I'm a Star Wars fan. Ask anyone and they'll tell you I've been a fan since I first saw ANH when I was 4. I stick up for the prequels, I've seen the animated shows, I've read the books, played the games, written the fanfic, I'm a fan.
So I'm a little disappointed to see the way things are going in the fandom.
The first "Rogue One" trailer dropped this morning. I watched it and I was blown away by it. It looks fantastic, back to the OT--thank goodness--and seems to have an okay storyline. For a few hours I was happily excited. Aaaaand then the SJWs started coming out of the woodwork, as they do, determined to ruin all of our fun.
According to said SJWs (that's Social Justice Warriors if you're unfamiliar) people are aalllllll upset that the lead in this film is a woman.
Now it hardly even registered on me when I first watched the trailer that the lead was female. Why? Because it's not something I am
obsessively looking for when watching a trailer--or anything. But SJWs are. They have to count everything, be it race, gender, sexuality, and make sure everything is
absolutely even--or best case scenario--that they out number those horrible straight-white-males. For the majority of us, I have to believe we couldn't care
less about what gender/sexuality/race the main character is. As long as it has a
great story that is all that matters. Or at least it should be. Unfortunately, these days, that's not all that matters. Being fair and filling quotas is by far more important.
Instead of people talking about how great those AT-ATs look, or that armour, or the construction of the Death Star, people are being berated for pointing out the fact that Disney does seem to have a bit of an agenda going for them, and people are getting a little tired of it in
everything.
What agenda? you may ask. Is this sexist of you? Racist? No, of course not. Diversity is
great! Star Wars is diverse. It's a big galaxy, and anyone who thinks that every character is white, straight and male is confused (people don't
actually think that, it's something perpetuated by the SJWs mentioned above. No one is really upset, but it has to be construed that way so SJWs look tolerant. We saw this with the character Finn in The Force Awakes with all the fake racism there--yes, we know the majority of it was fake.) It's the same thing here.
How does this tie into the infamous GamerGate? It's the same thing. People like their fandoms. People don't want agenda pushed on their fandoms. People complain about that. SJWs scream at them for being racist/homophobic/sexist.
Are they? No. The
vast majority of people aren't. Are there a few idiots out there who
really have a problem with Jyn? Probably. But they're so small it's not worth mentioning. What they're sick of is the agenda. We don't want to admit it, but the main character is female simply because they know it'll make SJWs happy and antagonistic towards the rest of us. And we're already seeing it.
What SJWs don't understand is that these people don't
care that the lead is female. They care that the lead HAS to be female. Storytelling in Star Wars is becoming less about stories and more about making those people who actually
diversity count happy.
It's a very strange, and rather insulting world.
Does anyone
really have a problem with a female role? No.
Do girls
need strong females to look up to? Sure. Absolutely.
Some of the best characters in Star Wars--Ahsoka, Leia, Hera, Satine and now Rey and I'm sure this Jyn--are female.
But are they great
because they are female?
For me the answer is
no. They are great because of who they are--not "what" they are. I don't want my gender to define me. I don't want to have to focus on
any physical characteristics to define what makes a character good or not.
The only politics in Star Wars are the ones it has always had.
Thank goodness I'm female. Go ahead and call me misogynistic, I'll just laugh. And I'll enjoy this Star Wars film no matter what agendas you try and shove down my throat.
