Dear 003foxway,
I do.
But what I’ve seen onscreen so far in regards to that is not revolutionary — I don’t feel I’ve been promised anything yet, and given past mainstream film experience, I admit that I remain dubious that it’ll play out that way. I think it goes without saying that I’d be delighted to have my low expectations exceeded, but pessimism is an inferno in my mind at this point.
What is onscreen at this moment is revolutionary in a different way; Rey as a lead is a major win for this sort of movie, and I’d expect in a bias-free world to see her given at least equal time in enthusiasm. I’d also expect to see her represented in the same kind of fan interest, rather than her being the focus of more calculated articles and Finn-Poe gaining a bigger piece of fannish emotional reaction. But that’s not what I’m seeing. From where I’m standing, it looks like gender bias, particularly because the things is: the two brands of excitement can coexist beautifully. Emotional investment in Rey does not take away from emotional investment in Finn or Poe or Finn-and-Poe.
That’s why all I asked was for biases to be noted. To say that any of us exist without gender bias in storytelling would be disingenuous in the extreme. We’ve all been raised on a hundred years of white men on camera and we’re all the product of it still. It is impossible not to be.
urs,
Stiefvater
Why are you asking “all biases to be noted” (by whom, precisely) instead of going after the people who are actually spewing the misogyny?
Why are you asking for “all biases to be noted” and not taking note of your own biases in the way you completely ignore women of color and LGBT people of color in your analysis?
Why should women of color feel more represented by Rey than by Poe or Finn? And where is all the hell-raising and “not good enough” for the lack of women of color in the franchise? (No, Lupita Nyong’o as a CGI alien doesn’t count.)
Why should LGBT people of color be less thrilled about finally having a ship between two people of color that they can actually talk about with more than 3 people?
Why should LGBT women of color prioritize how fandom reacts to Rey above how fandom reacts to Finn and Poe, separately and in a relationship?
When has a slash ship between two men of color ever been popular in fandom?
When have fandom at large and slash fandoms in particular ever been amazing about characters of color, particularly when it comes to ships and romance?
Is the good it does for LGBT fans of color (we do exist) less good because slash fandoms are usually so shitty when it comes to female characters?
Why have you not asked LGBT women of color in Finn/Poe fandom our reasons for shipping Finn/Poe and paying less attention to Rey?
*sips tea*
This is literally why I have never been able to jump on the whole “omg we need a Wonder Woman/Captain Marvel/etc movie!” bandwagon.
I love Rey– clearly. I started that cosplay as soon as the first trailer came out. You can’t take that away from me. But when you get down to it, white women are literally everywhere in media and way too often this brand of film feminism comes at the expense of everyone who is not a white woman– POC men, POC women, LGBTQ POCs. I don’t need that.
Very rarely, if ever, am I going to prioritise a white woman over any POC in media. Especially in Star Wars, of all things. Sorry.
The commentary above is excellent, and I don’t have much to add, but:
I have this issue all the time–am I black first, a woman first, or is “black woman” an identity all its own? Finn and Rey are both great, important characters, but when I watched The Force Awakens, I identified more with Finn than I did with Rey.
A black man choosing to break out of a system of oppression and conditioning to be free resonates to me much more than a white girl who turns out to be the Special Chosen One. Within the context of how terrible 2015 has been for black people, closing out the year watching Finn’s story unfold is incredibly meaningful to me.
Being nerdy, I would have gone to see the movie regardless, but I paid to see it twice, and am considering buying some merchandise, in addition to the BluRay, because John Boyega is one of the main characters.
And it is incredibly frustrating, confusing, and maddening that–as a black woman–being more “emotionally invested” in a black man a little more than a white woman is somehow creating/reinforcing a “gender bias.”
-Mod Q
Thank. You. Say it louder so they can hear you in the back.
This : /
I am, generally, more invested in the stories of characters (male or female) of color than I am in the stories of white women, not because i don’t care about women but because the story I recognize as being *my* story is race based more than it is gender based.
Like, my life experience has shown me that the fact that I am not white is often more important to everyone else than the fact that I am a woman, especially given that my experience of womanhood is ALSO at least partially defined by my race.
(none of this, btw, stops me from interrogating my preferences all the time. but I have really clear character preferences on top of the race and gender axes and it’s all terribly complicated)
You don’t think a relationship between two MoC is revolutionary, especially in Hollywood?
Published
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