the highs and lows of star wars twitter virality
on women in male-dominated fandom spaces, social media hate campaigns, and the beautiful misery of fandom twitter. aka the nerdiest thing i've ever written
this is perhaps the most passionate and lengthy essay i’ve written, and due to all of the words and images, it cuts off in the email, please read on the web or the substack app to see it all!
stick around until the end because i have some Big News for you <3
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I watched Star Wars for the first time. The funny thing is, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t something I anticipated becoming as important to me as it did. There are vague memories that exist from when I was in preschool when the other kids had watched the Star Wars prequel trilogy for the first time, or at least knew about the characters, and we would “play” Star Wars. I would be assigned as Princess Leia or Padmé because 1. I’m a girl and 2. I have brown hair, and just wanting to fit in and have fun, I would always participate. Flash forward to when I came back to Star Wars with more of a developed brain, when I escaped the idea that it was a boy movie. It made sense to a younger me— all of the guys in elementary school, my cousins, my dad, were obsessed with Star Wars, but I couldn’t think of a single girl who was into the movies. I was probably 15 when I first realized how cool Star Wars actually is, that it was something I could happily get into, and from there, it spiraled. I thought Anakin Skywalker was handsome, I desperately wanted to be Padmé Amidala, and Yoda kind of freaked me out. I watched every movie a billion times, I read Wiki articles to learn about some of the more obscure pieces of Star Wars lore until I could describe the ecosystem of a planet mentioned in two episodes of the Clone Wars, and I found comfort in the characters, the stories of heroes, villains, hope, love, and the fight against oppression, and most importantly, I found a community of people who seemed to share that same love I had for Star Wars.
Social media and fandom culture have always worked hand-in-hand. since early social media, I’m talking Myspace era. Fans of certain media, musical artists, books, etc. would find each other and create their own communities to discuss all things related to their fandom. This became more apparent in the 2010s with Tumblr. Fandoms would discuss their favorite characters, fight internally, post long-winded text posts about “hidden details” in their favorite scenes, and mostly, just bond as a community. Social media though, has always been a slippery slope. On one hand, it’s a platform for fans to meet their peers, and talk about their favorite shows or movies or celebrities in an environment that supports and encourages these topics, but on the other hand, it opens the door for discourse. Not that that’s a bad thing, I actually think healthy discourse is an important part of constantly learning and evolving, challenging your opinions and whatnot, but it brings in people that are not always in the poster’s intended audience, specifically people from opposite sides of the fandom, which leads to toxicity, strife, death threats, and a sense of uneasiness within the community.
Before I continue, I’m about to expose something to all of you that I don’t often discuss, it’s something I’ll openly talk about with my close friends, and it’s kind of my worst-kept secret, but I can’t write this piece without getting all of this out on the table: I am semi-popular on star wars Twitter. I’m no longer as active as I have been in the past (I’ll get to that in a bit) but there was a point where I would get tens of thousands of likes when I posted about Star Wars, and I was having the time of my life tweeting about my favorite movies. I never took Star Wars Twitter too seriously, half of my tweets (and almost all of my “viral” ones) were (I’m really exposing myself here) along the lines of “this character is so hot.” I would often receive texts from my boyfriend saying “I saw you were thirst-tweeting about Anakin Skywalker again” and I would just go about my day, drafting semi-unhinged tweets, posting stills from my favorite Star Wars movie (Rogue One or Revenge of the Sith, depending on the day), and just talking about something that I loved so much.
Within the Star Wars fandom, there is a massive divide, between what I’ll be referring to as the People Who Tweet For Fun and the Fandom Menace1, and for the most part, the two groups avoid interaction. The Star Wars fandom is only one example of this schism between two highly distinct kinds of fan, but it’s the one I am directly involved in, so for the purposes of this essay, many of my examples will be referencing Star Wars. Please keep in mind this happens across the board, in fandoms traditionally associated with a largely male-dominated fanbase, like Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Marvel, etc.
