The Force Is With The Fangirls
I was at a comic store recently when a guy noticed the pair of lightsabers tattooed on my ankle. Little did I know that my ink would be the catalyst for a bout of mansplaining permeated by the words, ‘Well, you probably wouldn’t know…’
We call them gatekeepers — male fans who have appointed themselves as the all-seeing, all-knowing guardians of the fandom, who can decide whether a woman is worthy of being a true fan, or if she’s just another fangirl.
Fangirl. Like it’s a dirty word. Like a female fan cannot be anything more than a ball of hysteria. Like she probably wouldn’t know.
Well us ‘fangirls’ do know. And we know a hell of a lot.
Meet Joanna, 34, from Minneapolis. She is the founder of the Facebook group Galactic Fempire which boasts almost 4000 members. It is a safe space for female Star Wars fans from around the globe to come together and share their passion for the franchise without fear of mansplaining or gatekeeping.
Joanna says she inherited her love of Star Wars from her uncle.
‘He was a huge fan and insisted on taking us to see the special editions on the big screen back in 1997. I was immediately in love. At the time, my parents were going through a brutal divorce, and seeing some young people put into a horrible situation that they didn’t quite know how to navigate was very comforting to me.’
If only all men could take a leaf out of Joanna’s uncle’s book and help foster female fandom rather than discount it. Luckily, one particular princess helped prepare Joanna for life as a fangirl.
‘I was a pretty quiet kid but seeing Princess Leia changed that. She inspired me to speak out when bad things happened and make my voice heard.’
Despite the dominance of male-driven narratives over the course of the Star Wars films, Princess Leia has been a saving grace. In a 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal, the late Carrie Fisher, who portrayed the princess on the big screen, gave fangirls everywhere a line to live by. When stopped by a scandalised father on the street, who asked Fisher what he would tell his child about Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini, she responded, ‘Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it’.
Now, I’m not suggesting we kill the fanboys, but perhaps their archaic ideas about women in science fiction belong with Jabba.
It was those very ideas that led Joanna to the creation of the Galactic Fempire.
‘I used to help run other mixed Star Wars groups, which were mostly male dominated. When it came time to warn people or ban them, I dealt with a lot of abuse from the person breaking the rules. Even my fellow admins often talked down to me and said I was doing the wrong thing until one of the other men said I was doing the right thing. I won’t collaborate with any other fanboy in future because it has always turned out horribly. I wish it weren’t like that.’
When asked what she’d like to see from official content creators to elevate her fangirl experience and reduce the prevalence of the such experiences, the answer is simple.
‘I want more realistic women. I just want a woman lead to be a hero without it coming from a man.’ — an opportunity missed with the saga’s latest heroine, Rey, whose power is ultimately attributed to her villainous grandfather. Here lies a large part of the problem.
While male-driven narratives continue to make up the official content of the franchise, licensed merchandise continues to be catered almost exclusively to men. As a result, males are more likely to perform acquisitional fandom which, as author Tracey Deonn explains to WePresent, is fuelled by ‘the desire to collect and gather information, products and merchandise that is endorsed by official content creators’.
Women recognise their underrepresentation in official content, and tend to perform generative fandom — cosplay, fan fiction, fan art and craft — driven by the desire to create a space for themselves where there previously wasn’t one. Deonn further explains, ‘When I look at cosplay and fanfic, which are probably the best examples of generative fandom, these are very female and gender non-conforming dominated spaces’.
Gwendy, 35, from the Philippines is one such creator who performs a generative role within the fandom. She is the creator of the Reylo Animated Series, with over 4,000 subscribers on YouTube.
‘Reylo’ is the ‘ship’ name given to Rey and Kylo Ren. Shipping is the fan practice of supporting a romantic relationship between two characters. And yet another thing fangirls are criticised for.
It could be argued that fangirls are just better at reading subtext and, as fan studies scholar Abigail De Kosnik explains to Kill Your Darlings, taking the ‘raw material that fandom provides and customising it to suit their needs and desires’.
This type of criticism hasn’t deterred Gwendy. When asked about negative reactions to her fangirl status she explains, ‘They are mostly towards the ships I support. It can be difficult when people go out of their way to attack you, but ultimately it does not deter me from being a fangirl’.
For the animation artist, the positives outweigh the negatives, ‘Fandom has been a great source of stress relief. It’s inspired me to improve my craft and I am now able to work full time as an artist’.
Contributing to the fandom in the ways Gwendy, Joanna and their fellow fangirls do, carves out a space for the underrepresented.
Although there is still room for official content creators to add to the story.
‘I want them to acknowledge the existence and importance of their female fanbase, especially BIPOC content creators like myself’, Gwendy explains.
With the voices of female and underrepresented fans gradually growing loud enough to drown out the cries of the gatekeepers and mansplainers, there is hope.
Out of the 32 executives listed on the Lucasfilm website, 17 are female. Film maker Victoria Mahoney was the first woman to direct a Star Wars film, serving as second unit director for The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Grace, 29, from Orlando is an Imagineer at Walt Disney World. She was part of the team that helped develop and build Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World in Florida.
‘It was far and above my greatest career accomplishment, being able to bring the stories that have provided such comfort and imagination in my own life directly to our guests. I’ve seen proposals, birthdays and so many other celebrations happen at Galaxy’s Edge. The fact the fans trust our land to be the backdrop of life’s biggest moments and invite us to be a part of their Star Wars story, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been privileged enough to experience in this fandom.’
Grace, much like Joanna and Gwendy, started her fangirl career as a child, watching reruns of the films on TV and attending Star Wars Weekends with her family at Walt Disney World. Her passion enabled her to live out a life-long dream in a place where she can encourage other young girls to follow theirs.
She also feels like the tide is changing, ‘Lucasfilm have made a much more concerted effort to include more diversity. I’d love to see them keep that momentum and continue to tell meaningful stories to show that everyone has a place in this galaxy’.
Three fangirls among many whose passion for their fandom transcends a superficial level. They are just a tiny slice of the female force behind Star Wars.
You probably wouldn’t know but…
We do.
