So…I get not everyone is going to understand this, especially if someone is not a Black woman and doesn’t have our experiences, so I’m going to try to lay this out as nicely as possibly and try not to come off too harsh.
I’m going to start off with a quote from Alice Walker:
“Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly indentifies one’s status in society, ‘the mule of the world,’ because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else–everyone else–refused to carry. We have also been called ‘Matriarchs,’ ‘Superwomen,’ and ‘Mean and Evil Bitches.’ Not to mention ‘Castraters’ and ‘Sapphire’s Mama.’“
You see, Black women are expected to be the “hero” of someone else’s story. We’re expected to be “the help.” The “mystical hero.” The “sassy friend.” We’re always there to help out the lead, but we’re never the love interest.
Chris Hemsworth has said himself that Thor is “smitten” by Valkyrie…when you disregard that and say she’s simply his hero and that it’s refreshing that he’s not admiring her in a romantic way, you are confusing your experience as a non-Black woman with ours.
Black women have historically been masculinized and fetishized. We’re either seen as too unattractive for love or too sexual to be romaticized. So, when we are put on a pedestal as a hero, it’s not at all refreshing. It’s the same ol’ same ol’. Now, being adored and loved? That’s something Black women never get to see for themselves.
It’s something that has slowly been changing, but the more it changes, the more push back is given in response. CW’s Iris West is knitpicked as a character for the silliest things while the fandom constantly ships Barry with Caitlin, a white character who has shown no interest in him or vice versa. Even the actress cannot escape the anger from fans who prefer the lead be paired with a white woman. She faces constant harassment on her social media on a regular basis.
So, while it might be revolutionary for white female leads and other non-Black female leads to be looked at like heroes rather than love interests, it’s not so much for Black women. So rarely are we given the message that we too can be worthy of love. Please tread carefully when you suggest that a Black woman being seen as a man’s hero rather than love interest is “refreshing.”
@rootbeergoddess I figured out why @my-dwain recolored the art they stole from your blog. I looked up their caption, Val Zod Superman, and it turns out Val-Zod is an alternate Superman from Earth-2, born to unnamed deceased parents and adopted by Jor-El and Lara. Kal-El is dead in this continuity and Val-Zod is Superman on Earth-2. His suit and cape are blue and white, as pictured above.
In other words, the art thief decided Finn couldn’t be the original Superman. He had to be a Black Superman.
This is fine on its own, if anyone wants to imagine and portray Finn as Val-Zod more power to them. But @my-dwain didn’t do that. Instead they stole art from someone else to literally color over the original artist’s conception of Finn as the original Superman, and that is super shitty on every level.
Kylo NOT killing Leia doesn’t mean shit. Because he killed Han, and was responsible for Luke’s death.
He did everything he could to kill Luke, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying that Luke wasn’t killed by his hand. He also led the attack that spaced Leia and didn’t lift a finger to help her, and he was going to kill the entire remaining Resistance on Crait. Under these circumstances his not firing the shot looks like cowardice in not wanting to be the one that pulled the trigger, and not any kind of mercy or change of heart.
I mean make no mistake, there absolutely are antis who are abusers and harass people over a ship, and I don’t associate with people who act this way. I can’t speak for all antis or an anti “community” assuming one even exists; all I can do is take responsibility for my own actions and curate my interactions. And I’ll continue to be critical and analytical of the canon text and opinions that have currency in fandom. Assholes who try to paint that as inherently harassing or abusive can go take a hike.
The claim that antis let abusers a free pass is rich coming from an anti-anti too, seeing how I regularly get troll anons jeering at me about my age, have received a blitz of racist anons including the n-word (that one was… confusing), and how a big-name reylow fan very transparently tried to set a harassment gang on me while hiding behind a block. I did get a few anons and notes using the exact words she fed her followers, though not as many as expected–she must be losing her touch. And this shipper herself was temporarily harassed off her blog by fellow reylows for very mildly calling out the demonization of Finn, showing just how normalized harassment is in that part of the fandom as a tool for silencing dissent. While antis who are harassers and bullies definitely exist, I have not seen a big-name anti blogger purposefully use their platform to direct harassment at someone, nor have I seen antis driven off their blog by fellow antis.
Things have gotten to the point where most of the blogs of any prominence that discuss fandom racism and are critical of reylow and reylows have turned off anon or their asks altogether due to harassment. That probably accounts for the amount of activity in my inbox, since more than one anon has cited the fact that I’m one of the few “antis” who allow anon. Reylow shippers have, in a very real sense, managed to choke off an important route of communication on Tumblr by harassing people who disagree with them.
If this anti-anti focuses exclusively on harassment by antis while ignoring what a massive problem it is among shippers, then they don’t really care about harassment as an issue. They’re using it to score points against people they don’t like.
Mace Windu was a secondary character in the PT and could never be more than a secondary character, and his Force abilities did not make him special or prominent in a pre-Order 66 world where there were many Jedi. That’s quite a different situation from Finn who was clearly a protagonist along with Rey in TFA–more clearly a protagonist, in fact–whose importance can no longer be argued away if he turns out to be Force sensitive.
Whether he is confirmed as FS or not he is no ordinary Everyman character, he has incredible abilities and training that were downplayed (but still visible) in the movies and explicit in the extended canon materials. I don’t exempt anti Reylows from the charge of downplaying his character at all, a lot of antis downright dismiss Finn or see him as Rey’s sidekick anyway.