The People Who Tweet For Fun (PWTFF) primarily consist of what I would consider “typical” stan Twitter accounts, people talking about their favorite character, calling them pookie or babygirl, posting scenes, and just engaging in conversations about the content that they are passionate about. This group varies in age, from adults recounting their favorite childhood memories of seeing the original Star Wars films to younger, more diverse individuals who grew up on the prequels or are only just getting into the fandom because of an attachment to a character or a show. Of course, no one is perfect. Even though this would objectively be considered the less abrasive side of the fandom, there are still arguments, controversial takes, and targeted attacks, like in any fandom. The Fandom Menace, however, takes this abrasiveness to the next level. This group encompasses a primarily male, often extremely right-leaning, or at the very least “anti-woke” audience. They’re traditionalists, they tend to gravitate towards the older Star Wars films and turn their backs on, or at the very least, immensely criticize “Disney Star Wars2.”
For those on the more traditional side of the Star Wars fandom, Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars represented the shift to more modern views or the prioritization of “wokeness” over quality. There’s typically some resentment and very vocal disdain towards the most recently released Star Wars films, the women and people of color who star in and create these movies and shows, and the current “vibe” of Star Wars. For a movie series that began in 1977 and was only intended to be one film before its extreme cultural and financial success, Star Wars has always included female characters and POC characters, albeit a much smaller population than the white men involved in the story. As the viewership of Star Wars increased, new generations of fans got involved, and the community became much more diverse. Of course, a franchise will naturally diversify as its audience does, you don’t just have to be a white man to be a Star Wars nerd.
This dichotomy between the Fandom Menace and the PWTFF reached its peak this past summer. There’s always been contention between the two groups and always will be as long as social media exists, but on June 4 (my birthday) Star Wars premiered a new show on Disney Plus, the Acolyte. The Acolyte was different than previous Star Wars projects, it existed earlier in the timeline and promised a new story, something outside the realms of the Skywalker story, and for me, this was something incredibly exciting. The Acolyte starred icons like Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jodi Turner-Smith and was by-far the most diverse, exciting, and fresh cast, and it was created by Leslye Headland, an open and proud queer woman.
In franchises, there is a tendency to rely on legacy content to appease certain viewers, create buzz, and of course, bring in profits. I personally was feeling fatigued from the reliance on older IP; in a world like Star Wars, there is room to expand, tell stories about characters from all walks of life, focus on new planets and stories, and just use the universe as a backdrop, and The Acolyte looked to be the most creative and promising piece of Star Wars content in a hot second. I don’t want to watch the same story told over and over, I want to see something creative, I want to explore new pieces of the universe I love. I think media franchises that rely on legacy content send the message that they’re not ready for change, and not willing to reflect the diverse, beautiful, and modern fanbase.
Even before its premiere on my birthday (which I will never shut up about), The Acolyte faced tremendous backlash across social media, with it being referred to as “the Wokelyte,” and a targeted hate campaign started running rampant on the Fandom Menace side of Twitter. Star Wars is a world where random alien species come on screen, make a few sounds, and everyone claps, but somehow, having POC Jedi, people who do not look like the white dudebro Fandom Menace base, is cause to go on one of the most racially motivated, spiteful, social media campaigns. In the time leading up to the premiere, these “fans” reviewed bombed, hatefully tweeted, and made TikTok and YouTube videos, to condemn Star Wars for releasing this show.
I say fans in quotes here because how are you considering yourself a fan of a franchise whose entire story is centered around fighting back against an oppressive, fascist regime to elevate the voices of those colonized by the empire and fight back against oppressors, and then behaving with extreme amounts of hate? You say you cheer for the bad guys in Star Wars but I think you might actually be them.
The Fandom Menace attacked the actors in their social media comments, went on Twitter, and elicited fights with anyone who posted excitement about The Acolyte. It was actually insane to see such a large-scale temper tantrum of sorts. Oh, you’re mad that it’s not another show where they CGI Luke Skywalker’s face onto an actor who looks just like him (but they refuse to let the actor use his own face because LEGACY CONTENT!) God forbid Star Wars release content with QUEER PEOPLE!!!!!! or WOMEN!!!! The TRUE and PURE Star Wars fans want to see straight white men hitting each other with their giant lightsabers! I have to laugh while writing that, you’re telling me that in a made-up world with magic powers and aliens and light swords, the hardest thing to wrap your head around is people of color, women, and queer people?
