“Fan Girls Going Rogue” The Reception of The Force Awakens and Rogue One with Female Fans

In the last 3 years Disney has released the 4 newest instalments to the Star Wars franchise, both of which are led by female protagonists, Rey (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi) and Jyn Erso (Rogue One). Although Star Wars fandom has mostly been associated with a rather poor stereotype of the male fanboy, female fans have been taking inspiration from the female characters of the series. Princess Leia aka General Leia Organa in the new instalments was one of the many faces on placards under the motto “A Woman’s Place is in The Resistance” in the Women’s March that occurred in Washington in early 2017. There has been some resistance to the female leads in the new films with criticism that Disney is spouting feminist propaganda and even rumours (which turned out to be false) that Rogue One was being re-shot to be anti-Trump. This study of 330 participants discusses how female reception to the new instalments has differed from the “die-hard” male fans and why this has occurred. Information gathered in the online survey indicated that female Star Wars fans had a positive response to the new female lead characters that were introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Rogue One. However, it was also apparent that they perceived a negative response to the new female characters but also to themselves by male Star Wars fans. The study addresses a literature gap on reception with female fans to Star Wars.