A little while ago[1]longer than a week, less than a year I answered some question on Reddit. I think the question was along the lines of “Why do Star Wars fans hate Kelly Marie Tran” and of course the real answer was “Real Star Wars fans love her” but that’s fangating and not cool. There are a group of people who hated the sequel trilogy because the Star Wars they grew up with was, in many ways, a male power fantasy. You could choose Luke or Han. Luke, through his gifts and natural goodness, triumphs over evil. Han overcomes his façade of apathy to discover something he cares about. Either way, there is a version of the male power fantasy.
The Sequel Trilogy took that away, especially The Last Jedi, where the hotshot pilot was shut down by women, where the coward was stopped by a woman, and when the coward went for the sacrificial play (which is an honorable death in man-language) he is again stopped by a woman. The fact that Rey, a woman, was the hero of the trilogy, took something away from the men. Luke Skywalker, the hero of many childhoods, was a frightened old man, not the well-established hero of the galaxy we thought he’d be after Return of the Jedi.
All of that was basically my response, and provides some context to a response I didn’t address but it’s kind of bugged me in the background for a while. Someone asked why it had to be a “male power fantasy” and not a “person power fantasy”.
At the time it was a question that seemed to miss the point, or impose some other context that wasn’t germane to the original question or my answer. It seemed like it was trying to provoke me so I ignored it. But it hung around, and today, I think I came up with an answer.
I think Star Wars is a Male Power Fantasy, but a quick search on the phrase leads me to believe I’m not using it in the same way. That’s fine. I would say the Male Power Fantasy is about being in control, and dominating opponents, getting revenge, attracting fame and fortune, and getting the girl in the end. The Male Power Fantasy usually casts the dude as taller than he is, with broad shoulders, or smarter than he is, or calmer than he is (thus flustering opponents).
Now the contrast to that would be the Female Power Fantasy, and, erm, …. I don’t know what that is, exactly. I can’t imagine what that looks like. I don’t see women entering social situations with an attitude of “I’m gonna win whatever no matter what” but I see men do this all the time. Winning no matter what is part of the Male Power Fantasy. I see women cooperating more than I see them trying to get everyone to dance to their tune and give them singular credit for a group success, but I see men doing that. I don’t see women pretending to me bigger, faster, stronger, or smarter than they are, but I see men doing that.
There is a social aspect to Power Fantasies in general, in which the hero upends social norms, so the pissed-on get to piss on their former tormenters, or in the case of a Female Power Fantasy, to stand up as their own persons.
In particular, there’s something very potent and compelling about female power fantasies. I’m especially drawn to the ones that let us take control of every part of society that tends to put us at the lower end of the power differential. These kinds of stories enable us to push back against the daily, monthly, yearly friction of injustices and say, through the lens of fiction—we claim our own greatness. We do not surrender. This is a world where we don’t stand down and nobody can make us.
S. L. Huang, In Defense of Power Fantasies, on Tor.com
This clarifies a thought I have played with for a while, in movies like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, that women don’t get the Campbellian Hero’s Journey because women are rarely allowed the luxury of Refusing the Call. Instead, the heroine’s of these movies define who they are for themselves, rejecting all definitions put upon them.
Star Wars is definitely a Male Power Fantasy, and the Sequel Trilogy may be a Female Power Fantasy, and thus it wouldn’t appeal to people looking for the Male Power Fantasy fix.
Digressions
| ↑1 | longer than a week, less than a year |
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