#problematic stanning

Star Wars is an extremely long running fandom, with the first of the original films coming out in 1977. With The Last Jedi coming out this month, the fandom has also had another resurgence, becoming more active than ever before. There are several elements of fan culture that can be considered quite problematic in the Star Wars fandom, many related to the treatment of female characters and people of colour. 

The fan response to the casting of the three leads in The Force Awakens was an atrocious example of both fandom racism and sexism. Fan response to a female protagonist was negative, as was response to the idea the of a black stormtrooper character. This really highlighted where the issues in the fandom lie.

The shipping of Rey and Kylo Ren is extremely popular and largely favoured over the much closer to canon pairing (as of The Force Awakens) of Rey and Finn. Finn is played by John Boyega, a man of colour, and is often neglected in fan spaces in favour of Kylo Ren/Adam Driver. This is not to say that fandom is slighting Boyega inherently out of racism, but there are explicit comments that have been made that certainly imply that as reasoning.

Poe Dameron is played by Oscar Isaac, who has a Guatemalan mother and Cuban father. Dameron is resultingly a canonically Latinx coded character, and this is often fetishized in fandom, with fanfiction depicting him in a way that fits the “Latin Lover” trope. 

The shippers of Reylo often romanticise moments in The Force Awakens in a problematic manner to service their ship. Ren’s attempt to retrieve information from Rey via her mind is effectively mental rape, yet shippers still treat the act as one of “connection”. Kylo forcibly enters her mind, and we see Rey in discomfort and pain, yet the scene still becomes “romantic” in fandom spaces. 

The standalone film Rogue One provides possibly the greatest range of diversity in the Star Wars universe, but is still not without its problems. Much like Poe Dameron, the male lead, Cassian Andor, is fetishized for his heritage - Diego Luna is Mexican and British.

The First Order in the most recent films are intended to be “space Nazi’s”, in simplified terms. Thus, the idolisation of First Order characters in the fandom ultimately becomes a form of Nazi apologism. This is especially notable in terms of the popular shipping of Hux and Kylo Ren, a slash ship that excludes the main POC cast in favour of white Nazi stand in secondary characters. 

The prequel films are universally hated in the fandom/general media, and Jake Llyod, who played young Anakin, was subjected to much hate. He ultimately only appeared in one other film again, and has said that he was bullied and it was a “living hell.” Mark Hamill, the actor of Luke Skywalker, commented on this, and shamed fans for their treatment of the young actor.

The costume most emblematic of the character of Princess Leia is her iconic golden bikini. This costume has become a symbol of eroticism in fan culture, sexualising an otherwise very empowering character. Unfortunately, this can also in part be attributed to the media and it’s creators themselves. This costumes prevalence tainted Leia’s status as a feminist icon by making her into a sex object.

Leia’s bikini costume is also problematic in the way it eroticises slavery in an uncomfortable way. 

Currently, the shipping climate in the Star Wars fandom is increasingly toxic. Ship wars are filled with vitriol and hate on all sides, the fandom becoming quite broken and problematic itself as a result.

Shipping of the actors is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly the shipping of Daisy with either Adam or John. This is invasive of their private lives, and considering the previous marital statuses of the actors involved, inappropriate. 

FINAL COMMENTS

Even though much has been made of these instances in Cole’s past, he still has a dedicated fanbase and was even featured in Buzzfeed articles as recently as two days ago (at the writing of this post, 7 December).

Cole is best known for his role as Cody on the iterations of the Suite Life and currently as Jughead Jones on Riverdale. He has had a major resurgence, particularly among teen girls, in the last year, and has yet to apologise or explain many of the below instances of his “problematicness”.

Cole believes in “reverse racism” - an idea commonly believed to be false, as white people as a group are not faced with institutional oppression or prejudice. Sprouse positions himself as a “woke ally”, but enjoys the privileges of his whiteness. He even uses MLK as a way to justify his beliefs, which is disturbing in a number of ways.

He has been accused of emotional abuse by his ex-girlfriend Bree Morgan via her tumblr, beebunny. She has posted various vague comments, most of which have since been deleted.

Cole tweeted “Don’t become so jaded by abuse that your opposition becomes abusive.” The tweet has since been deleted, but reinforces strong victim blaming rhetoric, and shames abuse victims for talking about their abuse. Needless to say, this is a pretty disgusting thing to tweet. 

Sprouse plays Jughead Jones, a character iconically confirmed asexual in the Archie comics in 2016. However, thus far in Riverdale, Jughead has had several romantic entanglements with heavy sexual undertones, erasing his identity. Cole himself has stated a desire for his character’s asexuality to be explored, but ultimately at this point these comments have amounted to nothing but baiting of those seeking asexual representation.

In response to this tweet from Tyler the Creator, Cole said: “.@fucktyler beastiality is illegal Tyler.” Many have viewed this as an overt example of racism (referring to a black man as an animal is certainly concerning) but others have inferred that it is a reference to Tyler’s own description of himself as a “wolf.” 

VERDICT: UNSTANNED