What is the significance of the character Rey to female Star Wars fans? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Alecia Morgan, female Star Wars fan and mother of four, on Quora.
I'm a Star Wars fan (movies, not yet as deep as canon-love) for as long as I can remember being alive, a woman, and a mother of three boys and one girl. The idea of Rey (pre-movie viewing) was enough to make me feel positively giddy. The actual portrayal? It moved me to tears. (Yes, much of this movie did, I'm not afraid to admit!)
Having a female lead whose actual role was as lead was simply wonderful. Leia was good, for her time, and I was definitely a fan and had spent many years playacting Leia in all of her beautiful, bad-ass glory. But Rey is It. She's so many of the things that Leia and Padme weren't. She's tough. She's a jedi! She calls the lightsaber to her, she fights the bad guy. She stands for What's Right and is strong and resourceful, but doesn't lose her emotions (something that sometimes the Strong Woman character in movies seems to have happen). So for my personal satisfaction, for the little girl I was, Rey was amazing. For my little daughter to have a stronger, better character to roleplay as she grows up is amazing. For girls all over, Rey is amazing.
But that's not her real significance for me. For me, the most significant thing about Rey is what she means for my three sons. Rey is a role model for them, for what they'll know women can do, can mean, can be.
My sons are strong. They're tough. They're also full of emotions, feelings, and aren't being shamed out of expressing them. And I battle every day to make sure that they grow up knowing women, minorities, all people, are equal. Girls can x, y, and z. It's difficult. A lot of our mainstream media and classic pop culture still reinforce otherwise. The women need rescuing. The men rescue.
Rey just showed them in just over two hours that Women Can. Women Do. Women Are.
I can fight this battle in ways big and small, subtle and overt, and will continue to, but the value of having something so big, so huge as Star Wars put the light on a female heroine is invaluable. It makes my lesson so much more clear for them. I'd always fought for equal footing for their baby sister for them - in lightsaber battles, in watergun fights, etc. Rey showed them that sometimes it's not even about being equal - sometimes the girl is just truly the hero. The center of the story.
And all those grown-up boys in the theater with us, the ones who grew up either being Han Solo or Luke Skywalker, rescuing Leia, seeing her as the damsel (albeit a tough-talking one) or the love interest/prize, they all saw Rey too. They all sat there and fangirled and fanboyed out about Rey, who clearly is the heroine, who will be a Jedi, and who is going to be one pretty amazing character from here on out.
Rey is great and important, not just as a role model or a strong character for girls to play, but because she clearly, poignantly, and beautifully just IS. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about her. She is the star.
Yes, women can always use more strong women role models in popular culture but ... we didn't need to know we 'could' do all the things men can. We just needed the rest of the world to know it, too.