"Minorities" are minorities because they make up a smaller portion of a population group. One can have equal rights before the law for instance and still be a minority. One can even be a minority and wield a great deal of power. In any case, women are not a minority in the population in general, at least not in the U.S..
"But I have to wonder why diversity in perspective and representation in story media of all kinds is a bad thing."
I didn't say it was. I think there needs to be broader perspectives represented in media; for all of its backpatting, Hollywood's worldview is still somewhat limited. But some people are going to make films with mostly men or with mostly women (see current box office hit "The Other Woman"), or some kind of mix thereof. Why does Star Wars in particular have some kind of extraordinary responsibility to meet someone's social expectations? Because it's popular? And does perspective necessarily change because women are involved?
But ISN'T George Lucas's story any more
anonymous
May 1 2014, 09:44:29 UTC
It's Disney's and Disney have decided that Star Wars is for Boys. Isner has has said as much. Rebels being made for Disney XD underlines that fact and the casting of their movie changes the statement to a bold face font for those who hadn't noticed. It's sad after recent efforts to argue that girls can love Star Wars too and it's as annoying as heck that Disney and their apologists insult us by denying it, but there you go
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Re: But ISN'T George Lucas's story any morelazypadawanMay 1 2014, 21:43:16 UTC
I think you meant "Iger," since Michael Eisner is thankfully not CEO anymore ;).
It's annoying to me as well that there are some corporate types who are looking at Star Wars as a boys' brand. I don't know whether or not that played into crafting the script and therefore the casting decisions, but maybe you're assuming that it did. I'd have to know what Lucas originally had in mind vs. Michael Arndt's script vs. the Kasdan/Abrams script.
I'm still apprehensive about the film and the merchandising dept.'s abandonment of the prequels has me steamed. But I'll wait for further notice to hold the funeral.
But at the end of the day, Star Wars is not about fairness. It's not about equality. It's not about gender. It's not about race. It's not about representation. It's not about pandering to female empowerment fantasies. It's not about the disproportionate disparities of the disaffected disenfranchised…Star Wars is about fantasy. It's about storytelling. It's about derring-do and romance. It's about good and evil. It's about fun. The moment you bring in some tedious committee to enforce diversity mandates, it ceases to be fun. I can't think of a better way to strip Star Wars of its fun than to make it the target of exhausting activist petitions, marching, and/or chanting. This isn't the people's story. It is George Lucas's story. Good storytelling isn't done through committee.Actually...no
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Frankly I think they want more of that girl power stuff where 80 pound actresses can kung fu a 6'3" 200 lb man and she shows no vulnerability whatsoever.
No doubt there are some people out there who think like this, but to paint all " younger fan grrrrlzzzzz" with this brush is a pretty gross oversimplification. In the fandom spheres where I hang out, women don't just want heroines who meet some specific limited archetype, whether that be "mother" or "butt-kicker" or something else altogether. We want well-fleshed-out, multi-dimensional heroines who are people, who can be many different things all at once. Plus, this is just another point to why representation is important! If you're only including one or two women in your film, then those one or two women are going to carry the burden of representation for practically every woman who goes to see the movie. Why not instead include multiple female characters with different personalities and different paths in life? Showing many different female characters in media sends the message
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I disagree that a movie's popularity creates a greater obligation to fulfill an audience member's wishes, whatever they may be, than something not as popular. If your argument is there should be more women, I'd think that should be true of whether it's Star Wars or some run-of-the-mill sci-fi flick. Because any work big or small can influence people. I still however value artistic autonomy first, even if one doesn't think those decisions aren't good ones.
Does not having a sufficient number of women in Star Wars make you feel marginalized and you don't matter? If so, why are you a fan? Or are you actually a fan of the expanded universe and not so much the movies?
Who said I was shutting anyone down? I'm disagreeing with these people on my own LiveJournal page. I'm allowed to do that, aren't I
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*sigh* I really hope this isn't going to drive the fandom into another pervading PC rage a la Last Airbender that no matter what the movie turns out to be like, all they'll see is "THERE'S NOT ENOUGH !". Oddly, I don't remember this rage when the cast of the Avengers was announced.
Good point. There wasn't an outcry over "The Avengers" or any other Marvel film of recent vintage. They are mostly with male leads, with the exception of the Thor flicks since those had Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and the gal who plays Sif whose name escapes me. And nobody was patting Marvel on the back for that either.
Asian actors everywhere should be relieved they avoided the bullet of being in "The Last Airbender." Seriously though, I can sort of see the point of those complaints because the characters were supposed to be Asian and their races were changed for the movie for whatever reason. With Star Wars, it's not as though they took an established female character and turned her into a guy just for the sake of having fewer women.
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"But I have to wonder why diversity in perspective and representation in story media of all kinds is a bad thing."
I didn't say it was. I think there needs to be broader perspectives represented in media; for all of its backpatting, Hollywood's worldview is still somewhat limited. But some people are going to make films with mostly men or with mostly women (see current box office hit "The Other Woman"), or some kind of mix thereof. Why does Star Wars in particular have some kind of extraordinary responsibility to meet someone's social expectations? Because it's popular? And does perspective necessarily change because women are involved?
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It's annoying to me as well that there are some corporate types who are looking at Star Wars as a boys' brand. I don't know whether or not that played into crafting the script and therefore the casting decisions, but maybe you're assuming that it did. I'd have to know what Lucas originally had in mind vs. Michael Arndt's script vs. the Kasdan/Abrams script.
I'm still apprehensive about the film and the merchandising dept.'s abandonment of the prequels has me steamed. But I'll wait for further notice to hold the funeral.
Reply
Reply
No doubt there are some people out there who think like this, but to paint all " younger fan grrrrlzzzzz" with this brush is a pretty gross oversimplification. In the fandom spheres where I hang out, women don't just want heroines who meet some specific limited archetype, whether that be "mother" or "butt-kicker" or something else altogether. We want well-fleshed-out, multi-dimensional heroines who are people, who can be many different things all at once. Plus, this is just another point to why representation is important! If you're only including one or two women in your film, then those one or two women are going to carry the burden of representation for practically every woman who goes to see the movie. Why not instead include multiple female characters with different personalities and different paths in life? Showing many different female characters in media sends the message ( ... )
Reply
I disagree that a movie's popularity creates a greater obligation to fulfill an audience member's wishes, whatever they may be, than something not as popular. If your argument is there should be more women, I'd think that should be true of whether it's Star Wars or some run-of-the-mill sci-fi flick. Because any work big or small can influence people. I still however value artistic autonomy first, even if one doesn't think those decisions aren't good ones.
Does not having a sufficient number of women in Star Wars make you feel marginalized and you don't matter? If so, why are you a fan? Or are you actually a fan of the expanded universe and not so much the movies?
Who said I was shutting anyone down? I'm disagreeing with these people on my own LiveJournal page. I'm allowed to do that, aren't I ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Asian actors everywhere should be relieved they avoided the bullet of being in "The Last Airbender." Seriously though, I can sort of see the point of those complaints because the characters were supposed to be Asian and their races were changed for the movie for whatever reason. With Star Wars, it's not as though they took an established female character and turned her into a guy just for the sake of having fewer women.
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