The latest Star Wars movie has some homos mighty mad: “There’s a stereotypically “gay”-seeming villain in the new CGI Star Wars movie The Clone Wars that is so offensive and over-the-top that you’re left wondering, ‘Is George Lucas insane?'” [AfterElton]
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REBELComx
I’ll have to see it in action before I decide if it’s offensive. I didn’t find any of the traits of the other aliens to be racist. If your making an intergalactic adventure, background characters are usualy only one or two demensional so you have to compare them to something that people are familiar with. You can see this is ALL science fiction. With an intergalactic community, certain worlds have learned their place within the society. Each race is particularly good at one thing which lets them survive and prosper. Those races hav existed for millenia longer as a world than we have, so it’s more likely they’ll have devoloped some kind of global community and all do something similar in the galactic range of things.
I don’t think Lucas is homophobic. But he does know his audience and is probably just guilty of playing to sterotypes to create memorable characters. Of course, Hutts have always been symbols of perversion and wealth. This is just another example of it.
I DO find it odd, however, that of all the worlds and all the races throughout the Star Wars universe, that there is no race or group that blatantly displays homosexuality in any kind of light, let alone positive. In all of even the expanded universe, there is only one canon gay couple. And they aren’t even major characters. There are plenty of races that are intersex or no sex at all. But the LACK of gay and lesbian characters is what I find puzzling more than anything. Especially seeing how the Jedi Master/Apprentice so well mimics the pedastric relationships of the Greeks, Romans and Samurai…but without the sex.
todd
Look at JarJar Banks! Like that wasn’t a traveling Minstrel boy stereotype. Why should space be any different for the gays than the blacks. Lucas has the mind of a 12 year old, what do you expect?
Tom
The character JarJar Banks was so blatantly offensive it was a complete distraction from the storyline. I only continued to watch the movie to see how he would be killed, but unfortunately, he survived to the end. That character was offensive, and for anyone who tries to defend it or pretend it was not there, has his head up his ass.
msim
Actually Jar Jar Binks was a mix of the worst stereotypes about a blackness and gayness.
A coward, mincing about and incapable of speaking proper English.
I don’t know about the US media but in Canada and the UK, the media specifically saw Jar Jar as an insult to black gay men.
I must say I have not seen a George Lucas film since.
Give me Torchwood any day.
Rikard
Lucas has always used racial stereotypes, Binks notably, but Watto the junk dealer is a scathing reference to a swarthy, low brow, “whats-a-madda-u” mediterranean type from the last century. The Trade Federations guys have a distinctly asian patois, Ewoks are silly, comedic, little guys even at war, protocol droids are pretty queer, sand people, don’t get me started on sand people and the list goes on. Todd is right about Lucas having a 12 year old mind set. To cut him some slack, you might talk about his use of archetypes rather than stereotypes, but it’s only a fig leaf to cover the girth of his insensitivity. He uses this stuff to make simplistic, good v. evil stories that appeal mainly to kids and “simple” folks. I’m not saying you need to be stupid, or undeveloped to appreciate his work, just that very much depth of study is unwarranted. I guess Popeye and Yogi Bear were cultural icons of their day too, but Lucas, good and popular as he is, isn’t really a Kubrick, Wells, Hitchcock, or Scorsesse.
mark
Lucas lost me two movies ago, so since I won’t be going to this….pffffft, who cares.
ctSF
Lucas has done nothing but churn out crap since The Empire Strikes Back. The last four Star Wars movies were nothing more than merchandising vehicles and SFX proof-of-concepts. I won’t even go into the tragedy that was the last Indiana Jones movie. Ugh!
Snoodle
Saw this the other day. Now, I’m not usually one to jump on things…but holy crap. I dunno how that happened, and I wish with all my heart I could forget it.
Eminent Victorian
Turns out he’s just garden variety stupid.
Azathoth
I’ve seen the movie – the Ziro character is a little WTF but look at it this way, who ends up saving the day… C-3PO – who is arguably gayer than anyone else in the Saga