With the paucity of female sci-fi leads, women are willing to put up with Mary Sue female characters, however, i imagine that as more choices open up, there's going to be a backlash there. While a Rei or a Wonder Woman might be appeal if it's
all you got, being constantly represented by "perfect" members of your own gender isn't something with much broad appeal for women who aren't
already watching these types of films anyway. It's why male heroes more often than not have plenty of flaws. Luke was a naive farmboy, Han was a sexist jerk. While Rei, she's basically Ms. Action Hero right from the start, always succeeds at everything from the first try. It's not actually "representation" if they're not the types of characters women tend to
like to watch. Regular women prefer "Bridget Jones" type characters to "Wonder Woman" type characters - e.g. rounded women who's qualities are balanced by plenty of flaws.
There's also
another important thing for female viewers. One noted difference in male vs female psychology is that girls believe more in
talent whereas boys believe more in
effort, and this is shown in psychology and reflected in media that's created by/aimed at male and female viewers. An over focus on "natural talent" is a female trait, but it's also said to be harmful, since if you believe
failure is inevitable because of "talent" you
give up on trying things more quickly:
http://theconversation.com/our-obsession-with-natural-talent-is-harming-students-11549Holding a fixed mindset about any ability comes with many disadvantages. People may decide ahead of time that they do not have the “right stuff” and never make an effort at all. Girls who believe that they “can’t do” maths because of their gender and avoid its study are a case in point.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-success/201101/the-trouble-bright-girlsbright girls believe that their abilities are innate and unchangeable, while bright boys believe that they can develop ability through effort and practice.
And another citation:
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=OJNWDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&lpg=PT162&dq=girls+believe+in+set+talent&source=bl&ots=2F0HlnfmZE&sig=1TQRneZULAy_dpHdrQ_Zcj3UF0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUju_zj8HYAhVGU7wKHa8bBi4Q6AEIPjAG#v=onepage&q=girls%20believe%20in%20set%20talent&f=falseDweck's research has found that girls, more so than boys, tend to believe that the abilities one has are fixed: people are born with certain abilities or they're not. As a result, girls have shown a greater tendency to give up when they face challenges with a particular task or subject
https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/women-in-science/growth-mindsets-benefit-girls-and-women-in-19959513Interestingly, in cultures that produce a large number of math and science graduates - especially women - including South and East Asian cultures, the basis of success is generally attributed less to inherent ability and more to effort.
The more girls and women believe that they can develop the skills they need to be successful in STEM fields (as opposed to being "gifted"), the more likely they are to actually be successful in STEM fields. Dr. Dweck's work demonstrates that girls benefit greatly from shifting their view of mathematics ability from "gift" to "learned skill."
This difference
also turns up in male vs female oriented fiction from around the world. In shonen anime (aimed at 12 y/o boys) they have arcs "weak -> get beaten -> train -> get beaten again > train more -> WIN!!" while in girls anime such as Sailor Moon, they
don't do any training. They either can or cannot beat the Big Bad, and need to get some instant magical upgrade (such as a magic ring, or instantly unlocking some inherited power) or combine with other girls for the "power of friendship" type thing. So, girls anime is also biased towards "innate" ability rather than incremental effort.
Luke, for example, takes
three movies to get where he's going, starting as a naive farmboy who can barely swing a sword. He doesn't have a real light-saber battle until 1.5 movies into the entire franchise, which makes it
meaningful.
That's fucking character development. He basically starts with nothing but
potential and works hard at turning that into skill. This is a message boys soak up: you get better through effort, and cognitive researchers have
proven boys think like that much more than girls.
Rei is
awful character development, and in fact she's harmful to correcting this
known cognitive bias in girls where you "can do it or you can't" right from the start. It's
not an improvement that the importance of Rei's parents is diminished. That's not the big issue here! The issue is that Rei is purely defined by
innate talent and girls are
inundated with media that already reinforces their belief that abilities are
innate. Basically the creators think it's "empowering" that she is this perfect being who can do anything, anytime. However, they have this backwards because they're either not cognizant of developmental psychology, or they simply don't care and are using the "female empowerment" thing as pure marketing. What would be
really empowering is an initially powerless girl shown growing in ability over several movies. This is the type of media
boys already get.
While ... they
sorta did the whole "everyone has the force" thing in Jedi, it was more an
anti-classist thing than an
anti-innate thing. You're either born with "it" or you're not. Doesn't matter who your parents are. It's not really an improvement
where it matters. If non-force people could
cultivate the force then that would in fact be better for girls. Show a non-force girl who through training can use the force. Don't show a magical force princess who's just naturally kickass. You can't
become a magical force princess, you're born like that, which is the actual problem in girls media to start with.
(see, the problem is characters such as James Bond or Superman aren't
empowerment stories, they are
escapist stories. Notice that both Superman and James Bond lack "heroes journey" type story arcs, both are just magical beings, with fairly static sets of powers, who live in a magical world you can never live in, but you can visit it vicariously through their eyes. Rei and Wonder Woman are unfortunately heroes more in their vein than they are like Luke, who is a fully fleshed-out hero according to the traditional mythological formulas, which are in fact just codified accounts of the story of human life).
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Topic: Star Wars [Warning: Spoilers inside!] (Read 108484 times)