Rolling Stone and writer CT Jones ran a hit piece against popular Star Wars YouTuber Star Wars Theory implying he discriminates based on race and sex after having a conversation with psychologist Sadia Khan.
(L-R): Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and First Officer Vic Hawkins (Nican Robinson) with New Republic Security Guards in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©://thatparkplace.com/tag/star-wars/” title=”Star Wars” data-wpil-keyword-link=”linked” data-wpil-monitor-id=”383″>Star Wars Theory’s Theory Talks channel.
She said, “Do we need more women in Star Wars? No, we don’t. And women don’t even watch Star Wars. They don’t even care about it. It’s a man’s little thing, let them have it.” However, there was much more context to the quote that Jones and Rolling Stone shaped their entire article and narrative around.
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Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
As Star Wars Theory points out in his rebuttal video, he asked Khan about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s comments on New Year’s where she told CNN, “I am very thrilled about the project because I think what we are about to create is something very special. And we are in 2024 now and I think it’s about time we had a woman come forward to shape the story in a galaxy far, far away.
He would ask her, “What’s your overall consensus when a female director wants to come in and reshape something and say, you know, it’s plant that flag and say, ‘Hey, I’m a woman and hear me roar. Here is my way of making this sort of franchise, which is already established, now something that’s feminine dominant or female dominant instead of just a good story.’?”
Khan answered, “I think what happens, in particularly in Western cultures where women have it so easy, but they pretend they’re not. What happens with women who generally have it quite easy, they enjoy victimhood because that’s the only way they can feel part of other people’s struggle. What makes human beings feel alive is when they’re a bit struggling, when they’re going through something, a bit of trauma. They’ve gone through something. It makes them feel alive.”
“What’s happened with women in the Western world, particularly, is because there is no real oppression, but they want to be victims so bad because victimhood is just a way of kind of shortcutting sympathy. It’s a shortcut [to] entitlement. You get what you want without having to earn it because you just happen to be a victim,” she reiterated.
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
“So what happens is they want to start finding places where they can be a victim and then transform it so that they can become a hero,” Khan explained. “So what they’ll do is say, ‘Oh, we need more women in this particular sport.’ Nobody watches them. Nobody wants women in there, but they’ll just stamp their authority so they can be a local hero.”
She then addressed Star Wars, “Do we need more women in Star Wars? No, we don’t. Women don’t even watch Star Wars. They don’t even care about it. It’s a man’s little thing, let them have it. But they want to be like, ‘Oh, there’s such a deprivation. We got to be in it so they can be a mini hero.'”
(L-R): Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Chancellor Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
“When you don’t have anything outside of your gender as a way of being proud of yourself, you use your gender as a shortcut to entitlement and heroic stance,” she emphasized. “So I would just say, ‘Unfortunately, it is the norm in Western cultures to kind of overidentify with your gender and then overidentify with victimhood. It’s a way of getting a shortcut to being a hero and as a result it’s just there to…and what it does is it keeps the power in the hands of the women and whenever you redirect power entirely to women, just like it it was entirely to men, it creates an unhealthy society.”
“If the power is totally in men’s hands it would be unhealthy. It it’s totally in women’s hands it’s also unhealthy. … So what’s happening is the culture is creating the very men, women will not desire in the future. By doing this you’re going to create a bunch of men that you will no longer be sexually attracted to and as a result you’ll be more miserable in the long run,” she concluded.
(L-R): Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) with the Darksaber in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
By ignoring nearly everything Khan said, Jones and Rolling Stone falsely claim, “This isn’t the first time the Star Wars fandom has dealt with disagreements surrounding racism and sexism within their own ranks.”
The outlet would then levy a charge against Star Wars Theory, “While Nia didn’t acknowledge the statement during his conversation with Khan, much of the online criticism has centered around his strong and sometimes negative opinions surrounding women characters in the science fiction series and fan spaces — mostly his accusations that Disney executives have been creating and centering female characters as part of an agenda.
It added, “Following Nia’s episode with Khan, thousands of fans spoke out against the streamer, accusing him of promoting and platforming sexist and misogynistic views.”
Princess Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) in Lucasfilm’s OBI-WAN KENOBI, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
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Star Wars Theory responded to these heinous and obviously false accusations in a video, “It’s so weird how people can just twist stuff, completely try to brand you as something that you’re not. And not only is it disheartening, it’s weird. I really don’t get it, man.”
He added, “I don’t remember ever having a problem with female characters. I’ve always had a problem with s****y characters. Characters that they can’t write for s**t. So I don’t care what gender they are. It could be a male or female. Finn was a s**t character. He could have had so much potential. He’s a guy. So that’s incorrect right there.”
Later in the video, Star Wars Theory stated, “No one said that women aren’t important in Star Wars. If anything it almost seems like men aren’t important in Star Wars. I mean look at Luke, look at Han, look at what they did with Finn. If you really want to discuss in detail about that, I’ve done that plenty of times on my channel. But I really don’t think anybody — in fact I would love for you to provide context.”
He then challenged, “How about this, if you can find a clip of me saying that women don’t belong in Star Wars or women shouldn’t be in Star Wars or Star Wars isn’t for women, I will send you $10,000. You have to provide a link. It can’t be like some AI whatever. Provide a link of the original stream or video where I say, ‘Women don’t belong in Star Wars.’ I’ll give you $10,000.”
(Center): Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
He would also specifically address Kahn’s remarks about women not watching Star Wars, “So she made a mistake and I talked to her about it on the phone. She’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess I made a mistake. In my world nobody watches Star Wars.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I know a lot do.’ What’s the big f***ing deal? Like really? It’s one person that made a mistake and didn’t realize that a lot of women like Star Wars and because of that I’m a misogynist? ‘Cause I asked someone what they thought about Sharmeen saying women should shape Star Wars? Like what?”
Star Wars Theory later stated, “If I’ve ever said that women don’t belong in Star Wars, please, tell me, show me. I would love to see it, but until that day happens y’all need to shut the f**k up. Seriously, this is absolutely ridiculous. This is so ridiculous. You guys hate me so much and you just want to cancel me. Why? Because I’m opinionated? Because I speak my mind? Because I’m honest about how I feel about things? Because I’m an actual fan? Because I don’t like the sequel trilogy? Get over yourselves.
He added, “There’s going to be people who don’t like things you like, and if you have a problem with that then that’s on you, seriously.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
What do you make of Rolling Stone’s attack on Star Wars Theory? What do you make of his response?
No women in my family watched The Sequel Trilogy. They were smarter than me.