Debunking the Misogynistic Kathleen Kennedy Argument:Film Feminism, The Male Gaze, and My Solution to How Participants and Creators Can Achieve a Better Open Dialogue, When it Comes to Franchise’s.

Debunking the Misogynistic Kathleen Kennedy Argument:Film Feminism, The Male Gaze, and My Solution to How Participants and Creators Can Achieve a Better Open Dialogue, When it Comes to Franchise’s. 

Hello Readers,

Today I will be discussing a touchy subject for many of you. And before you begin to call me a misogynist or other foul distasteful names, let me explain my background with Feminism, and how I have come to understand feminist film from a Film Studies Perspective. 

For one my family business I currently work for was started by my Grandmother, whom I have the utmost respect for and 95% of our employees to this day are female and this has been the way of my company all my life. 

Second the films i grew up with Star Wars in particular, while they utilized the male gaze, a term described throughout film studies, depicted stronger female representation than the current representation of women in Hollywood, which is by criticism of both Male and Female fans alike, poorly developed as compared to likes of Natalie Portman and Carrie Fisher. 

Third, my Professor, who taught me Film Studies in College, my mentor for four years to get my degree was expert and noted author of Feminist Film literature from a line of other feminist Film Literature scholars and as such, taught us as Voyeurs of cinema, both good and bad, on the use of the Male Gaze, the Final Girl and what is feminism in terms of film.

Now, I understand why Kathleen Kennedy and Leslie Headland may want to make claims that falsely represent their fan base, such as the fact that the Acolyte(2024) failed because of the male dominated audience, but I am sorry to break it to them, but The Acolyte failed because of the disillusionment of their actors, showrunner and talent producing the show had from their audience, and by creating false narratives about the show prior to its release that in turn backfired on the studio. Osha/Mae(Amandla Stenberg) was not the problem, anyone who watched the show had. If it were the issue, with her casting, then the narratives being pushed by them about the show being bullied by Misogynist and Racists would be correct, but that isn’t at all why it failed. The reason this show failed was due to poor understanding of what the fans expectations are for a show that many fans had high expectations of. When I ask female star wars fans if they watched or enjoyed the Acolyte, their answer is either “no” or “i started it got bored and couldn’t finish it” not the answer that KK is looking for which is “yes.” The problem I have with KK’s argument is, I loved this show and saw its potential despite being lore breaking by many fan standards, and in fact many men who I have spoken to enjoyed it, and those who didn’t, didn’t give it the chance it deserved because of the stupidity of the people involved in the show who gave it negative press before it came out. 

This is in fact my problem with Hollywood in the current era of TV and film making. The press interviews the talent and the talent makes comments that they know will piss off a portion of their audience and then they get upset when fans respond negatively to a show or don’t tune in or pay to go watch their project in theaters. I am part of a group chat of Star Wars fans, all with different political backgrounds, work experiences and with an age range that is hard to assume, but all of which are 21 and up as can be assumed. No matter where you stand politically, male or female, we all can agree, the Acolyte wasn’t the best Star Wars Project of the last ten years nor will it be the worst as the studios by proxy of the talent dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole, by means of oversaturation of their brand and an ideology of toxicity and self loathing that is doing more bad than good for the Film industry.  

The critics of the film industry have joined in on this ideology of self loathing and hate, that is tainting the brands, and the Audience is being left wondering why our voices do not matter. We as members of the audience are treated as idiots, misunderstood, that if we don’t like something, we aren’t in the know, and the sheep amongst us, just go with it because we want to feel included or make ourselves out to be more intellectual, where bad content to these few equals good content, and good content is outdated old and lacks the shine of the modern day. This is why there is such a disconnect between fans and the creators within the studios, the talent who subject their audience with this content that violates the contract between host and participant. The concept  of film as an act of voyeurship, as a body genre, is now being violated by the addition of this self-loathing ideology that is being pushed on fans by Hollywood. 

By treating the voyeur as a fool,they have thus created a greater divide between participant and the creator, a divide between servicer and customer. We as the customers have the right to protest, to not participate, when the creator has pushed their self-loathing and hatred upon the audience, for daring to disagree with them, for this is the same reason Atheists Reject God, but before my allegorical and philosophical nature get ahead of me let us discuss how this applies to the women of Star Wars.

