This is the news I’ve been waiting forever for, or at least it feels that way. At this point it’s more confirmation than news in its own right. I guess I had visions of a live announcement, where we’d see the Big Three together on one stage. The image of the table read came across as so static, almost stifling in its posed candidness. The more I look at it, the more anxious I feel.
Why would the long-awaited casting announcement make me anxious? Is it because I had a shitty week in general? Or is it because of my growing unease with the role of women in Star Wars fandom? To start with, the Wikipedia “Breast” thing was disheartening. My overall reaction was to realize that mainstream fandom is not meant for me. Far from being the target audience, I’m on a low rung of the ladder, thrown a bone every now and then.
It really didn’t feel that way for a while. Martha Wells was a Han/Leia fic author before she went pro, and she adapted parts of her old stories into Razor’s Edge. That spoke volumes to me about the growing legitimacy of fic, women authors, and Leia-centric works. And the characterization of Leia in the novel: oh, it’s too good to be true. I was worried when Honor Among Thieves came out, but no need: Han’s characterization may have been a little unexpected, but the portrayal of the relationship was spot on. We even got to see a situation with two women and one man–which Han fully expects to erupt into a cat fight–with no competition between the ladies whatsoever. These two novels felt like they were written for me, and it was great. I guess that’s what it feels like to be the target audience.
But do the Powers That Be owe it to all fans to make us feel like a target audience? I’d venture that they don’t: they just owe basic respect. But what does it mean to be respected as a fan? Is there a level of representation implied in or required by that respect?
Which brings up back to the big deal this week: female cast members in Ep. VII. Apparently there might be another announced soon, but honestly: is one more really going to tip the scales? Disney has hired ONE new woman for this movie as of now. ONE. That just seems pathetic to me. And there she is in that photo, head to head with Carrie Fisher, surrounded by the Men of Star Wars.
To add insult to injury, the community on a Han/Leia centric fanfic writers blog I frequent have no problem whatsoever with this state of affairs. Again I’m left feeling like the odd woman out, the implied message being: “what are you getting so upset about? It’s Star Wars, of course there’s more men: It’s natural! Why do you have to make everything about inequality, anyways?”
And the worst of all? The thing that really crystalizes this whole conflict for me? You know that copy of the table read photo with everyone identified in red? The original cast members are tagged with their SW character names, and Carrie Fisher? Is apparently “Leia Solo.” (Now, I’m not sure at this point whether this marked-up image comes from Lucasfilm or not, but let’s assume that it’s being accepted as accurate media info from a trusted source.) Leia Solo. This is an EU-ism, and a late one at that. For years of EU novels Leia went by three names: Leia Organa Solo. It is only in the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi days (to the best of my recollection) that she’s known simply as Solo. Now, the saddest thing is that the ‘shipper in me is getting all giddy that they’re married, yadda yadda yadda. But the rest of me is so disappointed at the lack of imagination this shows. As I’ve discussed time and time again with certain fan friends, who’s to say that in the GFFA women take their husband’s name on marriage? Even if we’re to say that the GFFA is VERY closely based on Western society, in the upper echelons of that society there has always been more flexibility. Prominent women have long kept their publicly known names after marriage, and for nobility, when a woman marries a man of lesser rank, HE takes HER name. So honestly, WTF?
So sadly, my thoughts tonight are that Star Wars is not for me, that anything about the canon that I love is out of pure coincidence, and that as long as that’s the case, there’s a place for fan works that challenge the paternalistic construction of the GFFA.
I found this charming book in the Princeton Room at the Public Library last week: Along the Delaware and Raritan Canal, by James and Margaret Cawley. As a result of our move to Princeton last month, I’ve recommitted myself to the region in the way I know best: exploring hidden nooks and reading obscure local histories. The Princeton Room is full of the later, to my great excitement. It was written by a husband-wife team, local experts who were fond of camping along the canal. James grew up in the area, and his childhood memories are interspersed in the text. Mr. Cawley also apparently took most of the contemporary photos in the book, and it was only when I was most of the way through it that I looked up and thought, “now this is a man who really loved his wife.” Not only did he bother to take photos of her along with all his shots of the scenery, he put several of them in the book, for no other reason that because he felt like it. And not only did he do that, but he went on to write silly, lighthearted captions for them. Whereas I’d been a little irritated by these shots until that moment, framing it as a sign of conjugal love changed the entire tenor of it (to wit, “When I Start Paying Attention“).