This is a bit unconventional, and I was not planning to do this post. However, after reading through tons of comments on the Rogue One trailer, I think something has to be said about this.
The Rogue One trailer dropped today and overall, the reaction has been generally positive. However, almost instantly, a spark of controversy began, about a female protagonist.
Basically, the controversy is that Disney has "a feminist agenda". These radical thoughts are likely the result of Disney casting two female actresses, Daisy Ridley and Felicity Jones, to lead their most recent Star Wars films. While scrolling through the comments of trailer reaction and review videos, along with the official trailer itself, I noticed some pretty disgusting comments. Here are some examples (and there were many more) :
"Honestly....are we making films about women now?"
"Is the casting in the new star wars films supposed to resemble a diversity program?"
'What with the whole, "lets make the main characters women" thing going on in movies now."
"what's with all the girl power?? Dont make starwars another hunger games??!!"
"Oh look, another feminazi bullshit movie.."
The absurdity of these comments speak for themselves.
What I am wondering is that, does it really matter? A character is a character. If you make Rey a male character in TFA, it does not change the plot line at all. Everything remains the same. I can't speak for the new character, but I can say that in The Force Awakens, the gender of Rey's character had nothing to do with the plot line.
For years and years now, males have been the protagonist of film. There are exceptions, but a large portion of the graph is male. Hell, we are getting our first legitimate female superhero next year, in Wonder Woman.
I believe that there were still some incredibly sexist comments towards Rey when the first trailers were released, but not as nearly as there are for Rogue One. So the reason for all of this is that there are two female leads? Why has there been a question that there are two male leads? The original trilogy and the prequel trilogy had male leads, but nothing was in question. And there's nothing wrong with having a male lead, if that's what your movie needs.
People are using the term "feminist agenda" to describe this situation. Which is plain stupid. I find it hard to believe that there are people on this planet that think that having a movie with a female lead, makes your movie "feminist propaganda". This is the issue at hand here. Disney is not a feminist company at all. They have shown absolutely nothing in supporting, or not supporting feminism. And if you are the kind of person who thinks casting a female actress in a movie makes it feminist, go watch the original and prequel trilogy. Go watch Marvel movies, filled with male leads, and enjoy yourself.
I personally am no big advocate for feminism, but I still think that the outrage that casting a female in the leading role makes Disney be "feminist propaganda" is ludicrous. Thank you for reading.
