Captain Phasma and Feminism
So, as today is International Woman’s Day, I decided to write a little bit about feminism in Star Wars. I’m so glad my favorite saga always had strong female heroines, but I usually catch up more with the villains (that’s just who I am :P), so I chose Captain Phasma for this post. I recently read her novel for the second time, and she’s just one hell of a strong female protagonist.
First of all, she’s a female authority in a completely male organization. Since the Empire, we’ve seen men playing the leading roles in the antagonist side of Star Wars, and it’s not different in the First Order. Phasma is still there, though, surrounded by pretty much only men, and yet she’s commanding stormtrooper armies and receives orders only from the general himself (who else remembers this from the book?). What I mean is, WOW, she’s considered the perfect soldier, the captain every little trooper wants to be, girl or boy, everybody obeys her, fears her, and, certainly, respects her.
If you analyze where she came from and where she got, you’ll see that her journey was all about girlpower as well. She faced her enemies in Parnassos (pretty much men too), her brother (another man) and led the journey with Brendol Hux (a man, again) back to the First Order, where she was considered a better soldier than all the others, including Captain Cardinal, and became captain in less than one year. Impressing for a girl among a bunch of men, right?
Wrong. Phasma only shows us that women can do the very same men can, and even better, after all why wouldn’t we be able to do it better? I heard a specific comment about the scene where she fights against Finn in The Last Jedi, the fan just said “she fights like a man”.
No. Get to know her story and you’ll see that she fights like a woman.
