Editorial: <i>Star Wars</i> and the Girl Hero

Larabee, Ann

doi:10.1111/jpcu.12348

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…When setting out to create Star Wars, Lucas sought to create a hero's story largely devoid of culturally specific marks. However, Campbell's conception of the universal hero's journey is one that is decidedly male (Larabee 2016). This mythic template works when dealing with male protagonists such as Luke or Anakin Skywalker (the main characters of the Original and Prequel trilogies, respectively, who are responsible for both the ruin and the restoration of the galaxy) who nicely fit into hegemonic male gender confines.…”

Section: Gender and The Remaking Of Old Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, things become far more complex when you introduce a female character as the hero, as is the case with Rey in the Disney films. How does Rey fit into this classical "universal" mythos that Campbell theorized, one that has been made for men and maintained by men (both within the fictional and the real world) (Larabee 2016)? This is further complicated upon analysis of the Skywalker Saga's central hero/villain: Anakin (also known as Darth Vader).…”

Section: Gender and The Remaking Of Old Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While it has recognized that there is a large female fan base ready to spend money on the franchise and has begun to create content (both textually and extra-textually) to cater to that audience (Johnson 2014; Scott 2017), it has not fundamentally changed the structure of Star Wars from Lucas' vision modeled after the Joseph Campbell monomyth thesis. This would not be problematic if the series were not created to mimic a narrative structure created specifically for the male hero (Larabee 2016).…”

Section: Making Star Wars Great Againmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis

Koushik

Reed

2018

Social Sciences

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This paper seeks to explore the strategies Hollywood utilizes to capitalize on feminist social movements through replacing hegemonic male characters with female ones or updating traditional stories through a more “feminist” retelling. By analyzing both 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast as representative of this corporate trend, we critique the ways in which these pseudo-feminist texts not only contribute little to the social conversation surrounding the evolving roles of women and their representations in media through the lenses of critical political economy, feminist political economy, and feminist film criticism. We conclude that creating “feminist” reimaginings of classic narratives ultimately serves to uphold the existing economic structures that maintain social and financial capital within the largest Hollywood studios. Thus, little to no social progress is made through the creation of these retellings.

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Section: Gender and The Remaking Of Old Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gender and The Remaking Of Old Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Making Star Wars Great Againmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis

Koushik

Reed

2018

Social Sciences

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“…The previous sections of this chapter firstly highlighted that the portrayal of gender in the Star Wars franchise has been limited in quantity. The research that has been conducted finds that the portrayal of women in the Star Wars franchise seems to be changing, with positive portrayals shown within the sequel film trilogy and in some of the animated television series (Bruin-Molé, 2017;Larabee, 2016;Pianka, 2013;McGucken, 2020). However, McGucken (2020) only considered how the female protagonists are portrayed in Star Wars Rebels (Filoni et al, 2014(Filoni et al, -2018 and did not fully investigate the portrayal of men in that series.…”

Section: Limitations Of Previous Star Wars Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Gendered Behaviours Displayed by Influential Disney, Marvel and Star Wars Protagonists and Examining the Link Between Children’s Engagement with these Franchises and their Play Behaviour.

Clarke

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This thesis reports a programme of research that explored the gendered messages within influential Disney feature length animations, a Star Wars animated television series, and a Marvel animated television series. It also examined extent to which engagement with these franchises statistically predicted children’s gendered behaviour and weapon play. The first study of this thesis was a quantitative content analysis of thirty-nine Disney protagonists. The results showed that some of the ‘earliest’ female Disney protagonists were the most feminine analysed, although almost all were more feminine than masculine. The male Disney protagonists seemed to adhere to less stereotypes, and were, generally, more feminine than masculine overall. Study two investigated how gender was portrayed in Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and Star Wars Star Wars Rebels animated television series, utilising Thematic Analysis. This was important as the Walt Disney Corporation recently acquired these franchises. The results revealed that stereotypical masculinity was portrayed by the male protagonists within each series, however, the female protagonists in Star Wars Rebels seemed more genuinely valued than the female superhero in Marvel’s Avengers Assemble. The third study of this thesis utilised parent report methodology to investigate whether engagement with the Disney, Marvel and Star Wars franchises statistically predicted children’s level of gendered behaviour and weapon play, as well as whether parental mediation and exposure to television violence moderated any established relationships. The results indicted that although each franchise did predict gender stereotypical behaviour and weapon play, there were some unexpected gender differences in the relationships. It was concluded that the producers of Disney, Star Wars and Marvel media should be made aware of the relationship between the gendered messages within their content and children’s behaviour. Additionally, parents and children should be educated on this topic, with the aim to reduce the relationships that were found. Chapter seven summarises the results of each study and considers the implications of the current findings.

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Editorial: The Future of Genre Studies in Popular Culture

Larabee¹

2019

The J of Popular Culture

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Editorial: Star Wars and the Girl Hero

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis

Investigating the Gendered Behaviours Displayed by Influential Disney, Marvel and Star Wars Protagonists and Examining the Link Between Children’s Engagement with these Franchises and their Play Behaviour.

Editorial: The Future of Genre Studies in Popular Culture

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