In promotion for The Acolyte, star Amandla Stenberg and creator Leslye Headland (both queer) joked with an interviewer about the show being “the gayest” piece of Star Wars content to date, The Wrap posted the video clip on Twitter and captioned it something along the lines of “Happy Pride Month!” and it was immediately found and criticized by conservatives in the comments. Aside from the usual “the Wokelyte” types, conservative pundits began their own campaign against the show. Right-wing voices used this one clip to argue that Star Wars was trying “to turn children gay” (the source for that quote is a Ben Shapiro video called R2D2 Is GAY?!, which may be the funniest title of the year) and participated in their own review-bombing. There was some crossover, between those on the Fandom Menace side of Star Wars and the conservative party, and it became apparent that regardless of the effort put in by the cast and crew, any awesome scenes or plot points, the Acolyte did not stand a chance for fair criticism.
There is and should always be room for valid criticism of any piece of media, franchise loyalty aside. I’ve been very outspoken about my dislike for the most recent season of the Mandalorian, I’ve called the upcoming Star Wars movie (also a Mandalorian piece of content) a cash grab, and regardless of my personal dislike for the content, I still have immense respect for the actors and crew involved with making it. Whether I agree with it and find it to my taste or not, it still expands the Star Wars Universe and clearly has an audience, I’m just not it. This isn’t exclusive to fandoms or franchises, but when criticism strays from valid conversations about plot choices, acting choices, editing, effects, or anything directly related to the media itself, and becomes unwarranted attacks on identity, race, personal lives, especially when there is a repeated pattern of this behavior from the same group, it becomes apparent that this is bigotry.
The Acolyte marked my return to Star Wars Twitter, and in the spirit of honesty, it was partly because Manny Jacinto’s character was so handsome and interesting to me and I had no one in my personal life to discuss with. I had been pretty quiet prior to the show’s premiere, just liking and retweeting scenes from the animated shows (my favorites), because a few months back, a member of the Fandom Menace side had stumbled into my comments and DMs and sent me hateful messages after I wrote that I wasn’t excited for the upcoming Mandalorian movie.3 He sent me about 6 messages, letting me know that “stupid bitches like you ruin star wars” before going on a tirade about sucking up to Disney Star Wars (I criticized the movie they’re making), how I’m probably very ugly (try again babe), and how “no one wants to fuck a Disney sell out” (I’m of the belief that you can appreciate pieces of media without feeling any loyalty to a large corporation, and to top it off, I don’t think he’s ever touched a woman). None of that was abnormal to me, I knew that when I joined Star Wars Twitter, I would be subjecting myself to vitriolic attacks from men (primarily) who could not cope with women liking the same content that they did, but for different reasons.
Throughout the Acolyte’s 7 weeks on air, I was very active on Twitter, I had great conversations with so many different people about our favorite elements of the show. The Acolyte attracted an audience of people from all different backgrounds, I was mutuals with people who were original Star Wars fans and found The Acolyte to be a breath of fresh air, queer people who found representation in the cast and adored the characters and the storytelling, general Star Wars fans who were excited about the lightsaber combat and references to different elements of Star Wars lore, and some people who’s first foray into Star Wars media was The Acolyte. That community was special, it was warm and open, and every day I logged on and tweeted about my love for different projects and actors, posted Manny Jacinto in his sith lord costume (hot), and while the majority of responses I and those around me received were positive, it was still a constant barrage of tweets and DMs from those on the opposite side.