The concepts of episodes 7,8 and 9 as many of you may know were very different when George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, gave Disney and KK his rough drafts of the story and ideas. Rey(Daisy Ridley) may not have existed however his story reportedly still followed a female-centric story arc, of a young female jedi being trained by Luke Skywalker, with this being all that is known on Lucas’ Sequel Trilogy Concept. According to many sources also, we know when George saw episode 7 he was upset, because Star Wars was created to showcase the special effects of Hollywood and the story was nearly identical to his original Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope(1977). Now many of you would argue “what does George Lucas know about Feminism”, he is a man, and he made Carrie Fisher wear the never to be named Slave Leia outfit as well as a reported undergarments on set of the original trilogy. What many of you do not know however is that he brilliantly created a woman who didn’t wear bras before the bra-less woman was thin. Yes, Carrie fisher complained, years later when he(Lucas) was being presented with an award, comparing Princess Leia to Natalie Portman’s Padme Amidala, but what people don’t realize about George as an Auteur is that his ex-wife Marcia, Edited the original trilogy and reportedly gave George inputs on the film, as it wasn’t just his baby, but it's truly both of theirs, despite George being the Auteur: Director, Producer and Writer. 

George Lucas, created two of the most iconic and powerful female characters in Cinema. Princess Leia, Portrayed by Carrie Fisher and Padme Amidala portrayed by Natalie Portman. These two characters, when most cinema fans think of strong female characters are on the list, Osha/Mae, Rey and others created at Lucasfilm following Lucas' departure are not. George brilliantly used the Male Gaze to not only make these female characters desirable to many fans but also powerful. 

The thing that makes them so beloved is the creation of a heroine, who is also femme-fatale. Leia and Padme are both characters, who are objects of desire and danger, they wear costumes that tell us they can be both noble and warrior, with strong undernotes and tones of the feminist movement in their commanding presences as Actresses. Mae from the Acolyte, was a Femme Fatale, but she is not desirable to the audience, whereas Osha was seen as innocent, not as  a monster or villain at all or and further not-desirable, as a character unlike Padme and Leia. What about Rey? Rey was similar to Osha, she was seen as innocence, purity by her costume. She is the character of a child, untainted by evil, and Ben Solo(Adam Driver) may have desired her, but The Audience didn't. Rather, I would argue more fans found themselves more attracted by the male gaze of Adam Driver, as Kylo Ren than to Rey. 

It is my argument that when the Male Gaze(the camera/Lense) is based upon a positive Femme Fatale character, and the writing is done correctly, we receive a strong female character. For instance Ripley(Sigourney Weaver) from Alien(1979),we perceive her as a strong female character and she is very likable. Sarah Connor(Linda Hamilton) from Terminator(1984), another desirable strong female character. Why do fans of Indianna Jones prefer Marion(Karen Allen) to Willie(Kate Capshaw)? Because Willie was desirable but was comic relief not a Femme Fatale, and Marion was introduced to us as a Femme Fatale, and was desirable to the audience. 

There is a possibility that the Male Gaze is being obscured in meaning by those who participate in self-loathing and self-victimizing, however, it is a powerful tool that can create powerful women on the screen, and the masters of the gaze, shouldn’t be afraid to utilize it, to achieve success in creating strong female characters.

 The Horror Genre, uses a concept of the final girl. The final girl is an object of the male gaze, which in many slashers is also the gaze of the killer, however these final girls are always perceived as strong women, not just objects of desire, of the voyeur or as previously described the participant. In order for a participant to like a film, we need to feel attachment to the character or characters involved. The final girl is always the one we feel the most attached to in Horror films, and with characters like Mae/Osha, and Rey, we have next to no emotion or reason why we should care about this character. The moment we got anything interesting about Rey, a reason to care about this character was in episode IX when it was revealed her grandfather was Emperor Palpatine(Ian McDiarmid), then she had a relation to the great Monster, and villain of the Prequels, and Original Trilogy. A man who was both weak and powerful, Enemy and Friend, (according to my Queer Villain Theory:he is Darth Vader’s Abusive Lover/Master, but that enough of the duality), the true man behind Darth Vader, who himself is both man and machine, oppressor and oppressed, both adult and child. 

By giving her stake as the Grand-child of the Great Evil she then had some stake to make her interesting, but not enough to turn her into an object of desire, hence why fans cringed when they saw her kiss Kylo in the finale, as Kylo had become our focus, the victim of the Male Gaze, thanks to Episode 8(thank you Ben Swolo). s

Therefore, the lack of control of the Male Gaze, that their talent possess is truly the problem with Star Wars, as the object of Desire in the Acolyte shifts from Mae/Osha to Qimir(Manny Jacinto), and in the Sequel Trilogy from Rey to Kylo Ren, thus making men more powerful rather than women, when it is being used incorrectly as the Male Gaze, must be seen as Misogynistic by this ideology of self-loathing and victimhood, that renders the characters, that the creator wants us to focus on as secondary to their objects of desire. 

