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Star Wars Gender Stereotypes/Archetypes - Coggle Diagram
Star Wars Gender Stereotypes/Archetypes
Portrayal of Women
There was a survey/study completed analyzing the fans opinions on Rey's character. To the survey, her character was unrealistic and sexist, and portrayed hostile sexism. Her character was not made to be stronger, just the lesser female version of Jedi's like Luke Skywalker
https://www.in-mind.org/blog/post/the-force-is-[too-strong-with-this-one-sexism-star-wars-and-female-heroes](https://www.in-mind.org/blog/post/the-force-is-too-strong-with-this-one-sexism-star-wars-and-female-heroes
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Female characters are often oversexualized and objectified. One example of where this can be seen is through the costumes, especially in Leia's bikini scene. When these characters show more skin, they are meant to be shown as more romantic and beautiful.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/star-wars-undermines-powerful-female-characters-through-costume-choices/
Portrayal of Men
The portrayl of men allows for characters like Han Solo to get away with casual sexual assault and toxic masculine traits. Hollywood glorifys these actions, though it is beginning to change through anecdotes like T'Challa's from Black Panther
https://equation.org.uk/imd2018/
The Jedi Order enforces traits of stoic and toxic masculinity. While Jedi's are shown as calm and collected, they are taught to suppress their emotions and to not be emotionally vulnerable. Jedi's are supposed to not greive, and emotions are portrayed as giving into the dark side. Showing love and attachment for others is also forbidden within the order. Through the enforcement of these ideas, the Jedi order enforces that men should not show love or emotion and should be stoic, which is a toxic masculine trait.
https://youtu.be/tUPD1w78D5I
Influence on kids
Throughout media for young girls, there is not enough positive representation of strong female characters. Media portrays the men's traits on "borrow" or as an "upgrade" for girls. Men can't like things that are for girls, they would rather be dead than like My Little Pony. Concepts and media, and all of that, is not gendered and is not built for one specific type of kid. There needs to be equal representation of male and female characters among both genders of kids
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_bell_bring_on_the_female_superheroes?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Companies market toys towards what they believe to be the appropriate gender. For Star Wars, this means that when you go to the toy isle, theres the main male characters in the "boys" section. There aren't the strong female characters in any other section. While companies are getting better at breaking down this barrier in stores like Target, other stores are not quite in the same place.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/star-wars-boys-toys-and-gender-equality/
Gender Casting gap
Women are severely undercast in movies all throughout hollywood. There is frequently only one heroine in movies and she is often oversexualized and presented in terms of her male counterpart
https://www.wired.com/2013/02/opinion-star-wars-females-media/
Women are rarely held as leads in movies, especially in comparosin to their male counterparts. This can be seen in the Star Wars films with Leia and Rey being two of the only female leads in the Star Wars franchise.
There is a lack of interest in casting and characters of women within the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars is marketed as a "Boys" story, therefore doesn't need the strong focus of female characters in the series. Because Star Wars is a sci-fi franchise, they don't want to include as much women in their version of the universe, though that is not the intention of the universe.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/star-wars-needs-a-new-approach-to-gender-not-just-more-women/273268/
