Opinion: Dear Bob Iger, Star Wars Is Not A Platform For Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Feminist Activism

Article here. Excerpt:

'The cognitive dissonance at Disney continues. In an interview with CNN, upcoming Star Wars director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy sounded off on the ‘historical significance’ of her being hired to lead the untitled “Rey film”, declaring that she is “thrilled” about the project because, “We’re in 2024 now, and I think it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape the story in a galaxy far, far away.”

Do you feel the excitement?

Unlikely. By all available metrics, Obaid-Chinoy is highly accomplished and talented as a filmmaker, but her interviews on this Star Wars opportunity only seem to point toward ego and using this intellectual property as a vehicle for scoring political points.

Obaid-Chinoy made this clear in 2015 in an interview on stage with Jon Stewart where she affirmed her enjoyment of “making men uncomfortable” after he noted that the “thread” in her films were men that are “a—holes.”

“I enjoy making men uncomfortable,” the filmmaker declared at the time, elaborating, “It is important to be able to look into the eyes of a man and say, ‘I am here and recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable.'”

She continued, “And it should make you uncomfortable, because you need to change your attitude, and it’s only when you’re uncomfortable, when you’re shifty, when you have to have difficult conversations, that you will perhaps look at yourself in the mirror and not like the reflection, and then say, ‘Maybe there is something wrong with the way I think, or maybe there is something wrong with the way I am addressing this issue.'”'