Wookieepedia has entered the culture war and is receiving praise and backlash for assigning pronouns to all characters in the Star Wars franchise.
As many have said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
On Wednesday, the Star Wars fan wiki that anyone can edit posted to their Twitter account that in order to be “more accurate and respectful” they wanted to let people know that they had added a new section for “pronouns” on the Quick Info area of their character posts.
Despite being a grammatical term, each character’s pronouns would now be listed under the “physical description” subheading. This is presumably because they do not have a section for personal preferences.
Their post states:
“You may have noticed a new field popping up in our infoboxes lately! We are now listing characters’ pronouns? It is always important to keep in mind that pronouns do not necessarily reflect gender, and by doing this we will be more accurate and respectful. #StarWars”
https://twitter.com/WookOfficial/status/1620918551724056577?s=20&t=Y68Cl5E-vmNL0rRi3X4BOg
The post, which has racked up half a million views of this article, incited a flurry of responses both for and against the decision. Detractors of many levels found themselves blocked as the Wookieepedia account went into defense mode.
Harassing others is not okay. Many people have taken it upon themselves to target and attack Wookieepedia editors over the addition of pronouns to character infoboxes, and we condemn those who choose to attack others. Star Wars is for everyone. Harassers will be blocked
— Wookieepedia🏳️🌈 #BePeace (@WookOfficial) February 3, 2023
Wookieepedia is owned by Fandom Media and is therefore not directly controlled or operated by Lucasfilm, the Walt Disney Company, or any of its affiliates. However, at least one Lucasfilm employee chimed in. Matt Martin of the Lucasfilm Story Group voiced his support for the change:
“This is great!”
https://twitter.com/missingwords/status/1620931155032961024?s=20&t=JXQJF-7NB9y0Da23kWwzyg
Voicing a preference for particular pronouns is considered controversial in some circles and an act of compassion in others. One side views this as “the least you can do” to acknowledge that others might see themselves differently than their biological characteristics, while another side sees it as compelling others to adhere to a worldview contrary to biology, religion, truth, and humanity itself.
While Wookiepedia’s main account had originally pinned the tweet showing the quickinfo box for clone trooper Commander Cody, at some point since Friday they have removed the pin and deleted certain comments.
For instance, this tweet about Obi-Wan using pronouns was taken down:
The tweet itself seems to indicate that Wookieepedia sees the use of pronouns in in any form means that George Lucas is giving license or intended for his characters to be open to the full spectrum of neopronouns. While we are not aware of Lucas’s stance on the issue, older generations have not typically pushed for these kinds of additions. It was almost unheard of 1977 for a person to “choose” pronouns outside of their biological imperatives.
While Wookieepedia is unlikely to reverse course, there have been edits and reversions on their pages by various users who seem to disagree on the issue.
For additional coverage, stay tuned to That Park Place.
Pronouns are just a cult of the mentally ill. It’s as if we were forced to acknowledge a schizophrenic’s voices they hear in their head as real.