No matter how much the conversation surrounded positivity, there would still be people from the Fandom Menace in the comments telling me to die for supporting The Acolyte. I think I have a pretty thick skin, especially in regard to online comments, since I’ve been on the internet (specifically fandom Twitter) for so long. I don’t care if a man is telling me I’m not a true Star Wars fan, or that I’m stupid, or that actually this makes no sense in canon because xyz, because I’ll just brush that off. That’s just hate, it’s boring and uncreative, and I’ve heard it a million times, often accompanied by a targeted attack on my gender. At what point though does the hater, incel, Fandom Menace, whatever you want to call them, switch from run-of-the-mill hate comments, stop and think “I’m going to umpromptedly tell this person on the internet to kill themself because they tweeted about enjoying something I dislike,” because that’s where it’s too far. I laughed a lot of it off, it’s internet speak, blah blah blah, but whenever I look back on it, I’m constantly baffled that it was something I received on an almost daily basis in my DMs and just was like cool, let me post another Manny Jacinto thirst tweet.
When The Acolyte ended, I stayed active for a bit, but I had other things to do, so my time on Star Wars Twitter became much less frequent. I still chatted with my mutuals, posted a lot about the Star Wars animations again, and liked a ton of edits, but since the show was over, there wasn’t as much to discuss. It was the calm before the storm. Disney canceled the Acolyte on August 19, about a month after the final episode was released. This prompted an outcry from fans of the show who were excited about the potential the story had, but it also brought a celebration from the Fandom Menace and the conservatives who wanted nothing more than for the show to fail, as proven by the hate train that started before they saw a full episode of the show.
I was devastated when the show was canceled. For the first time in a while, Star Wars content felt fresh, I was excited about the potential and the trajectory that this show could take me on. Yeah, I posted a lot about Hot Sith Lord and was excited to see more of him, but the story drew me into the show in the first place. I saw the news and immediately tweeted my disappointment, discussing everything I just said here. Remember when I mentioned via footnote that I noticed a pattern of receiving some of the most insane hate whenever I spoke about the Mandalorian? After the Acolyte’s cancellation, I posted the following tweet:
Obviously, I was joking, I knew Disney and LucasFilm would NEVER get rid of walking piggy bank baby Yoda, but I was frustrated that it seemed like the hate campaign against the Acolyte worked. They got what they wanted, after all of that. I never intended for that tweet to become a discussion topic, or to reach anyone outside of my circle, but of course, it brought in some of the most disgusting messages I’ve received. In the span of a few hours, my DMs were full of men telling me to kill myself (and I can confirm, that every single person who told me to die was a man, they listed it in their account). I received this gem directly in my comments!
That was the turning point for me, when I realized that regardless of the content I posted, or how much I loved the media I was tweeting about (they still don’t know that I really LOVE the first two seasons of the Mandalorian) I would always be subject to these comments, partly for existing as a woman with a platform in this highly-male dominated community, and partly for supporting and loving a show that strayed from the traditional demographic and “went against” what Star Wars represents to the Fandom Menace. It’s a huge thing, being a voice in a community traditionally made up of people who are your very opposite. It’s attacks for having pronouns in your bio, attributing women’s only interest in the content to be in the hot men (that’s a bonus), it’s constantly shouting to have your voice heard among the chatter of men asking for more characters that look and act just like them.
I could call that side of the fandom out for being hypocrites, discuss how they sent Hayden Christensen (the love of my life and the actor who played Anakin Skywalker in the prequels) hate for almost 20 years, calling him a bad actor, ruining the prequels, etc. before abruptly switching up on him and making him the peak of what Star Wars should be, but I won’t. I could talk about how Star Wars is essentially just one big love story, and how saying women only like Star Wars for the romance is just a classic tactic used to present women’s interests as “less serious” or soft, but I won’t. Regardless of what I do or say, they’ll always find me, try to discredit me, and I can say “I don’t care” over and over, but I do care. I care when I love something so much and the people who hate to see me love it… I can go on.
