We Are Not Your Cosplay: A Jewish Nerd’s May the Fourth Rant |
Scrolling Instagram today, I came across the above picture. It is a storefront window in Long Beach, California. A poster. The word DEFEAT across the top. The word EMPIRE across the bottom. In the middle, a Death Star — Lucas’s iconic spherical superweapon — patterned half American flag, half Israeli flag, with a small Star of David stamped onto it in case you somehow missed the editorial position. Right next to it, sharing the window: a poster for an upcoming event called “Queer Resistance: An Intergenerational Dialogue.” The storefront has committed to the bit.
Today is May 4. Star Wars Day. May the Fourth Be With You, the day the rest of the internet greets each other in stormtrooper voice and posts Death Star memes. This poster, evidently, is what the Long Beach window committee thinks counts as fan content.
I would like, on behalf of the Jewish nerd community, to register a complaint.
A Note from the Fandom
This piece will not be a deep dive into the structure of antisemitism. I have written those. They are one tab over. This piece is a rant.
I am, by lifelong inclination, a sci-fi and fantasy nerd. I have read Harry Potter more times than is healthy. I can name, in order, all seven Horcruxes. The extended editions of The Lord of the Rings are a holiday tradition. Star Wars — the original trilogy, the prequels, the new stuff, The Mandalorian — is not background entertainment for me. It is genre I have lived in.
So I am not coming at this from outside the tent. I am coming at it as someone who has spent a real number of hours of her one short life inside Tatooine, Middle-earth, Westeros, Hogwarts, Pandora, and Arrakis.
And I have to tell you: it is exhausting to watch every single one of those properties get dragged, by force, into the gravitational field of one specific contemporary........