Every time I post about Finn having the force or being a Jedi, I always get one that one person who says Finn works better as the every man. Finn is one of the least normal character in the franchise.
What makes it worse is that Holdo was confirmed by Lucasfilms as force sensitive and Finn wasn’t yet. What makes it even more worse is now the obession is making Poe force sensitive. The Damerey crowd.
They don’t want Finn to be force sensitive because right now they turn their blinders on to Finn, but they won’t be able to ignore him if a lightsaber is in his hands.
This made every racist crap their pants. Finn haters still wanna pretend this doesn’t exist or it was a red hearing.
JJ did this for a reason and we’ll be seeing a lightsaber in Finn’s hands again soon.
I was originally one of the people who thought Finn didn’t have to be Force sensitive or worked better as a non-sensitive. I love Badass Normals, after all. Then I grew to increasingly dislike how this argument was used to dismiss his importance to narrative. Then I examined the evidence and yeah, he is Force sensitive. This is no longer in question for me. The only question is whether Episode IX will officially confirm it. The delay had better be to make the revelation at a crucial moment.
Yeah Adam’s like, attractive in his own way much like Domhnall. They’re more of these “unconventional-looking” white men like Benzene Cucumberpatch who are treated like the beaux of the century for reasons unclear to the rest of us.
But John and Oscar? They are classically, breathtakingly beautiful men. I’ve talked before about how these were clearly hero-heartthrob looks that the casting director was going for, much like Mark, Harrison, and Billy in their day. SW has never been subtle about this stuff. But fandom insists all of a sudden it’s the frankly not that impressive-looking white men who are the peak of male beauty. Uh-huh.
What is a traditional hero? The traditional American cinematic hero doesn’t just take orders from his superiors, he acts according to the dictates of his conscience. If we’re talking about the Star Wars universe, the traditional SW hero is Luke going off to Dagoba without telling anyone, Leia hatching a breathtakingly risky plan to lead the Death Star to the Rebel base, Han showing up when he is least expected to save the day. Lando arguing with Admiral Ackbar to keep the assault going despite the Empire’s trap, and Jyn and the crew of Rogue One going to Scarif in direct defiance of orders.
It’s true the record of handling independence of thought and action is very chequered when it comes to characters of color in SW, particularly with post-PT Black and Latino characters (and the PT itself was all kinds of messy about this issue with Anakin). Saw Guerrera is treated as an extremist and terrorist, Cassian has to endure Jyn comparing him to a Stormtrooper, Poe is repeatedly physically punished for rebelling against Leia’s and then Holdo’s bad leadership (what have you done to our princess @ RJ retire bitch), and Finn is somehow supposed to be “hateful” for attempting to make the ultimate sacrifice against orders.
So I can, however imperfectly, understand your nervousness here. But nor can I ignore what actually happened with Finn in both his cinematic appearances. His entire character is built around following his conscience over orders. We would not have the character of Finn if he had not disobeyed a direct order in defiance of lifelong conditioning. Even when he worked with the Resistance and helped them achieve their greatest military triumph against the First Order he was still his own man. Even in TLJ when he was humiliated and berated for being his own person in really distasteful ways, he STILL remained an independent thinker and fighter who has a perspective beyond the Resistance to the galaxy at large.
There is simply no retconning this character to someone who meekly follows orders, who remains a step behind Rey and Poe and never causes trouble. That’s not Finn, and that’s not a traditional hero. Finn is already both the kind of hero we’ve never seen and as traditional a SW hero as anyone gets. That was the understated brilliance of TFA and the reason behind its success, that it was both highly traditional but also fresh and subversive. While this independence was “deconstructed” in all kinds of nasty ways in TLJ, it still remains the core of his character and can’t be simply handwaved away at this point.
Also, while I only have a limited view on this issue because this is about another identity I am not part of, I don’t think you’re doing JJ full justice by treating him as another white man. JJ is Jewish, and the storytelling in TFA and the character of Finn in particular are very Jewish as I understand it. Independence of thought is a prized tradition among Jewish people, and part of the reason it has been such a SW tradition is because the franchise itself was heavily shaped by Jewish creators. If I understand right, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Jewish people have a much different relationship with secular and religious authority than white Gentiles do and JJ, though he has his flaws, is unlikely to share RJ’s confusing and offensive stance on authority.
Kylo: *has average childhood and loving family, with a bit of action involved, still kills hundreds of people, tortures people*
Reylos: see bEn was left with droids TWICE WHICH MEANS his mother and father HATED HIM from BIRTH and they NEGLECTED HIM
Finn: *literally never knew his family, was brainwashed for about 20 years, refuses to kill innocents, cares for his friends, willing to sacrifice his life for his friends*
Reylos: finns just so abusive you know he has no reason to be so horrible, like grabbing Rey’s hand to save her life??? Too far
Lmao they blocked me before I could even finish responding to them. Weak. And in the end they STILL made a post reaching and calling finnreys racist for shipping finnrey. Because it’s “objectifying and racist” to be political about a ship. We’re shipping finnrey because it’s a damn good ship! And has so much more canonical evidence and backing than r***o could ever have. Just because we are against a fascist neo nazi hitler youth fuckboy getting together with the heroine, and want the only person who showed her he actually genuinely cares about her and she him, WE’RE racist? Sure jan, whatever floats your boat. Good riddance tbh.
L.J.'s Obsessions 