*Spoilers ~ Duh*



Leia Organa is, in my opinion, the embodiment of what second wave feminist of the 1970’s thought the ideal woman was: A strong independent woman who scoffs at a males attempt to rescue her. A woman who owned her sexuality and executed the creature that enslaved her. A princess, turned politician, turned general. A survivor, a leader, & a warrior.



Fast forward to today:

Leia is now Ex Mrs. Solo & a single mother to her son Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren. Working the same hours as a man & achieving gender parity is a huge part of today’s mainstream feminist dialogue. But, what people have forgotten is all those career driven women are no longer at home. As a byproduct this has kept mothers away from their children, kids are now forced into being raised by the state, raised by nannies, or illegal immigrants. When a woman doesn’t even have the time to raise her children how could she ever have time for a spouse? Is it a surprise to anyone the skyrocketing of divorce rates over the past 50 years? Either something changed in the home or people got really bad at making adult decisions, like: who to marry & having children, both are optional by the way. *Wink*



So, what happens when you have two working parents and a child in the way of everything you mean to accomplish in life? Perhaps Kylo Ren can give us some insight to what it’s like for a young boy to be abandoned by his career obsessed mother.



In the context of Star Wars let’s look at what Yoda has to say about training a Jedi:

Yoda to Luke: I cannot teach him the boy has no patience… Much anger in him, like his father… He is not ready… He is too old, yes, to old to begin the training.

Yoda to Anakin: The fear of loss is the path to the dark side… Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. Clouded this boy’s future is. An apprentice you have, impossible to take on a second. (Mace Windu – He is too old.)

The Jedi had an entire academy before Anakin destroyed it, for the sake of my analogy they will represent the state. In today’s modern society the working class does not have the luxury of hiring tutors to come into their homes & school their children; instead they ship them off to public school to be raised by strangers for them. For centuries lower & working class children were raised by families on farms or by the village at large. So, an alien planet away from everyone you love is an accurate embodiment of today’s education system. Children need their parents in their life to properly emotionally develop. With Han out of the picture, Leia shoved that responsibility on to her brother, shipping Ben Solo off to the new Jedi boarding school, so she could focus on her rebellion. However, Ben Solo would have already been too old to start the training at that time and Luke Skywalker’s school just like today’s schools had too many students in the classroom. Yoda didn’t want Qui Gon Jinn to even have 2 apprentices let alone an entire group of aspiring Jedi & the Jedi code forbid it.



‘How old is too old to start Jedi training,’ would make for an interesting blog but the TLDR version would be once a child is old enough to form an emotional bond with his or her parents. Ben just based on the dialogue of The Force Awakens was old enough to have an established relationship with both his parents. For boys the loss of their mother is increasingly more difficult than the loss of their father. Why? Until the age of sexual maturity a boy looks to his mother for what is uniquely feminine. He learns through her what doesn’t come naturally to him biologically. Also, he learns how she reacts to the world, which prepares him later in life when he finds a female partner of his own. In essence the mother is a blue print to what a woman is to a young boy.



The emotional dependency a young man requires of his mother is rather unique because as he matures she is the only female he feels comfortable enough around to be able to express all of his emotions. One may argue that this is culture imposed on men, but I argue it’s being raised by her that allows a man to feel safe enough to express emotions he would otherwise be biologically be predisposition to bury. Ben Solo was denied this bonding experience. And several computers suffered as a result… (Shifty eyes.) Anakin was also denied this. Luke while denied this was raised by his aunt & uncle from birth, and strangely enough does share a lot of personality traits with Peter Parker. (That would be Spiderman… FYI)



The anger of his mother abandoning him, the fear of being alone, unloved, & forgotten… These are powerful emotions that all lead to the darkside.



I hold the view point that the destruction of the family unit is one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. I don’t believe it was some grand conspiracy by Feminist ‘Sith’ Overlords. But, I do ponder: how many Ben Solo’s have grown up to be Kylo Ren’s because their mother wasn’t there to provide the hugs & love he needed at his most critical age of emotional development?



*If you want more insight to second wave feminism and it’s destruction of the family unit I suggest this interview of Erin Pizzey by Sargon of Akkad:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj8883DryKA



But what about Han Solo; clearly it’s all his fault, riiiiiiiight?



Written By: Tara Sophia @CensoredGamer on twitter.



(How men feel about fathers who walk out on them in one photo…)

