Vermischtes vom 22. Dezember 2015

1. Hadmut Danisch hat den neuen Star-Wars-Film gesehen und ist davon nicht sehr angetan. (Achtung, in den hier folgenden Zitaten dieses Blogeintrags sind massive SPOILER enthalten, die inhaltliche Aspekte des Films behandeln.) Danisch befindet:

Überhaupt, die Hauptfigur, Rey. Sie hat die Macht, und kann sofort mit dem Laserschwert kämpfen wie Sau. Musten Jedi dafür vorher nicht jahrelang lernen? Hatte Luke Skywalker dafür nicht erst bei Kenobi und dann bei Yoda studieren müssen? Ach, ist Frau, die kann das auf Anhieb.

Ähnlich kritisch sieht das männerpolitische Blog Toy Soldiers die Dinge:

Then there is Rey.

Do not get me wrong, I like Rey. As I stated before, Ridley brings her own charm to the character, so there is little to dislike about Rey in general.

My issue is her role in the story: she is very much a Mary Sue. According to TV Tropes, a Mary Sue is:

"[…] a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature."

That accurately describes Rey. She is attractive, smart, and good-natured. She always does the right thing. She is more than capable of fending off multiple attackers when they attempt to steal BB-8. She seems to know technology so well that she can figure out how every system she encounters works in seconds. She has little trouble flying the Millennium Falcon even though she never flew it before. She is so good that unlike Han Solo, she does not need a co-pilot. And she is Force-sensitive to an astounding degree.

There is nothing Rey cannot do, nothing she cannot do well, and nothing she cannot do better than anyone else.

In short: she is perfect.

Again, this does not mean she is not likable. I like the character. A lot. She is fun and goofy and has an endearing childishness and innocence about her that fits someone who grew up alone.

It is simply that story-wise this leaves Rey with nothing to work with to build her character. She is never challenged in a fight. She is never in any real danger. She has no flaws. In contrast, Finn, the second lead, lies, attempts to run from his problems, and constantly embarrasses himself. He has room to grow. Rey, on the other hand, has nothing. She is already good at everything, already a good and honest person, and already skilled beyond measure.

Imagine you are writing the new Star Wars film. You need a villain, and a damn good one. (...) Then you proceed to have some girl who just learned she can use the Force a few hours ago dominate him. Easily.

You just turned your villain into a joke and stripped your heroine of any real heroism.

When they first meet, Kylo Ren is able to lock Rey in place with the Force, probe her mind to find out what she knows about Luke, and knock her out with a gentle wave of his hand. An hour or so later during Kylo’s interrogation, Rey not only uses the Force to keep Kylo out of her mind, but she reads his mind and exposes his weaknesses and doubts. She then uses a Jedi mind trick, which as far as we know she has never heard of, to get one of the guards to unlock her (although it takes three tries).

We expect this to happen, but not in the first film, and certainly not within minutes of Rey learning she even had the Force.

It does not stop there. (...) Again, we expect the hero to win, but not like this. Kylo was no challenge. Rey walked through him just as she had done with the stormtroopers, wielding the Force like a trained Jedi.

Consider this: it took years for Luke to learn these techniques. Even Anakin Skywalker did not wield the Force like this as a child, and he was the chosen one. Yet Rey, within minutes of learning she had the Force, was able to manipulate someone’s mind. We did not see Luke do that until after years of training in Return of the Jedi. Within hours of learning she had the Force, Rey can use it to pull a lightsaber to her hand. It took Luke years to learn that trick. Within hours of touching a lightsaber for the first time Rey masters use of it enough to beat a trained former Jedi and current dark side wielder. Again, it took Luke years to do this, and technically he did not beat Darth Vader in combat.

None of this would be a problem if Rey learned to do these things over the course of three films. It is that she does them in one and with no trouble that is the problem.

It is actually worse because unlike Luke she never earns the power, nor does she neglect it as Anakin did. Instead, Rey automatically has it, instinctively knows how to use it, and always uses it for the right thing.

Es wird vermutlich noch viele Jahre dauern, bis wir Blockbuster-Actionfilme mit weiblichen Hauptfiguren sehen dürfen, die sich (innerhalb der Filmlogik) halbwegs realistisch zur Heldin entwickeln. Gegenwärtig müssen wir uns mit Frauen begnügen, die unverdient zu großer Macht gelangen – was andererseits die gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse (Stichwort "Frauenquote") treffend widerspiegelt.

2. In der Frankfurter Allgemeinen thematisiert Georg Meck das Verhalten der "Gender-Polizei" am Beispiel von Staatssekretär Jörg Asmussen.

3. Kluge Frauen, lasst eure dümmeren Männer zu Hause schlagzeilt die "Welt". Unbenommen dieser durchgeknallten Überschrift analysiert der Artikel sachlich die Gründe dafür, dass Frauen im Schnitt weniger verdienen als Männer.

4. Avenir Suisse hat derweil analysiert, warum Frauen Frauenberufe wählen und erkennt "handfeste ökonomische Gründe".

5. Das Blog "Aufkreisch" verteidigt das von Feministinnen kritisierte "Victim Blaming".

6. In Großbritannien hat man festgestellt, dass im akademischen Bereich inzwischen zehntausende Männer fehlen.

7. Dem Washington Examiner zufolge leidet die Mutter eines falschbeschuldigten Studenten noch Jahre später unter dem entstandenen Trauma:

"I'm learning with our son that life doesn't just go on after an allegation of rape on campus," the mother wrote. "Even after clearing his name, even years later, the pain returns, staggeringly fresh.

(...) I want to beg Senators [Claire] McCaskill and [Kirsten] Gillibrand to see the destruction of an innocent life, to feel his pain, to see his trauma, to know what it's like to pick up your child who is in a crumble on the campus lawn, to ask them why his life doesn't matter," she wrote, "but the silencing continues, and the war wages on."

8. Gottseidank gibt es inzwischen eine Männerrechtsbewegung, die sich solcher Leidensgeschichten annimmt und dafür von den Medien massiv unterstützt wird:

There is a new, global group dedicated to undermining significant social change. They wear the mask of an online avatar and use technology to harass, threaten and silence their targets. Their cause? To prevent steps towards the equality of men and women. They are the "Men's Rights Activists"

Hier geht es weiter mit dem Artikel "Men's Rights Activists Are Cave Dwelling Idiots". Es geht doch nichts über eine sachliche und faire Berichterstattung.