No, Women Aren't Saving Star Wars

so self-professed global CEO entrepreneur business leader lingua phial philanthropist feminist and mother and the dictionary definition of busybody Liz Elton claims that women are quote saving star wars hey franchise that was doing perfectly fine until a woman got control over it ruined it defended the ruination and now can't understand why no one likes it now women who weren't interested in Star Wars for the 38 years before Disney started pumping out shitty films are going to save the thing they effectively destroyed I know this isn't the same franchise it's not even the same medium but I've got two words for you [Applause] [Music] oh it's that time of the month again so of course we've got to deal with some feminists splashing her spoil clam juice because tampons are sexist incomes Liz elting with an article in Forbes saying that women are saving Star Wars no no they're not women specifically feminists have done the exact opposite of that they've treated Star Wars like a redheaded stepchild just beating it beyond all recognition peed on it hang on why you so salty because all you eat is sourdough potato chips and that can smell it in the [ __ ] pee that's why I'm salty she starts off with this brilliant line of [ __ ] so you know where the article is going quote Star Wars has women in it and apparently for many that's a problem no that's a straw man argument women have been in Star Wars since its inception the first team in character you meet is a woman the leader of the Rebel Alliance is a woman the only not evil person in the Phantom Menace with an actual plan is a woman the expanding universe is chock-full of awesome women - no one's complained literally no one has a problem with this why are you lying oh that's right here are feminists and in truth feminist fashion elting disproves our own straw man argument in the next sentence you might if you're at all like me be surprised by this women have been a mainstay of the franchise since its inception over 40 years ago then what was a [ __ ] point of your first sentence we're two sentences in two and you're already [ __ ] up your argument please non-existent desert sky daddy give me the strength she goes on quote Star Wars is just one front of her bewildering pop culture war that extends from television to film to video games to sports and beyond as angry frustrated men decry the mere presence of a woman within agency power or influence as a quote force diversity corruption of something they believe belongs exclusively to them first of all what's with the run-on sentences I thought your name was ELISA Leng not n rice second first of all this narrative about quote Angry Men has been disproven so many times that you just look [ __ ] mentioned in it men are not up said that women who have always been a part of Star Wars are a part of Star Wars male Star Wars fans are upset with the over political agenda driving so many of the changes to the franchise specifically the creation of mae rhai soo and the total destruction of Luke Skywalker female star wars fans are pissed off about this too but I guess like a true feminist you just forgot about them it's hard to pinpoint exactly when this conversation really took off immediately after the force awakens literally as the show let out and those of us who weren't tricked by the nostalgia [ __ ] trippin seventies pre-cum started talking about how utterly ridiculous it was that Ray could pilot the Falcon use a lightsaber use the Force and best kylo Ren in battle without an ounce of [ __ ] training but it's probably the most innocuous manifestation of a radical misogyny that has over the last decade gripped much of the english-speaking world hey [ __ ] you I don't like an overpowered character doing [ __ ] no one else in the franchise can do and that makes me sexist look you're not even four paragraphs in honey you might want to save some of them dog whistles for when you really need them and it's one that's making a radical claim for the companies that produce the media they adore stop catering to people other than us and we're the ones giving you the money tons and tons of money you could appeal to us and get more money or you can completely change the product from what it was and thereby drive away a built-in market that guarantees you billions of dollars in revenue to appeal to a bunch of people who can't tell the difference between Star Wars and a lite-brite so then elting says that she's not an expert in Star Wars fandom really girl I couldn't even tell but says that business is her specialty and that she wants to talk about it from that perspective in other words she's gonna film Swain why [ __ ] the franchise is actually a good thing they named it that has been thoroughly buck to the point of uselessness and then claim that the people who [ __ ] it are actually the ones to make it better so she's like that feminist mother who abuses her son using feminist doctrine and then when he hates himself tells him that the best place to go is to that feminist run support group so he can further blame himself for his own abuse maybe more feminism isn't the answer but that's a rash thought and Liz ain't that kind a woman she says quote whether it be star wars sports or some other fandom let's examine the central claim that unites all these community revolts that real fans are being ignored abandoned or rejected in favor of women and people of color real fans explicitly being like men god I wish I had long hair so I could just swish it around as I'm talking like this dumb ass woman hey Liz that's also a straw man argument I know you're a feminist and y'all only got three tricks lies lies and more lies but trying to shake it up don't think adding the race thing into the argument makes it