The Force is Strong with this One: Feminism and the Jedi

In the original Star Wars trilogy, there were very few female characters.There was Leia, who became a feminst icon of the time, and Mon Mothma, who appeared in one scene. At the beginning, there were only male Jedi. Though Leia got a one-liner acknowledgment in Empire Strikes Back from Yoda about her own force sensitivity, the only way the audience witnesses her using the Force is in finding Luke. Luke gets attention for his abilities throughout the trilogy, and the audience gets to watch him mature and grow into a Jedi Knight. In contrast, Leia does not grow from her role as a rebel and in fact regresses in power, becoming defined through her relationship with Han rather than her own merit. Leia’s use of the Force was passive while Luke’s was active, a distinction that painted Leia as weaker since the Force is associated with physical and mental strength. While it might have been acceptable in the seventies and eighties to represent women (albeit subconsciously) as weak, the succeeding decades would seek to alter that narrative. Unfortunately, the prequels did not succeed in subverting gender norms. All of the main Jedi shown in these movies were men, with only glimpses during Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith of female Jedi https://youtu.be/sKzl38kVG84?t=41. 

This would change over the subsequent decade with the television show Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which introduced Ahsoka Tano, a female Tagruta, as Anakin’s padawan. Ahsoka set a precedent for female Jedi in Star Wars even though she did not appear in the main films. She would be followed by Rey, who was the first woman to both wield a lightsaber and be a main character in the Star Wars movies.

I will look at women in Star Wars through the specific lens of force-sensitivity. It seems to be me that female Jedi are treated at least slightly differently than male Jedi. While male Jedi often have a strong connection to the Force and are even expected to, female Jedi have to work harder to justify their Force connection in the context of our world and are criticized more readily. I don’t want to approach this from the perspective that they are overly objectified and that is bad, but from the deeper context of how the Force affects who they are as characters: does it have a “masculinizing” influence on them? And if it does, how does this change our idea of the male versus female dynamic within their society? Finally, I want to address the attempts that have been made recently to make Star Wars more inclusive towards women. I wish to argue that as time has gone on into the twenty-first century, the treatment of female Jedi has improved, which I will do through the progression of Ahsoka and Rey as Force-sensitive characters.

Ahsoka Tano has a great arc; not only does she mature and grow into her powers, but she has also become a beloved character in the Star Wars universe. According to the book Contemporary Action Cinema by Lisa Purse, the quinssential action heroine is “predominately white, heterosexual, sexualised, affluent, normatively femine and usually contained if not initally then by the narrative closure within a heterosexual union or family unit” (Purse 85). Ahsoka fits some of these stereotypes, but not all of them. Her voice-actress is white, she has demonstrated attraction toward men, she is well-off due to her place in the Jedi Order, she looks femine, and aspects of her character such as her outfit are over-sexualized at least initially. Ahsoka is so popular that she was recently featured in Star Wars Rebels, and E. K. Johnston wrote a novel about her life after the clone wars. In the first season of the Clone Wars during the episode “Cloak of Darkness” Ventress tells Ahsoka that Anakin can’t save her now, to which she replies, “Good thing I don’t need saving”. This line expresses our political moment, and underlines the kind of feminism that Star Wars has embraced, giving us independent women who do not need men to save them. This depiction of female characters has increased since Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars (Disney loves to think that all the problems of the past can be fixed by simply throwing “strong independent young women” at us, but that is a complaint for another time). Ahsoka is spunky, fun, entertaining, and above all imperfect. Especially in the earlier seasons, she struggles with rashness (a predominantly male trait), emotions (a female one), and coming into her own as a Jedi and a leader. The series does not hide her flaws; these flaws are necessary for understanding who she is, and mark her growth over time. The stereotypical action heroine does not exhibit major weaknesses, an idea which is countered by her extreme sexualization. There is the fear that giving her “real” flaws will detract from the notion of girl power that she purportedly symbolizes. Especially in the earlier seasons, Ahsoka acted very similarly to a young Luke. She had difficulty being patient and often acted without thinking, which would get her into trouble that she would either have to solve herself, or with the help of more experienced Jedi. This differs from Luke, since he did not have the benefit of other Jedi to rely on, but I do not think the fact that Ahsoka had to turn to others sometimes is a gendered thing at all. In fact, it proves that Ahsoka does not fit entirely into the trope of the “strong independent young woman”, a trope that is lazy since it does away with all the struggle that a good protagonist has to undergo. The female protagonist is not Having to trust others to help you is not a weakness. A good character has to grow, and while learning on your own is important, so is listening to wisdom. Ahsoka is more fully-realized than a lot of heroines in the action genre because she experiences this, though her original outfit was inline with the stereotypical action heroine, who is typically dressed in a way that shows off her femininity, “eroticing” her form no matter how independent and kick-ass a character she is. As Ahsoka gained more power and matured, so did her design. Originally, she wore a tube top and mini-skirt, “which was strangely revealing in light of the fact that most Jedis rock full-length robes, even on the desert hell of Tatooine” (Wired). 

