I Never Really Paid Much Attention To The “people Just Didn’t Like That Women Were Important In

I never really paid much attention to the “people just didn’t like that women were important in TLJ” line of thought but now I look back and think about it, especially after TROS, I’m more and more convinced that the role it gave women was a pretty big part of the criticisms, whether it was actually they didn’t like women or just they weren’t able to follow it because it is very heavy on the female perspective, which is not really something mainstream media shows a lot so we’re just not trained to look at things that way and it confuses and/or makes us a bit uncomfortable. Like, I honestly thought FinnRose kind of came out of nowhere the first time I watched it, but then I realized it was because I was automatically looking at it from Finn’s side. Like, I was watching Finn and there was none of the classic male gaze romance indicators there. He is not pursuing her; she has no makeover he can ogle at; He is the pursued slowly learning he cares. He is in the position that the woman usually fills in this sort of story. He’s not the Han; he’s the Leia. He’s got that soft gaze on Canto Bight, and when DJ takes Roses medallion he gets Super Defensive over it, and then when he almost loses her, and he’s taking such tender care of her at the end—he’s realizing he cares. But Rose—the romance is from her perspective. She wants Finn. She pursues him. She’s disappointed in him and forces him to reconsider by making him listen to HER. When he almost dies on the Supremacy, she’s defensive and desperate and tries to shoot Phasma dead on the spot. The last thing she wants to see when she almost dies is HIM. She’s so proud and soft when he steps up and commits! She’d rather die ramming him with her speeder to save him than let him die pointlessly, and SHE’s the one that initiates the kiss. Once I looked at it from a female perspective (from MY perspective) it all fell into place. 

The exact same goes for Reylo. I had a friend who thought the Reylo kiss was unnecessary because she hadn’t seen the Reylo in the last two movies. (When I explained it to her she said “Oh! I thought they just had a weird connection!”) Because it was entirely from a female perspective. In TFA we don’t get Rey all prettied up so Ben can gaze at her, which is the normative signal to an audience that “this is a romance.” She’s dirty and sweaty and tied up. It’s Ben who’s prettied up for Rey to gaze at. And then TLJ especially is in every possible way from HER perspective. SHE pursues HIM. She pretties up but it’s subtle and because she’s pursuing him. He’s the one that gets the “makeover look at him” scene, not her. He LISTENS  to her. It’s about emotional intimacy, which at least in a film setting is a very female perspective thing. It’s all women-centered myths and tropes and power fantasies. There’s no big strong guy saves and gets the girl. Ben is great because he knows Rey has the ability to save herself —he sends the lightsaber straight through Snoke to HER. He doesn’t sweep her off her feet, but he is swept off his. Like there’s a reason in all the Disney crossovers Ben’s is always the “Princess” role, and its because Rey is the active mover of her story and her romance, not him. (I mean, Ben May be on the dark side but he clearly drinks his respect women juice).

And like, that’s just the romance part of it! That’s not even the “listen to the women in your life” or the “destruction isn’t the answer and neither is violence but instead it’s communication and connection and love” thing that belongs to a more traditionally feminine worldview. Or that fact that the women’s actions and feelings are given huge weight (Rose can have a whole scene to cry about her sister and Rey can feel scared and alone and that’s THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. They can love and the story treats it as Important; Leia can feel despair for a moment and the story stops and sends an entire Luke her way to give her hope; Holdo sacrifices her life and everything suddenly goes silent in reverence). Like Rey, they are all active movers of the story. It’s just so foreign that a lot of the audience is thrown for a loop by it. It’s not what they’re used to so they think it’s not there at all. Or it’s “bad writing” because they aren’t reading it.