better all male fans aren't white just like all the fans complained about the political agenda aren't male if you stop blowing the straw man you'd notice that and again she undermines her own argument quote there is a degree to truth to that then what the [ __ ] are you complaining about these are institutions that have been overwhelmingly marketed to and manufactured for boys and men and why is it wrong that there are things that are made to appeal to men and boys I mean there are things made to appeal to women and girls no normal men are trying to take those over how living as being something for men what is your actual problem could it be that you contradict yourself yet again quote Sports has been a mainstay of male culture for generations and geek bandim such as it exists has been similarly dominated none of my girlfriend's growing that were particularly into Marvel Comics for one example we had our own pop culture institutions we were expected to follow but the 1970s and 80s were a different world mass media didn't exist the way it does now dominated by huge multinationals who have spent decades cultivating not only fan bases but cultural presence owing in part to some of the very fans who are now angry at their presence girls have spent decades falling in love with the same sports shows comics and movies as their brothers right so girls can watch the same TV shows or playing video games or see the same movies as boys in 70s and 80s so how do you explain women who grew up reading comics and liking Star Wars there are 40 and 50 year old women you know women your age who saw Star Wars and theatres are watching it on TV or video or on laserdisc they didn't magically appear when disney bought lucas films star wars has been around for 40 years there have been thousands of comics hundreds of novels dozens of video games and several TV shows so it's impossible that girls who were interested in Star Wars was somehow prevented from liking it until kathleen kennedy queefed all over it all those years prior to 2012 when Disney started negotiations to buy Lucas phones there were women and girls who enjoyed the franchise they've always been outnumbered by men and boys because these type of adventure stories tend to appeal more to males but females have never been shut out of the fandom or the franchise you admit you don't know what you're talking about so why are you acting like you do so then she claims that the company's learned that they couldn't depend on the same old fans forever and that quote there's way more money in marketing to boys and girls than boys in boys alone yes if you're marketing specifically to boys and then specifically through girls if you're trying to use the same marketing strategies on both you're going to fail because what appeals to boys doesn't always appeal to girls and visa-versa you run a business you should know this if you want the markets of both groups you have to target your marketing strategy to suit each group if you don't then you run the risk of running off half the people you want to exploit so let's look at Disney's marketing strategy most of it is neutral just blend here's Star Wars you like Star Wars by Star Wars marketing the rest however isn't divided between the two sexes it's exclusively directed at women and girls they're books called the women of Star Wars but none called them in the Star Wars raise faces on a large percentage of the merchandise even though characters like Luke Vader Han ob1 Darth Maul and Yoda remain far more popular most of the young adult and children's novels follow the same strategy it's either very generic or specifically about female characters ignoring popular male characters this is true even with the toys where there's an obvious focus on the female characters now there's nothing wrong with tailoring merchandise appeals of girls there is something wrong however when there's no equivalent merchandise blues for boys there used to be but now it's gone that's why you're getting these complaints all the new male characters have been demoted to comic relief or ritual humiliation even the new villain is basically a whiny emo boy there is no positive male character in the current trilogy and all the positive ones from the original trilogy and the prequels are either dead or destroyed like Luke how is this a good business decision you've just stripped away every reason boys and men would have to like Star Wars there is a concerted he overt effort to devalue males in the film and the merchandising when we finally got something for men to root for the Mandalorian feminists complain instantly the four female centric movies weren't enough the moment evening made something male centric y'all lost your [ __ ] then Liz goes on to quote the lies about Kelly Mary Tran being harassed off social media and the [ __ ] nervous about the captain Mary Sue movie and there should be ghostbusters well then she says quote the message was directed not only at the individual women involved but at the companies themselves stand only with us or we won't stand with you know the message was stop [ __ ] on their franchises we love or we won't give you our money that worked with Ghostbusters movie thinked but Captain Mary Sue Disney banks because the movie was tied to the last Avengers film but the nonpartisan reviews of the film basically said it was at best men these are not the good examples you're looking for then she says quote new generations of fans are being made right here right now with potentially decades of loyalty and purchases ahead of them the same messages that resonated with ten year old boys in 1977 resonate with ten-year-old girls in 2009 came that anyone can be a hero and that you can be whatever you want that you are important and powerful and have a