Gender, Race, and Representation in the Star Wars Franchise: An Introduction

Harrison, Rebecca (2019). Gender, Race, and Representation in the Star Wars Franchise: An Introduction. Media Education Journal, 65(2) pp. 16–19.

URL: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/195627/1/195627.pdf

Abstract

On its release in 2015, the first Disney Star Wars film The Force Awakens transformed the franchise by featuring a young white woman and a black man as its protagonists. Following six feature films that mostly focused on white male characters, Rey and Finn took centre stage, and many fans celebrated what they saw as greater gender and racial diversity in the film series. However, a number of people identifying as Star Wars fans shared their anger about the inclusion of women and people of colour in the franchise. On social media platforms such as Twitter, debates raged between different groups who claimed that the films were finally getting gender and race representation right – or doing it too much.

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