The actress behind the rigid, bare-knuckle brawler, Cara Dune, in Disney+’s The Mandalorian has taken up a weekslong fight with fans to her left over just about everything that you could call “hot button” subjects.
Gina Carano, the former MMA fighter-turned-Disney star, has sounded off about everything from the very real perils of quarantine and COVID-related government shutdowns to anti-cop sentiment, the Black Lives Matter protests, and gender pronouns. Carano seems to think of herself as a happy warrior, but at what point does playful prodding against leftist Star Wars fans on Twitter amount to the same kind of nastiness she claims to be standing up against?
Her troubles with Twitter began in early August when Carano tweeted a popular photo of August Landmesser, known as the German in a crowd of Nazis that wouldn’t join his countrymen in a “Sieg Heil” salute. A photo displaying nonconformity, Carano took flak for it because fans dipping into her Twitter likes surmised that she boosts tweets that are about anything other than Black Lives Matter. In short, it was about what she wasn’t saying, more than what she was putting out there.
Since then, Carano has dug in and reveled in the support that has come her way from right-wing fans and not-so-good-faith actors such as RT. If the drama around The Mandalorian actress could be summarized in one way, it could be that she transparently flew the flag against ritualized shows of support to left-leaning causes, scribbling #BLM or gender pronouns into her Twitter bio, and voicing disdain for President Trump, like her Mandalorian counterpart Pedro Pascal has sufficiently done.
That’s not to say that Pascal has been insincere in his stated beliefs but speaks more to the occurrence that played out in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 25, when diners were surrounded by BLM activists that demanded the recitation of their slogan or a raising of a fist to be satisfied.
It’s possible to imagine Carano being an ally to leftist activists insofar as she’s not opposed to their ideas but isn’t willing to be compelled into visible solidarity. In that sense, she’s the woman on the sidewalk in Washington who is sympathetic but, like Landmesser, unwilling to perform a somewhat simple gesture in order not to be harassed.
Then came the “boop/bop/beep” moment. Over the weekend, Carano responded to tweets taking issue with her liking tweets that mock the use of pronouns in Twitter profiles, which is a norm among queer and transgender groups and echoed by allies to that movement. The suggestion by a follower that Carano consider listing her pronouns (she/her) because Pascal does so didn’t take. The actress said she has spoken to Pascal about it and understood why it’s important to some people and then proceeded to list her pronouns: boop/bop/beep.
Speaking to the swift backlash, Carano said, “Boop/bop/beep has zero to do with mocking trans people & 100% to do with exposing the bullying mentality of the mob that has taken over the voices of many genuine causes.”
But are we really supposed to believe that? You don’t have to subscribe to new progressive orthodoxy on gender to think that there is, in fact, a handful of people out there who daily wake up in a skin that doesn’t fit them right and sincerely want them to associate however they’d like to freely. It may not impact you, but it means the world to them to be seen in a way that’s authentic to them.
So what is “mockery”? It’s absurdity, it’s irreverence, it is teasing. What is “bullying”? It’s aggression, force, and coercion. Carano has rightfully detected coercion in the agitation she’s received since August. The vibe is that if she would just present herself differently and subscribe to new views, be more like Pascal, then she’d be left alone. So how does The Mandalorian actress respond? With transgression.
If Trumpism could be summarized in one way, it might be “transgressive conservatism.” Trump will often call it punching back, but it’s hardly that forceful in reality. In the end, it amounts to thumbing one’s nose at the progressive standards and Ivy League-isms that pervade Hollywood, social media, and increasingly, the political arena. It is mockery, and to the minority of people to whom pronoun-flexibility is a meaningful newfound liberty, it is hurtful.
It is clear that Carano marches to the beat of her own drum, just like the Cara Dune character she plays. Carano doesn’t take kindly to being told how to think, what to say, and “how to be” in order to be part of the Star Wars universe, but it is less clear that she knows the difference between resisting coercion and punching down.
Surprisingly, calls for Carano’s cancellation or removal from The Mandalorian have been quite tame. Influential fans and fellow cast members have not gone on a tear about Disney having some kind of moral responsibility to fire her, which is heartening. As such, Carano should resume the posture of Landmesser, cross her arms and be herself, and resist the urge to model the winking sarcasm and trollishness of Pepe the Frog.
Stephen Kent is the spokesperson for Young Voices, host of Beltway Banthas: Star Wars & politics podcast, and a political commentator as seen on Fox Business, BlazeTV and Fox 5 DC.