The internet is not a friendly place. You can log on with pure intentions and hope in your heart and still find yourself being attacked on all sides for something small. Right now, I’m weighing the positives of fandom Twitter and the negatives and asking myself, was it worth it? I received daily hateful DMs, “she’s not a real fan” comments, and “this is why women should be taught to shut their mouths” comments, but I know I was unapologetically myself on that account. I ignored the hate as much as I could, but for a girl with 3,000 stan Twitter followers that had no impact on my real life, I couldn't do it anymore. I think it was worth it at the time
I wish I could end this and say that I feel stronger, that I’m ready to hop back on Star Wars Twitter and chat about my favorite shows and movies and the universe that is so dear to me, but I would be lying. I desperately want the Star Wars fandom (and all male-dominated fandom spaces) to feel like a safe place for women, non-binary people, people of color, and queer people, for our voices to rise above the hate, but when shows that amplify those voices are canceled, when hate trains based solely on suppressing marginalized identities circle and are promoted by people in power, that safe space can’t exist.
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my big news:
okay now that i wrote 4,000 words about star wars and you read them, let’s get to some exciting stuff! i am starting a writing challenge for paid subscribers! on October 1, i will be posting a list of 31 journal prompts, one for each day of the month. i’ll expand on this more in that post, but i’ve been asked how to improve writing, and i find that carving out a little chunk of time to journal or free write every day has been the most impactful to my writing.
i want to encourage daily writing, create a community of writers who support and empower each other, and want to challenge themselves creatively, so i figured why not make this a monthly challenge? WriteLikeAPeoplesPrincess is for that! i’ll be participating as well, sharing how it makes me feel, and happily discussing it with you guys!
here’s how it works:
so right now, this is just for paying subscribers, this is a one-woman show over here, and paid subscriptions allow me to keep creating this kind of content, so your support means the world and gives you perks like the writing challenge and additional weekly posts!
paid subscribers will also now have access to a discord channel, where i will post the daily writing/journal prompt and we can discuss how the writing experience went. the discord is also a place for community building, there will be space for pop culture and media chats, hot gossip, discussions about writing, and a space for you guys to promote your own work/projects! i’m thinking of it like a giant group chat!
i’m hopeful that these prompts will inspire your writing, they’ll make you have conversations with yourself, and by the end of the month feel stronger, more confident, and excited about your writing. i intend to do this every month!
i’m so excited about this, and i really hope you enjoy it and participate in it!
with so much love,
sarah 💌
p.s.: no weekly favorites this week, i was generally having a good time
© Sarah Cucchiara.
I didn’t come up with this nickname, I wish I was that brilliant, but it is the commonly referred to nickname for that side of the fandom on social media.
In 2012, Disney obtained Star Wars and Lucasfilm. Since then, 5 Star Wars movies were released (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One, and Solo: A Star Wars Story) along with a variety of Disney Plus shows (like The Mandalorian)
I’ve noticed a pattern that every time I say something somewhat criticizing the Mandalorian I am subject to some of the most disgusting messages and comments. Just food for thought.
as a huge star wars fan myself, i know what you're talking about. the fandom manace is an absolute mood killer when it comes to anything that isn't their favourites. i loved this piece and how open you were about your experience. (although i did not enjoy the acolyte but that's just my taste)
I love this! Every single sentence rang true; I found myself relating quite a lot to this brilliant piece. I actually think it’s super admirable and heroic that you are a big Star Wars fan fighting against the dark side (aka the Fandom Menace.) Regardless SW, I have been mansplained, condescend to, patronized by so many old white male SW guys that my 1st instinct is to not comment (not that you’re like that in any way, shape or form. I’ve just been yelled at by so many dudes about Star Wars that my go-to is to say nothing.) I am sorry for what you had to experience with these bullies; you’re absolutely right that they are crossing a big red line with the threats. Also it’s kinda bizarre to me that they get so worked up about a movie?? I mean, I love cinema too and I adore Star Wars, but never in my wildest imagination would I start fighting ppl tooth and nail over a movie yk? The sci fi traditionalist guys have some big problems; it’s a relief to hear that I am not alone in dealing with this (again, I didn’t get the level of vitriol and violence that you had to cope with. But I do know what you mean about these guys gatekeeping the SW series and trying to chase the girls out of the community. You’re superhuman for your courage and resilience. Beautiful, brilliant writing. I learned a lot about the politics of these fandoms. Cheers to battling against the dark side. The force is with the people’s princess. Your queen’s crown is well deserved and rests in its rightful place!