Anghus Houvouras on the social subtext of Star Wars…
It was back when the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released. Mere minutes after we got our first glimpse of Episode VII, when someone made this comment on twitter:
“It looks like they’re making a real effort to diversify the cast”
A harmless little comment about how the main characters in The Force Awakens seem to represent a wider range of gender and race than the original. It’s true, I suppose. The original Star Wars was a bunch of white guys and a Wookie trying to save the galaxy. The only woman in the cast was a Princess in need of rescuing: not exactly the kind of thing that helps you pass the Bechdel Test.
Since the film has hit theaters, these little tremors about the social agenda of Star Wars have become full on earthquakes. Every day the internet seems to produce another theory about the film wrapping the events of Episode VII to whatever cause you are for or against. We’ve already gotten a solid week’s worth of debate over whether or not Rey is a ‘Mary Sue’. Yet another wet fart in an elevator provided by Max Landis who has taken the torch from Kevin Smith as the internet’s de facto geek voice and beaten us all senseless with it. I’m not sure why the writer of American Ultra and Victor Frankenstein feels compelled to lecture Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams, but here we are. Unfortunately, it isn’t just Landis.
Right now you can find conspiracy theories about The Force Awakens calling it ‘Politically Correct Propaganda’ detailing the theory that Rey, Finn, and Poe represent cultural diversity while the super-white First Order, General Hux, and Kylo Ren represent the vilified Caucasian establishment.
My personal favorite bit in this theory involves Kylo Ren’s lightsaber which has been made to look like a cross to represent the Christian faith thus portraying Christianity as the enemy. These are the ramblings of the lunatic fringe who for some reason want to believe the whole world is against them and actively seek out indignation in all forms of media. On the other side of the spectrum there’s a theory being presented that Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is gay and might be, according to some ‘the first queer Star Wars protagonist’.
I always find fan theories interesting. There are the well thought out ones that actually have merit and make you rethink what you’ve seen. And then there are the ludicrous ones that are so off the mark that they become entertaining in their own unintentionally hilarious ways.
I never understood the need to co-opt popular culture. To try and apply the social agenda of our world to a work of fiction. Maybe it speaks to my naiveté. Or perhaps I’m just one of those people who go to the movies like Star Wars to escape reality. I’m not looking for real world parallels in The Force Awakens, I’m just looking to be entertained. Maybe that’s why I find all these theories so amusing.
Subtext is a funny thing. It’s totally subjective and is often times created in the nebulous spaces between reality. Let’s take our first theory: The one about The Force Awakens being PC Propaganda. There is at least the thinnest sliver of meat on the bone there. Our main characters are far more diverse than the original Star Wars. I’d like to think that’s more of a positive product of our times and not engineered that way… but you can see where a cynical mind might connect those dots.
The Poe Dameron thing is another story entirely. Poe Dameron might have encompassed 20 minutes of total screen time in The Force Awakens. 90% of those scenes took place in the cockpit of an X-Wing (or TIE Fighter). What exactly was anyone seeing in the movie that would make them think Poe was gay (or straight for that matter?). Because he was nice to Finn? Because they shared a look with one another as both of them were taking off on what seemed like a suicide mission?
There’s this strange trend of people wanting the movies to speak directly to them. A narcissistic shift that makes movie fans less interested in being the characters they see on-screen and more as a representation and validation of themselves. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Luke Skywalker because he blew up the Death Star and saved Princess Leia. Not because he was straight and wanted to bang Leia with his brother boner. I like that our new Star Wars movies have a female protagonist, but I’m hoping kids want to be her because she’s a hero and an interesting character. Not just because she has lady parts.
Would Poe be any less of a hero if he was gay? Of course not. Would the story be impacted at all based on his sexual preference? Nope. He still would have destroyed the Starkiller Base and saved the galaxy. Who he decided to have celebratory Death Star blow-up sex with afterwords really doesn’t factor into it.
That’s what makes these musings so strange to me. It takes me back to J.K. Rowling’s post Potter revelation that Dumbledore was, in fact, gay. While it’s interesting to get inside the mind of the creator and hear them wax philosophically on the nature of their character, it ends up being nothing more than a footnote. Dumbledore’s sexual preference had zero impact whatsoever on the overall story of Rowling’s world of wizardry.
Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon with no rival, so it makes sense that there are those who want to co-opt the narrative. However, that’s a side of fandom that seems alien to me: the ones less interested in being transported to another world and more interested in having their fiction serve as some kind validation for their personal value set. To me, this isn’t fandom. To me, movies are about entering a theater to be transported to another world. Not to drag that world into reality to draw real world parallels. That might be true for some movies, but not Star Wars, where the politics and themes are already ridiculously thin and unexplained. This is good vs. evil. right vs. wrong. And where they characters exist to serve the story, not a social agenda. Whether that agenda be fueled by Max Landis’ superiority complex, casual racism and/or sexism, or the implying of an inconsequential sexual identity to a character.
Let’s just let Star Wars be Star Wars and stop bringing our baggage into the theater.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker and the co-host of Across the Pondcast. Follow him on Twitter.