So what can be done? 

First,Filmatic Feminism needs to be understood, body positivity, and using sex as a weapon of these desirable women, will allow fans to once again enjoy what they are watching. Further the Male Gaze is not misogynist, it is used to create spectacle, which also gives power and control to characters within its crosshairs.

Second, talent needs to know that us as the participants, the audience don’t care how much they hate themselves, and we are sick of their self-hatred, self loathing ideology as it is weakening the brand. 

Third, we need to stop objectifying men in film,as the Male Gaze uses the power of desire to empower women, and when it is flipped on men, it only empowers them more, and takes interest way from the female roles and places it onto the male roles, which is having the reverse effect in the show. 

Fourth, studios as the creators, and any who work under the studio must learn that without the fans, they don’t have a job. They create for our benefit, more than they create for their own. As participants we must be heard and be allowed to give feedback on their content, and this feedback, must not be taken by the creator, as hatred, or hate speech, and they must learn from this to find what they can do creatively to benefit their business, as the creator, to show participants that they have been heard and that they as the creator must work harder to keep their faith in the franchises that they are fans of. 

Fifth fans, as participants must be open to provide Criticisms that aren’t nit-picky or hateful, rather those as an active participant, who want to support the content created, and must better explain their reasoning for why they truly dislike the content being created, and not just blame the creators, as when it comes to franchises, we are their customer, if we are not satisfied we need to give reasons, that are concise and intelligent not just nit-picky.valid points, would include, breaking lore, debating why a character was abused or perceived negatively, or the talent ruining the film prior to its release. Not just by badmouthing the creator, whose job it is to create content, for things they cannot help. 

Sixth, Critics as participants, must exit from the Studio’s thumb and return to being unbiased, scholarly and regain the trust of their fellow participants, the audience. Therefore Critics would regain the ability to critically think about the film and make arguments on the side of the fans, rather than be the defense mechanism of the creators. Therefore, Critics as participants and fans as Participants will have a better understanding of the reasoning for why projects created by Creators are negatively or positively perceived. Critics for now on should also take into account media interviews when writing their reviews to either debunk claims as the mediator between both parties, or to agree with claims and broadcast these claims to other Participants,A.K.A the fans to act in outrage, prior to their viewing of said project, to give understanding to the creators of what issue has occurred and how they may fix it in the future.

Seventh, as mentioned in countless articles I have written, Hollywood(the Creators) must return to the classical method of Entertainment for Entertainment’s Sake. by moving away from ideology, and returning to a focus on spectacle, and story, The industry will hence become more profitable, and fans will be more happy, returning as customers, as such the creator will be happier feeling good about their creation, and will be able to drop their self-loathing ideology to one that is more productive and less self-victimizing. In turn critics will return to writing about their experience as the participant rather than acting as tools for the creator to punish participants and divide us. 

To Kathleen,

 I know and understand that you want to claim, a Male Dominated fan-base,is the problem with your franchise, that the man has you down, and they are just saying bad things because they are misogynist. However, if you are going to play the victim card, as the creator we can play the elitist card as the fans of a franchise that we helped build as much as you have. Let us put the pettiness of our arguments aside and have an open dialogue, between participant and creator, and listen to each other pro-actively rather than defensively. The problems started when you lost our support, as fans, but the fandom never left, the franchise has left us, and as such we criticize and use our voices in order to explain what hasn’t been working, only to be put down and criticized by the creator in their own defense. As the artist, as the creator, you are subject to critique, as the participant as the viewer we are subject to the damages done to our time and investment in the creative’s works in viewership. As fans we understand how hard your job must be, and we know we are harsh critics, but the people who criticize a franchise most are the ones who love it the most, despite what most comedians may claim in regards to this. Majority of us are ready to return, and will continue to return when we as participants feel that are voices and arguments heard, by the creators of our Franchise, but as creators we must be able to separate, our own internal victimizations and self-loathing, to listen our audience, our participants for without them, we cannot exists as creators. 

With respect and hopeful for a brighter future for all members of the Fandom and my limited and few readers, this comes from a place of love for Star Wars and our franchise. 

Thank you.