Doe Star Wars promote Racism and Sexism

Evidently some writer on wordpress has accused Star Wars of racism and sexism and of being illogical. http://heavyarmor.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/movies-that-hate-you-star-wars-a-new-hope/ http://heavyarmor.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/movies-that-hate-you-star-wars-return-of-the-jedi/ http://heavyarmor.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/movies-that-hate-you-star-wars-the-empire-strikes-back/

I was wondering how legitimate her points were or whether they were false.

ugh
this is pissing me off
UGHHHHHHH
IGNORANT OPINIONSSSSSSS

edited 11th Oct '11 11:14:48 PM by CommanderObvious

Most of this appears to be bitching about plot points, but on the accusations of racism and sexism, I will say this.

-Lucas made James Earl Jones the voice because he was looking for a voice with a darker timbre. Keep in mind he considered using Orson Welles at one point so its not as if he had to make sure a black guy voiced him. Keep in mind he also heavily wanted Japanese star Toshirō Mifune as Obi-Wan but was vetoed by the studio.

-Various people of color and ethnicities were shown as pilots in ROTJ.

-People rescuing and "gaining" Leia is a complete misnomer. She wasn't helped in A New Hope because Han or Luke could somehow posses her; her position and knowledge were vital. She was a critical part of the Rebellion and was the only person who knew where the Rebel Base was. Replace her with a male "Prince Leroy" and its the same damn movie.

-At worst the overall casting suggests that the producers and casting directors (at least in 1976-1982) looked for the usual people and did not go out of their way to utilize various minorities for roles. Unfortunate perhaps, but hardly indicative of out and out racism by anyone.

edited 12th Oct '11 3:42:35 AM by BorneAgain

Oh my. The writer thinks Star Wars is racist because Darth Vader is voiced by a black man. Are you sure this isn't a parody?

I didn't read the blogs because I don't have the time to right now, but does he or she at any point consider that Lando is the one who blew up the second Death Star?

sadly no. What about the other plot hole elements? I was curious to see what the reaction would be.

edited 11th Oct '11 11:54:01 PM by DARTHYAN

I would say, yes, it is. Because it is a George Lucas Throwback to 1940s Republic Serials. it plays it all straight the good and the unintentionally bad bits.

There's a difference between deliberate and unintentional racism etc. Bad, but not as bad.

edited 12th Oct '11 12:35:11 AM by Gvzbgul

Not about race, but this amused me;

How about the fact that Luke Skywalker is a Jedi Knight in training? That is why only he is able to make the shot that destroys the death star. It's one of the major plot threads of the film, and the writer missed it completely. Unbelievable.

The writer has an extremely warped view of what constitutes racism;

She tries to argue that the film is racist because the bad guys wear black and the good guys wear white. Even if you accept this ridiculous premise, it isn't even true - the friggin' stormtroopers wear white! And she acknowledges this, too - but basically says "nah, it doesn't count" because it doesn't support her point.

And that's not even getting into the fact that people don't view the colour black as a colour of evil because they're racist, it's because all living things have a primal fear of the darkness, as it represents the unknown. But as usual, it goes right over her head.

There's more examples of this, but I think that's enough.

edited 12th Oct '11 12:39:07 AM by Talby

Not having read the article, and not intending to, I'm going to go with my default response for these types of articles: the writer is trying to stir up shit to get page views.

another thing that was confusing was the accusations of how the characters were immoral and the critique of plot elements. How legit are these?

The great thing is that it often doesn't play straight the problematic bits. Leia gets captured by Jabba the Hut and held as a slave, like in an old serial, but then she kills him with her bare hands.

Haven't read those links, but from experience 99 percent of those kinds of articles are just trying to gain a reputation of rocking the boat. It really has nothing to do with Star Wars but just targeting a popular franchise and getting people to argue with the author so they can say they have something of a fandom. 15 minutes of fame.

(reads articles)

Sigh... My brain can't repel stupidity of this magnitude....

Of course it promotes racism and sexism,so does Thelma And Louise,The Jungle Book,and for that matter,......anything written.

Gotta love how the prequels are left out of this to,can't wait to see what the analysis of Watto,Jar-Jar,Gunray,Mace Windu,Tyranus,and Padme end up as.

I mean since it's all racist,sexist,homophobic,and other crap to some extent anyway when clearly that isn't the main point,...well it's gotta be a good read

Excuse me while I write an essay on Christian symbolism in Superfriends.

—yawn— if it is racist or sexist, it is because it's a product of its times, and hollywood standards. Nothing to do with...the colors they are wearing.

They're still better than the essay that said Star Wars is racist/classist because being able to use the Force is genetic.

Yeah, really racist to make the most awesome character in the films a black man.

Who does my little boy want to be? Han? No. Luke? Fuck no. My little boy wants to be Darth Vader. When we saw James Earl Jones in something else and I pointed him out did it bother my kid he was black? Nope. He just wanted to know where his lightsaber was and why he wasn't force choking a bitch.

I'm not even sure if the black-and-white color coding could possibly be associated with race on such a basic, instinctual level. I mean, we call black people "black", and white people "white", but in the end, we're all just varying shades of orange.

this kinda reminds me of the blog/livejournal which did analyze firefly as womanhating (and racist).

Which seems to be about the same level in sheer inanity.

Better I do not read her Trek Reviews (or the mass of other filmes she seems to hate)...but pure Bile Fascination brings me to Superman/Batman:Apocalypse

edited 13th Oct '11 7:47:45 AM by 3of4

One thing that really stood out was her saying that Leia should have just told the bad guys what she wanted and that she was stupid for not seeing that Tarkin would threaten to blow up Alderaan.

Maybe the wording is throwing me off, but that doesn't make much sense. Doesn't she lie to Tarkin and say the rebels are on Dantooine when they're really on Yavin IV?

And why would she be stupid to think he wouldn't blow up Alderaan? Yeah, he was a bad guy, but it's not unreasonable for her to have believed he wasn't a complete monster before that moment.

Also, what was she supposed to do? Whether or not she thought he would blow up Alderaan, she couldn't stop him.

It's not even a case where Leia could have saved Alderaan by cooperating with Tarkin. He destroyed the planet even when he thought she'd told him the truth about Dantooine, and had probably been intending to do it even before he dragged her up there so he could make his point to her and the galaxy about the cost of defying the Empire. If she had given in, he'd have just been able to make it to Yavin IV and destroy the base there, too. I have no idea why anyone would think that cooperating with Tarkin was at all a good choice in that scenario.

I can't bring myself to read those. Is it ever touched upon that the Empire is a barely veiled dig at Nazi Germany, including the design of Vader's helmet?

edited 14th Oct '11 2:07:10 PM by Vox