Is there a issue with women directing Star Wars movies? Not really, since it’s already been shown via The Mandalorian and in some ways through the Rise of Skywalker that they can contribute in a very big way. The issue of women directing the Star Wars movies is one that is bound to get blown out of proportion largely because Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, is the one pushing the idea, and more than a few people still tend to blame her for trying to feminize the saga. Shawn Depasquale of Screenrant and many others are likely staying neutral to hopeful on the subject since the current trilogy did end on what many would call a high note even if several would say that it stunk to high heaven. For those that are actually concerned about the prospect of a woman taking on a Star Wars movie it could be that some might think we’ll be seeing a version of Wonder Woman or Little Women with lightsabers and a galactic uprising, well, like it or not we’ve seen the closest thing when Rey and Rose Tico were brought in, and it wasn’t that horrible. In fact the current trilogy gave us a great female protagonist that’s not perfect and not so into bashing men since she’s had to rely on a couple of them pretty heavily and she ended up being saved by one. So all in all it feels pretty balanced at the moment.
The worries over third-wave feminism taking over Star Wars are a little juvenile in a way, though the concern is unfortunately real enough since Kennedy hasn’t really hidden her feelings as there are still pictures of her wearing a t-shirt proclaiming ‘the Force is Female’. If she was going for an incendiary effect then her mere presence has been enough at times to create this, while statements such as her shirt were only another log added to an already blazing fire that has thankfully died down just a bit. However, the issue at hand isn’t her questionable decisions that do arise at times, but the idea of whether or not a woman can in fact take hold of a Star Wars story and make it work. Thus far Bryce Dallas Howard did direct an episode of The Mandalorian and it was not the over the top feminine idea that some people might have thought since the entrance of Cara Dune wasn’t laden with emotion and even the more emotional Omera, the villager that interacts the most with Mando, was less a damsel in distress or over the top, doesn’t need a man type than she was a strong woman looking out for her village. In other words the women in The Mandalorian aren’t all extremely tough and over the top, but they’re all shown in a very equal and positive light that doesn’t cow the men around them, but definitely shows that they’re on equal footing. Hopefully Liz Shannon Miller of Vulture would agree.
And there’s the rub. It doesn’t matter who directs Star Wars, be they man or woman, all that matters is that the story is allowed to progress and that equality is pushed as much as possible. In a galaxy that doesn’t often value weakness in many forms the strong often overtake the weak in a big way and this can happen to men or women on a constant basis. Both have to be insanely tough in some situations and have to learn how to survive while fighting or weathering enemies that have no other purpose than to subjugate those around them or compete for resources in the most ruthless manner. Bringing in a female director for Star Wars hopefully won’t change that since the tone of this story is and has always been far more cutthroat than its direct competitor, Star Trek, in which many people live in a kind of peaceful state that might be upset from time to time by dire threats that are eventually taken out or neutralized since Starfleet and whoever else band together to take out the shared enemy. In Star Wars things are a little rougher and a lot less unified on the regular, but in a way it mirrors real life in a much closer way and as a result of the changing of the times the story has come to reflect this in a way as well. Chris C. Anderson of Business Insider wrote an interesting article that you might want to check out.
There is no issue with women directing Star Wars or anything else. If a person doesn’t like what they’re seeing then they have every right to leave the theater or change the channel. Right now the hope is that with women at the helm, eventually, the story will continue to progress and become something even greater than what we’ve already seen. So long as there’s a healthy balance within the tale then things should be able to move along just fine.
Follow Us
