The Last Jedi: I'm Not Sexist, But...

It has been just over a year since Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out in theatres, a film from director Rian Johnson that blew me away and is only second to Empire Strikes Back in my rankings.  Over three hundred and sixty five days later I am still both bewildered and saddened by something that came about from its release.  After seeing the film, a number of people took to the internet because they had a problem with it.  The issue was the fact that there were a number of female characters and it was feminizing the franchise that these fanboys love.

I personally heard people criticizing the mass amounts of women in the movie, in shock that such a thing would happen.  Women are fifty percent of the population (something that I sadly seem to have to say way too many times), and yet for some reason some fans believe they cannot approach that representation in film.  The outrage that came about because of the increased number of females speaking in the film made it sound like the woman had taken over the film completely and that males were now left with little to do.

Let's get to the reality of the situation. There are six main female roles in The Last Jedi.  There were nine main roles for men.  I have included smaller speaking roles for both genders, like Yoda and Maz Kanata.  The math (which the fanboys seem to ignore) shows that there are fifty percent more men than women.  Yep, still kind of a sausage party, but that isn't realized.  There were efforts by groups of angry fans that tried to drive down the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.  Honestly, that sort of effort makes it seem like there would be an almost all female cast.  The problem appears to be not that there were more women than men (which there obviously wasn't), but the fact that there were multiple roles for women.

I will be honest.  The fanboys that lurk on the internet generally seem to be misogynistic and immature.  Women were still under-represented in The Last Jedi, but the fact that they had more than a few characters means it was too much.  The fanboys miss the days like in the first film where the only woman was literally a princess to be rescued by men (luckily it turns out she was strong and spunky).  Sorry, there was also Aunt Beru and the minuscule role she played.  That is when the franchise was in its glory days, when even the various aliens were also swinging dicks.

Seeing the reaction that came about last year really was sad.  It is nice to witness how much humanity has progressed in terms of equality, but it is also naive to believe that the days of ignorance and bigotry are behind us.  Remember, the people freaking out weren't upset that there were more men than women.  They weren't upset that there were the same amount of women as men.  They were upset because more woman actually had a role to play in a franchise that they love.

So, my dear fanboys, understand that the very fact that you don't believe that having fifty percent more males than females is adequate, then you are most likely sexist.  Yes, if you are reading this and the apparently overwhelming amount of women was a problem for you in The Last Jedi  then you are most likely sexist.  I'm sure you don't believe that you are, but I can tell you that you are just like those people who say, "I'm not racist, but..."  The basic nature of this whole issue is sexism.

For all of those out there that actually care about equality, be happy in knowing that the year The Last Jedi came out the top three movies in the box office all had a female protagonist.  While there are some vocal, mucus brained dip-shits out there shouting through their keyboards, audiences have shown studio executives that equality is accepted as well as profitable.  These fanboys will carry on with their crusade, but thankfully the rest of the population has proved that they aren't caring as much about the X and Y chromosomes.  Well told stories are what the majority of us are after, regardless of gender representation.

It's Not Unusual: The Battle Over A Dance

Do you remember The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?  More specifically, do you remember the character Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?  Even more specifically, do you remember the way Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air danced when he listened to Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual?’  For people like me who watched the show every single week, of course I remember.  Other people quite possibly won’t have any recollection of it at all.  That was many years ago, and here we are talking about it twenty two years after the show went off air.

It turns out that Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who played the role of Carlton Banks in The Fresh Prince, is taking legal action against the insanely popular video game Fortnite.  The reason?  The game uses an emote that makes a person’s character dance exactly how Carlton did.  Because Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode is free to play, they make most of their money through micro transactions that offer cosmetic variety to its players.  That means that for people to get the ability to dance like Carlton they have to pay money, meaning that game company Epic Games is profiting off it.  Ribeiro says that the dance is his intellectual property and that he deserves royalties from it.

I can see where he’s coming from, and I can get on board with it.  He created something that became iconic for fans of a franchise, and it is apparently something that he still does.  The goofy, energetic dance is unlike anything else.  If people who create something aren’t able to get the rewards of that then it cripples the artistic community.

On the other hand, the road that this sort of legal action takes us down also could have crippling effects on the artistic community.  So much of human dialogue is based off of our experiences of hearing other people talk, whether in person on through media.  Anyone who writes characters know that they have to speak organically, and that includes these characters referring to things within their sphere of influence.  So many times I have heard a character in a movie or television show say, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”  It works for the audience because this rings true to speech as well as tickling them when they can pick up on a reference they know.  What if Roy Scheider took to court anyone who used that line?  It was his line after all, and is one of the most remembered aspects of Jaws.

Would we think that someone should be able to do the Macarena in a movie, show, or video game?  I understand paying for the music, but should the artist have to pay Los de Rio for doing the dance?  This is where things will start getting murky.  Ultimately every single dance was created by someone at some time.  I know that I had seen multiple shows and movies where people have done the Moon Walk.  Would it make sense that they couldn’t do something that was such a deeply ingrained part of culture?

Here’s where I stand.  Yes, things that people create need to be protected, but in some cases it needs to be accepted that a part of that work has transcended the medium and actually become a collective part of the human experience.  If you think about it, every single cliche, catch phrase, or buzzword first came off the lips of somebody who could then claim it theirs.  There are visuals such as someone standing at the bow of a boat just like Jack in James Cameron’s Titanic that are constantly used because the reference has become ingrained as a part of North American culture.  Should something be restricted when it has become part of the public experience?

While I do understand where Ribeiro is coming from, I think that what this could lead to (not necessarily the case itself) is making things harder for artists and creators.  To capture human nature we sometimes need to lean on those references, visuals, or sayings.  To add another layer of thought for people different references or quotes could be interlaced with dialogue.  There are many reasons why an artist would ether reference or build on what someone else has already done, and it would be a shame for people to eventually become limited to not be able to use any quotes, visual imitations, catch phrases, or buzzwords.

I understand that the case of Alfonso Ribeiro doesn’t sync with all that I am talking about here.  It isn’t this specific case that is the main issue, it is the direction that this can take ownership over things that have become part of the collective human experience.  I wish him good luck in his case, I just worry over where we end up in the future.