In the original Star Wars trilogy, only four women have any dialogue: Princess Leia, Aunt Beru, Mon Mothma, and Toryn Farr, who gets the iconic line, “Stand by, Ion Control… fire.” (Sy Snootles does not count.) That’s not great, and it doesn’t get much better in the prequels, where Padmé Amidala is reduced to a quivering mess by Revenge of the Sith, Zam Wesell is murdered by Jango Fett, and the less said about Shmi Skywalker, the better. So, naturally, when Star Wars introduced a new, strong female protagonist, Rey in The Force Awakens, followed by Jyn Erso in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the fanboys freaked out. They either tweeted things like, “I guess every Star Wars will have a female lead now, even Han Solo will be a woman in his movie,” or cut to the heart of the sexist matter and called Rey a “Mary Sue.”
That term — which denotes a female character who is immediatly good at everything — is an ugly reminder of how a farmboy can destroy the Death Star with his eyes closed and no one will complain, but when a woman channels the Force, she’s the “worst f*cking Star Wars main character yet.”
On MTV News’ Happy Sad Confused podcast, Daisy Ridley expressed bewilderment over Rey’s Mary Sue label. “The Mary Sue thing in itself is sexist because it’s the name of a woman. Everyone was saying that Luke had the exact same [capabilities],” the actress said. “I think Rey is incredibly vulnerable, and nothing she’s doing is for the greater good. She’s just doing what she thinks is the right thing. And she doesn’t want to do some of it, but she feels compelled to do it. So for me, I was just confused.”
As always, a reminder: Star Wars doesn’t belong to angry 4chan users.
(Via MTV News)
