-sided in that regard. Now we have some female characters, and they’re all on the good guys’ team. So, like everyone on that team, they’re generally portrayed as wise and/or heroic, but so are most of the male characters. Is the problem that we don’t have a female counterpoint? That the villains are all male?

I'm not interested in a head count of representative genders (that is exactly what identity politics demands), but let's just take a sequence from ANH. Leia has to be rescued from her jail cell, but she in turn has to rescue the group from the gunfight in the hallway, which in turn puts them all in the situation of needing rescue from the garbage compactor, which Luke does by acting on the idea to call 3P0 and having him shut it off. There is a sequence of events no one can foresee, all are given chances to act heroically, and no gender is portrayed as particularly troubled or bumbling. They are types, to be sure, but they're also unique individuals who bring elements to the table without which the fight would be lost. They are a group learning to work together, getting the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their unique talents. Throughout the original series they all are shown to be vulnerable, they take risks, they suffer. They rescue and are rescued. Leia depends on Luke and Han and they depend on her. That's true to the human experience and true to mythological archetypes.

What's problematic in the new films is a tendency to show female characters as strong and independent not to serve the plot of the film but (I contend) to serve the narrative of a popular ideology. It's one reason Rey doesn't seem three-dimensional. She supposedly needs to be taught by Luke but she seems to do more teaching than he does. She has no interest in love. Leia takes her hand at the end and says "We have all we need." There are no downsides to the feminine. Male heroics are wrong-headed, ineffectual, or a parlor trick that distracts long enough for Rey to demonstrate her power and save the day. (It doesn't hurt that in the process she can undercut Luke's instruction by lifting rocks).

I admired Leia in the first trilogy because she was strong and not a weak, dependent damsel in distress. I certainly considered myself a feminist back then. I think we've moved to something else, but to discuss this more would involve breaking some rules about what we're allowed to discuss here. Best to leave it alone.