To the delight of television aficionados everywhere, the launch of Disney’s new streaming service Disney+ meant access to old favorites and new original content. Most notably came the new Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. It’s a galactic drama that follows the journey of the titular masked bounty hunter, whom fans lovingly dubbed “Mando.”
But while our protagonist keeps his face hidden for religious reasons, his gender identity became the topic of much social media conversation.
After watching the first episode, feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian tweeted, “Am I extremely tired or is there not a single female speaking character in the first episode of #Mandelorian?? I’ve gotta have missed something right???”
I guess Jon Favreau was like “well if we just make all the vehicles female like the ship and the Blurrg then we’re good right? That’s just the right amount of ‘female'”.
— Anita Sarkeesian (@anitasarkeesian) November 21, 2019
But the first episode had little in the way of a cast: There were only six or seven people that portrayed anything more than a background role, and one of those characters was a droid. The only person on screen for more than a minute or two was Mando himself.
Among the supporting roles, it’s true that only one was a woman. Mando commissions a new piece of armor, and a female mandalorian forges it for him.
But it turns out that Sakreesian was, in fact, “missing something.”
The woman in the first episode is only on screen for a few seconds, yet it becomes immediately clear that she’s the one calling the shots among her clan — the matriarch of sorts.
Nevertheless, freelance journalist Eric Ravenscraft tweeted that Star Wars “has a very specific mandate that you must never, ever deviate from, and that seems to include no (or few) women.”
I don’t much care for The Mandalorian! Which is fine, it doesn’t have to be for me. But it’s one of those things that makes me painfully aware the Star Wars fandom has a very specific mandate that you must never, ever deviate from, and that seems to include no (or few) women.
— Eric Ravenscraft (@LordRavenscraft) November 21, 2019
A flood of similar tweets filled social media.
Obviously, these critics haven’t been paying any attention to the Star Wars franchise lately. The current trilogy has a woman at the center in the same way Rogue One did. Rogue One, featuring a female lead, did significantly better at the box office than another Star Wars spinoff film, Solo, with a male lead, even though Rogue One featured new characters with no ties to fans. Furthermore, three of the eight episodes in The Mandalorian have been directed by women. It does not appear they have had any problem with the general level of representation in the show.
If the outrage mob had just waited until episode four of The Mandalorian, they’d have met two powerful female characters — one a warrior with fighting skills easily equal to those of the protagonist. The other was a mother in a far-off farming community, who, with no explanation, was the only person in her village able to shoot a blaster with any kind of accuracy.
Even beyond all of that, these critics seem to be missing one glaring point. The main character of The Mandalorian wears a helmet. That’s kind of his shtick. He hides who he is, and in doing so, eliminates his gender as a prominent characteristic of his identity. Must every lead character be a genderless, amorphous blob?
Doesn’t this cycle ever get exhausting? With every new show, novel, or work of art comes the inevitable complaints of sexism or other forms of bigotry. Why can’t we allow something to just be entertaining?
Complaining about sexism where none exists is not an action without consequences. Feminists hurt their cause by making baseless complaints, leaving listeners with the distinct impression that, if everything is sexist, then nothing is. Neither of those conclusions is true.
Insider followed up with some of those who tweeted about the lack of female characters on the show. One male writer said, “Part of the response seems to come from a belief that Star Wars needn’t be political. That it be pure entertainment. Star Wars is a made-up universe. If gender inequality exists there, it’s either on purpose or because the creator’s biases meant they didn’t notice it. Either way, that’s political.”
And there’s the rub. We can hardly seem to let ourselves enjoy a harmless television show without finding a reason to be offended by it. My mother used to tell me, “Don’t take offense where none was intended,” and activists of all stripes would be wise to heed her advice.
Our nasty partisan politics has infiltrated every sector of society. No one is safe — not even an armor-clad bounty hunter in a galaxy far, far away.
Haley Victory Smith (@Haley_Victory) is an editorial fellow at USA Today and a contributor for Young Voices.