Her newer costume is less revealing and has the addition of a second lightsaber, something which no other Jedi has ever been shown using before. Her fighting style is fluid and graceful.  https://youtu.be/ugMOFoaox9M?t=342 It is important to understand the way she fights, since Jedi channel the Force as a tool during combat, and we often see Ahsoka use the Force to her advantage. She fights differently than a male Jedi, but this shows the animators’ attention to detail rather than disrimination. Women are not built the same as men, so it makes sense that they would fight differently, and Ahsoka is allowed to fight equally as hard as the men without suffering the usual heroine’s fate of being fetishized in action. She does not have to use her gender as a tool while fighting, which is often used to compensate for the physical agency of the female protagonist, nor is she forced into a heteronormative role. 

She also grows as a leader. During the episode “Storm over Ryloth”Ahsoka is given command of a clone squadron and ultimately fails at the task she was supposed to accomplish, resulting in the loss of most of her squadron. Instead of breaking her, this moment helps her mature as she learns that her actions have consequences, and that just because she is a Jedi does not mean she can disobey orders. While this scene does not directly have to do with the Force, her ability to wield it has put Ahsoka in a leadership position, and learning that her connection to the Force does not prevent her or any Jedi from making mistakes is important for fleshing out the Star Wars universe.

 

 

Another essential character to track the growth of female Jedi is Rey, introduced in 2015. Rey was the first woman protagonist to use a lightsaber on the big screen. She was treated with trepidation by some, who called her a “Mary Sue” . While it can be claimed that some of Rey’s actions are implausible, like her deft piloting of the Millennium Falcon despite never having flown a ship of that kind before, we have to remember that this is an action movie and not only that, it is one with magic. In order to appreciate Star Wars, one has to suspend belief. Rey may not be a fully fleshed out character, but it is harder to render a movie character, especially of an action movie, than a television character like Ahsoka who had the luxury of many seasons to grow. It is easy to criticize Rey for being too perfect, but if she were to have more flaws, there would be backlash against that as well. In our current political and social climate, the position of women in film is delicate and easily unbalanced. A character like Rey is something new to the movie world, like Captain Marvel is. These women are trailblazers in the film industry, paving the way for more complex, more fully-realized female characters as cinema gets used to having more equal female representation.

Harkening back to an earlier point, Rey is not a perfect character. When Luke’s lightsaber calls to her in Force Awakens, she runs and is promptly captured by Kylo Ren, and in Last Jedi, she allows herself to be captured again in the belief that she can turn him to the light side. Without Ren’s intervention Snoke would have killed her. I believe that when people complain about her being “perfect” what they are really complaining about is her strength with the Force. During Force Awakens, she escapes the First Order using a Jedi mind-trick, and then fights and defeats Kylo Ren after he injuries Finn. In Last Jedi, Luke admits that Rey is more powerful than any Jedi he has trained before except Ren, and they spend most of the movie honing her abilities. In the movies, the Force has always been coded subtextually as masculine. When people say that Rey is “too powerful” or “too perfect” what they mean is that she is usurping this traditionally male field. Repeatedly Rey rescues the male characters, saving Finn by helping him leave Jakku, and then again when he is injured by Ren; she saves the remaining rebels in Last Jedi when she lifts rocks off the exit. The heroism of her actions and her Force abilities is a powerful combination, and it is not tempered by the sexualization that action heroines usually experience. Rey fits the ideal of femininity, but without the degrading element of her body as a sexual weapon, and that frightens people. Rey may be powerful, but her enemies are just as strong. She was able to defeat Ren because he is raw and overconfident. He underestimated her, and paid for it. Rey is a leap from Leia, portraying a female protagonist who is more than capable of holding her own against the Dark Side, and is able to fight back as a Jedi. Some have argued that Rey and the greater trajectory of this most recent Star Wars trilogy is “too liberal”, too politically correct. One commentator went so far as to say that feminism and diversity have ruined Star Wars. These people do not understand that having a multi-racial cast made up of all genders is not only a political statement, but a reflection of the times, just like the original trilogy was a reflection of the late twentieth century landscape. Rey is the natural result of a world more open to equality. She is a very powerful Jedi, but this does not make her a poor character. Kylo Ren is also strong in the Force, and so a worthy adversary for Rey. Though Kylo attempts to subjugate Rey and make her feel lesser because of her parentage, he fails because Rey is powerful in her own right. She is someone who does not need to come from an important family to be a good Jedi, nor is she marked as the Chosen One. Rey is just a person who happens to be a woman. 

