Brian Truitt of USA Today complains that there isn’t any sex in the Star Wars universe and calls on the filmmakers to rectify that situation! But there is sex in Star Wars. The whole storyline of the entire saga turns on sex.
In his article Sex in ‘Star Wars’: Here’s why it’s about time, Truitt appreciates the innuendos in the latest installment about young Hans Solo, but says that’s not enough. He makes a joke about how the movie franchise is the Last American Virgin. “To be frank, Star Wars, you’re 41 years old and you need to have sex.”
But Star Wars is full of sexual entanglements and their consequences. Anakin Skywalker (who later turns to the dark side of the Force to become Darth Vader) has a secret marriage with Queen Padmé Amidala. It has to be in secret because Jedi knights apparently are under a vow of celibacy, as in other religious orders, including the military orders of knights in the Middle Ages here on earth, which serve as a imaginative model for Star Wars ( “long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away”). That couple, in the course of their secret marriage, have twins, Luke and Leia. So the villain and the two main protagonists are all members of the same nuclear family.
And then as the saga keeps piling on the sequels, we learn that Hans Solo and Leia, whose romantic feelings for each other was a spark in the first trilogy, end up getting married. And they bring into the world Kylo Ren, who also goes over to the dark side and becomes the new arch-villain for the subsequent films. Again, a romantic relationship leads to marriage, which entails sex, which results in having children, all of which are essential to the plot and characters of the storyline. (See this for the Skywalker family tree.)
So why does Truitt think there isn’t any sex in Star Wars? Where does he think Luke and Leia and Kylo come from?
Oh, wait a minute. I think I know. Procreative sex doesn’t count. Sex in marriage and sex that conceives babies don’t count for pop cultural purposes.
He is interested only in recreational sex that takes place outside of marriage and that has nothing to do with conception. Barren sex. Married sex that bears fruit in children is lumped together with “virginity,” a concept for which he has only scorn.
Also, he wants to see the sex. On the big screen. Why is that, I wonder?
That kids and families make up a big part of the Star Wars audience don’t matter to him, because, again, he doesn’t think in terms of kids and families.
Illustration by Clint, Star Wars Family Tree, via Flickr, Creative Commons License
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