Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Salty in Singapore

That's the one.
Look, as I mentioned recently, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is not my favorite Star Wars movie. It is however-huh? Yes I did. Like a couple days ago. Doesn't matter, the important thing is that while I thought it was a mess, it did feature a same-sex kiss between Commander D'Acy and-what now? Who's that? She's Leia's right hand military person. No, not Laura Dern, look, she's a minor character, sure, but a memorable one and now one half of the series' first and only visible queer couple.

I didn't mention this when I was ranting about the movie, but it was one of the things I liked in it even though it was like a brief background kiss and now that comes years too late. But it's there and a part of Star Wars canon. Except for fans in Singapore where the shot was cut. Because fuck Singapore.
I'm sorry, that was unfair and insensitive and I should walk that
 statement back a bit. Orka and Flix from the animated series,
Star Wars: Resistance are the first queer couple in Star Wars canon. 
Say to about this level of salty. 
Ok, also I should walk back the other thing too. Fuck the backwards homophobic laws of Singapore, and fuck Disney for caving to them. Sorry, I'm a bit salty about this. Actually, no, I'm not sorry I'm salty. Salt me up. I know Star Wars and movies in general are, in the end, just business, but Disney has all the money and all the power in the industry and standing on the right side of this would have made a statement and I'd be writing about how cool they are, but no. Instead we're talking about this nonsense in 20-goddamn-19.

To be clear, wiping out entire planets
is PG-13, but married queer couples
showing affection is R-rated. Cool. 
Apparently, the kiss was the difference between a PG13 and an M18 (basically their R) which I suppose is to be expected in a country where sex between men can result in two years in prison, and sex between women is-well, entirely legal. Yeah, while Commander D'Acy's marriage to Wrobie Tyce (what? Wookieepedia) is illegal under Singaporean law, them kissing is not. But LGBTQ "themes," whatever the hell that means, are against the country's censorship rules. Confused? Of course you are. Because this is bullshit.

Disney however is not confused, they made the conscious choice to acquiesce to Singapore's censors because doing so gets them the lower rating which makes the film more marketable to the target audience. It kind of makes the company's stated dedication to equality ring a little, you know, hollow.
Hey, you don't suppose Disney's
only in it for the money, do you?

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