Strange Magic, Stranger Gender Roles
George Lucas has a new film coming out called “Strange Magic.” The animation looks stellar, but the dialogue and plot…well…not as much. Essentially, it’s a wacky lovers tale. Fairy princess falls in love with the bog king. They start off as bitter enemies until a series of events leads them…
To be fair, Lucas only said it was *designed* for boys, not that it was made solely for them.
Personally, I don’t see the difference.
Saying that a movie was “designed” for boys is inherently exclusionary. That sort of statement implies that certain interests and genres are exclusive to a particular gender. A guy says “science fiction is designed for boys” and girls hear “This is not for you. You are not welcome.”
Of course, some girls still watch the things that weren’t “designed” for them. But if they’re going to like that thing, then they’re going to have to like it in a particular way. By which I mean that they’re going to have to like it the way boys like it. They’re going to have to like the same things about Star Wars and dislike the same things. They should wear the sexy, cute merchandise, but only while accompanied by their male partner so that he can vouch for her fan credentials and show that her sexuality is an acceptable display for a committed male partner and not an independent flaunting of her own sexuality. And she must never make any gender specific, feminist critique of Star Wars. Violate any of these rules and she risks being branded as the Fake Geek Girl.
And the way many girls try to reconcile their love for something with the overwhelming societal narrative that says “This is not for girls” is to attack their own gender. That’s why you have girls saying things like “I’m not like other girls.” Girls are taught to tear down other girls in order to create a space where it’s acceptable to like the things that they like.
So yeah, George Lucas didn’t say word for word that Star Wars is only for boys. But he might as well have. And he sure as hell contributed to the toxic environment that surrounds women in science fiction.