future that's not what happened with boys pumpkin that's not what Star Wars is about Star Wars was originally just a throwback adventure story Empire and Jedi took it to the next level and made him more of a hero's journey the message is about redemption coming-of-age and extreme ownership yes look becomes powerful but he has to earn it over three films his power is never about making him look better than everyone but about him taking on responsibilities it's not about him being more important so other people know who he is but about understanding his importance because of his duty it's not about him being whatever he wants to be it's about him learning who he truly is it's not about him being a hero it's about him becoming a hero the reason why that resonates buttboys is because this is a journey you have to take to become a man when you are able to do these things you are now a man and you understand the responsibility that comes with it if it was just about Luke being cool and powerful there would be no point to having the dark side no point to having him train and repeatedly failed no point in having him fight and lose the Baader no point in having them find out that Vader was his father no point in having them find out that obi-wan lied to him and no point in Luke seeking to redeem Vader all of that is there because this is what it is to come of age and this is what it is to become a man that's why it's absent in the new movies they journey doesn't appeal to most girls specifically they want all the benefits of the hero's journey without having to deal with the consequences complications or responsibilities so you get rey her girl who is good at everything who is better than everyone who never makes any mistakes and who apparently doesn't know that there are other clothes in the [ __ ] galaxy obviously that's not going to appeal to most boys and men so there's a brilliant marketing strategy completely backfires the same isn't true the other way around because women tend to like strong men so it becomes a strong man women will like watching that happen characters like Rey on the other hand have no personal journey they don't really overcome anything so there's nothing applicable for men and boys to identify with and these characters tend to humiliate strong male characters which will cause some resentment in men and boys watching every male character get torn down so you lose that audience in exchange for a handful of women who might like the changes Star Wars has been successful largely because of the nostalgia and the pop code familiarity but once you remove those elements for Subway people's interest in the franchise you lose that audience and their money this is why Ghost Busters thing you have no tie to the thing people actually want to see so you've already ruined your chances when you add attacking the fans for complaining about this you're guaranteeing a bomb this is why people say get woke go broke because most of the time that's exactly what happens you lose the people who liked it in the first place and you fail to gain enough people to replace them let alone outnumber them so this ridiculous idea that taking successful male centric franchises and making them female centric will rake in money is financially suicidal you can certainly add in female characters but the moment we try to change the target audience you are begging for the thing to fail just like when you say [ __ ] like this quote and considering that women make up the majority of movie goers and are far and away the major decision makers in household purchasing decisions well it seems like a no-brainer to me women don't make up a majority of people who see action and adventure movies nor do they decide who goes to see them so no it's actually a very stupid decision to make you target the movies to people who actually want to go and see them I mean you want to bring in a broader audience you add in some elements that work in the films that appeal to that broader audience you don't take John wick and turn it from a stunt man's wet dream into a soap opera with hundreds of pages of dialogue because you're gonna lose all the John wick bands if you want to add in some dialogue you add in the little and then have a big brawl we know this works because there's this thing called professional wrestling if you made it all talk especially heavily scripted unnatural dialogue and then give it to the talent at the last minute you get the abysmal Ross Magna ratings we've seen in recent years the key thing here is that you don't have this [ __ ] on male fans or male characters just because you want women and girls to watch the film Wonder Woman is a perfect example of this I don't personally know any man who's seen the film and didn't like it that trench scene is arguably the best DC moment since the end of the Dark Knight Henry Cavill is over here like I I want to do things like that that movie was very female-centric but it didn't Trashmen neither did the director or the lead actress goddess that she is and that's the point you can make women strong without tearing down men the movie was very successful and they didn't need 20 other movies to get people to go and see it if you stop attacking fans and stop tearing down the things they love they will reward you with support and their money attack them and then YouTube will need to alter the algorithm to memory hold your critics but what do I know I'm just some guy

Channel: Just Some Guy

Views: 654,172

Rating: 4.9111891 out of 5

Keywords: star wars, lix elting, liz elting forbes, star wars women, women of star wars, rey, rey skywalker, star wars diversity, star wars inclusive, star wars fandom

Id: rKJZiSY85rg

Length: 17min 2sec (1022 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 21 2019