Rey and Leia are Not Women
Jun. 23rd, 2016 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/28RZRwv:
millicentthecat:
Please understand I am making a distinction between female and feminine.
Every woman does not perform femininity all the time.
I’m using the word “feminine” to refer to an ideological construct - a system of behaviors and codes that are traditionally, historically, and ubiquitously associated with women. I appreciate the attempt to disrupt or reclaim this word to include “all things women actually do and are.” (E.g. changing the oil on the car is feminine, shaving your head is feminine, etc etc.) However, we still need a word to refer to the patriarchal construct of femininity. It becomes incredibly difficult to discuss gender if we don’t have words for things.
Perhaps it would be more correct for me to type out “traditional constructs of femininity” instead of just femininity, but your tone policing derails the point of the original post. Which is that I’m celebrating certain aspects of the construct femininity in a way that separates these tropes from the idea of gender.
THAT’S IMPORTANT. Yes, what I’m celebrating is a construct. First off, it’s a construct that represents patriarchal fear of feminine power. The Dark Side is being coded as the divine feminine and Kylo is playing the part of a dark witch. Secondly, it’s a construct that’s being applied to a man in order to scare people. We all need to think about that, for a minute. It’s 2016 and Star Wars is using gender roles to illicit horror. By celebrating the feminine role Kylo plays, by saying “I do not think this is horrible,” we destigmatize both gender non-conformity and femininity.
Tangent: I’ve been seeing this exact same derailment technique a lot when people praise Rey’s adoption of traditionally masculine and androgynous traits? Like we're not even allowed to speak about what a big deal it is to see a female lead who is not feminized and not romantically attached to a man? Do you know how radically progressive this is???? I mean, yes, super feminine female leads are also important and precious and valuable. If 50% of the dialogue in TFA came from women instead of 28%, we wouldn’t need to fight over what kind of woman Rey should represent, because there would be space in the story for more than kind of woman. It’s some panopticon bullshit. However, if you look at the body of texts in existence, and you look at all the female leads, a feminized heroine with a romantic interest is so ubiquitous as to be oppressive. It’s a singular story and it’s creating a selection bias. So let’s all take a breath and think about
1) how fantastic Rey is2) how great femininity is2) how fucking excellent it is to finally have a female lead who is not performing the shit out of femininity
And only because it’s very relevant to the way I’ve answered this question, anon, I have to tell you: Rey and Leia are not actual women. They, too, are constructs created by men. They are fiction, not reality, and so we can critically examine their performance of gender roles. This is not true of actual women.
millicentthecat:
Please understand I am making a distinction between female and feminine.
Every woman does not perform femininity all the time.
I’m using the word “feminine” to refer to an ideological construct - a system of behaviors and codes that are traditionally, historically, and ubiquitously associated with women. I appreciate the attempt to disrupt or reclaim this word to include “all things women actually do and are.” (E.g. changing the oil on the car is feminine, shaving your head is feminine, etc etc.) However, we still need a word to refer to the patriarchal construct of femininity. It becomes incredibly difficult to discuss gender if we don’t have words for things.
Perhaps it would be more correct for me to type out “traditional constructs of femininity” instead of just femininity, but your tone policing derails the point of the original post. Which is that I’m celebrating certain aspects of the construct femininity in a way that separates these tropes from the idea of gender.
THAT’S IMPORTANT. Yes, what I’m celebrating is a construct. First off, it’s a construct that represents patriarchal fear of feminine power. The Dark Side is being coded as the divine feminine and Kylo is playing the part of a dark witch. Secondly, it’s a construct that’s being applied to a man in order to scare people. We all need to think about that, for a minute. It’s 2016 and Star Wars is using gender roles to illicit horror. By celebrating the feminine role Kylo plays, by saying “I do not think this is horrible,” we destigmatize both gender non-conformity and femininity.
Tangent: I’ve been seeing this exact same derailment technique a lot when people praise Rey’s adoption of traditionally masculine and androgynous traits? Like we're not even allowed to speak about what a big deal it is to see a female lead who is not feminized and not romantically attached to a man? Do you know how radically progressive this is???? I mean, yes, super feminine female leads are also important and precious and valuable. If 50% of the dialogue in TFA came from women instead of 28%, we wouldn’t need to fight over what kind of woman Rey should represent, because there would be space in the story for more than kind of woman. It’s some panopticon bullshit. However, if you look at the body of texts in existence, and you look at all the female leads, a feminized heroine with a romantic interest is so ubiquitous as to be oppressive. It’s a singular story and it’s creating a selection bias. So let’s all take a breath and think about
1) how fantastic Rey is2) how great femininity is2) how fucking excellent it is to finally have a female lead who is not performing the shit out of femininity
And only because it’s very relevant to the way I’ve answered this question, anon, I have to tell you: Rey and Leia are not actual women. They, too, are constructs created by men. They are fiction, not reality, and so we can critically examine their performance of gender roles. This is not true of actual women.