There have been a lot of improvements toward equality over the years with the advent of characters such as Ahsoka Tano and Rey, who are well-developed Jedi. In Clone Wars, Ahsoka always managed to hold her own against both Sith and the Separatists. She was not held down because of her gender, nor did she shrink from telling more experienced Jedi when she thought they were wrong. Ahsoka grew up over the course of the series, becoming a responsible leader and teacher who was not afraid to fight for what she believed in, even going so far as to reject the Jedi Order at the end of the series for the way that they treated her. In contrast to Ahsoka, Rey has not had the luxury of slow development over the course of a television series. But she does claim the marker of first female Jedi protagonist in a movie. Rey represents the new age, which demands more equality for women and others in the film industry. She was created as more than a means of appeasing the new generation. She is a strong character who actively uses the Force, unlike Leia, and her inclusion underlines the idea that the Force is not meant just for men; women can wield it and be just as powerful as male Jedi. In the context of the films, the Force does not choose who bears it based on gender. The prevalence of male Jedi in the original trilogy and the prequels has more to do with our preconceived notions of society than the actual Star Wars universe, which Rey ultimately proves. Rey was created to acknowledge that anybody can be a hero.

 

Works Cited

Abrams, J. J., director. Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2015.

I’m going to use this source as a guide to give myself information about the actual movie that I can then break down and analyze.

Daubney, Martin. “Liberal Identity Politics Has Ruined Star Wars for the Fanboys.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 20 Dec. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/liberal-identity-politics-has-ruined-star-wars-fanboys/.

I need this one for quotes and paraphrasing the opposition so that I can refute it.

Davis, Lauren. “Why Ahsoka Tano Is the Best Thing to Happen to Star Wars in 20 Years.” io9, io9, 16 Dec. 2015, io9.gizmodo.com/how-clone-wars-ahsoka-tano-made-the-star-wars-franchis-1537984315.

This source gives me information about the nuances of Ahsoka’s characters through opinion. It helps me see how certain audiences view Ahsoka, which I can analyze.

 

Garber, Megan. “’Star Wars’: The Feminism Awakens.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Dec. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/star-wars-the-feminism-awakens/420843/.

A feminist viewpoint on the newest trilogy is important for my argument since I’m talking about women in Star Wars, which I need to draw points about Rey as a feminist character.

Granshaw, Lisa. “13 Ahsoka Tano Episodes to Watch Before the Star Wars: Rebels Season Finale.” SYFY WIRE, SYFY WIRE, 18 Dec. 2018, www.syfy.com/syfywire/13-ahsoka-tano-episodes-to-watch-before-the-star-wars-rebels-season-finale?amp.

A very important source, since it points out episodes that demonstrate Ahsoka’s character growth. Having an overview of these important episodes gives me a basis to understand Ahsoka as a feminist character.

Johnson, Rian, director. Star Wars: The Last Jedi . Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2017.

The Last Jedi helps me synthesis conclusions about Rey, and gives me information on her actions that I can analysis.

Kain, Erik. “No, Rey From ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Is Still Not A ‘Mary Sue’.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 Dec. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/12/21/no-rey-from-star-wars-the-last-jedi-is-still-not-a-mary-sue/amp/.

This is opinion, but I think it’s an important one to talk about since it defends Rey as a character. With this source, I can decide which parts I think are valid and which ones aren’t as much, I can use it to refute points made by other fans and hone my arguments about Rey. 

Smith, Anna. “A Force for Good: Why the Last Jedi Is the Most Triumphantly Feminist Star Wars Movie Yet.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 Dec. 2017, www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/18/star-wars-the-last-jedi-women-bechdel-test.

 

Thill, Scott. “Jedi Cover-Up: Clone Wars’ Ahsoka Gets Less-Revealing Costume.” Wired, Conde Nast, 14 Jan. 2018, www.wired.com/2010/11/clone-wars-ahsoka-new-look/amp.

 

Purse, Lisa. “Action Women.” Contemporary Action Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2011, pp. 76–93. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r22sf.9.

 

Brown, Jeffrey A. “Gender and the Action Heroine: Hardbodies and the ‘Point of No Return.’” Cinema Journal, vol. 35, no. 3, 1996, pp. 52–71. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1225765.

(For me: use another writer’s ideas about action women and enter the argument, take a sentence about the women and talk about whether the characters I analyze fulfill these ideas.)