Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars

and the Trouble with Boys

PAMELA BETTIS
Washington State University

BRANDON STERNOD
California State University, Stanislaus

Scholars claim that the six films comprising the Star Wars epic are the United
States most important modern myth. The films have meaning for contemporary lives and serve as reflections of the fears, anxieties, and hopes surrounding what many perceive to be a crisis of masculinity manifested in the current
boy crisis. This article describes how the films explore possibilities for a different kind of boyhood and how they contribute to understanding competing
explanations for the boy crisis.
Keywords: boyhood, boy crisis, film studies, masculinity, gender

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away Or is it? This well known phrase, forever associated with the Star Wars film saga, informs the audience at the beginning of
each film that the events to be depicted take place somewhere very distant from our own
world, both spatially and temporally. We disagree, believing that the six films have
meaning for our contemporary lives and serve as reflections of the fears, anxieties, and
hopes of contemporary American society, especially those fears surrounding what many
perceive to be a boy crisis and a related crisis of masculinity. Thus it is not surprising
that the series has earned $4.3 billion at the box office world-wide. Associated merchandise has generated three times that amount. Many scholars claim the series is the
United States most important modern myth (Brabazon, 1999; Johnson, 1999; Leming,
2002; Lev, 1998).
The six movies reflect the changing understanding of masculinity in the United
States, the social resistance to such transformations, and the potential future for boys
and men. As a whole, the Star Wars epic represents the continual construction and reconstruction of masculinity since World War II. The original trilogy of films (19771983) and its masculine archetypes of the hero, Luke, the adventurer, Han, and the
villain, Darth Vader, presented one-dimensional, simplistic representations of masPamela Bettis, Washington State University; Brandon Sternod, California State University, Stanislaus.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Pamela J. Bettis, Cultural Studies and
Social Thought in Education, 338 Cleveland Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, US.
Electronic mail: bettis@wsu.edu
THYMOS: Journal of Boyhood Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2009, 21-38.
2009 by the Mens Studies Press, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.mensstudies.com
thy.0301.21/$14.00 DOI: 10.3149/thy.0301.21 Url: http://dx.doi.org/10.3149/thy.0301.21

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BETTIS AND STERNOD

culinity that were derived from the 1950s, another time of male panic for white, conservative, heterosexual American masculinity that was supposedly challenged by leftist and Communist political ideological incursions during the Cold War and the
increasing influence of mothers on boys lives (Courdileone, 2005). The first three films
are a rejuvenation of the periods cult of toughness and film icons in whom wartime
self-confidence characterized the dominant masculinity (Gilbert, 2005). In the earlier
Star Wars films, Luke is the duty bound soldier hero who grows into manhood during
wartime and assumes the dominant masculinity (Beynon, 2002).
In 1998, the first of the next three installments of the saga was released. This is the
trilogy which interests us most. Instead of using familiar masculine archetypes, as he
did in the first three films, George Lucas, the producer and director, developed one
central character who embodied both a critique of masculinity and an awareness of its
possibilities. Anakin Skywalker is almost Christ-like in his appearance and talents. At
the same time, he cannot control his own emotions and violent behaviors. In contrast
to the soldier hero character of Luke, Anakin Skywalker is the soldier victim
(Beynon, 2002) who symbolizes the recent and ongoing crisis of masculinity, more
specifically the boy crisis, a phrase found in both popular (for example, Laura Bush
speeches) and academic literature.
Epstein Elwood, Hey, and Maw (1998) frame the discourse of boys underachievement as a globalized moral panic (p. 3). We believe that Anakins difficulties
mirror the reasons for this moral panic and argue that the life of Anakin Skywalker is
the American boy crisis writ large.
In our analysis, we draw from critical gender and masculinities scholars (Butler,
1990; Connell, 1995, 2000, 2002; hooks, 2004; Kimmel, 2004; Weedon, 1997) who
seek to bring attention to societal inequities, particularly patriarchy and its manifestations, in discourse, culture and the economy. Critical gender studies scholars contest the
idea that social identities such as man or woman are innate and static but are produced, reproduced, embodied and lived by individuals and societies in various ways
during different historical and social contexts. Butlers (1990) assertion that gender is
more performative than stable is relevant: There is no gender identity behind expressions of gender; identity is performatively constituted by the very expressions that
are said to be its results (p. 25).
Popular films are obvious vehicles in which gender performativity and what constitutes ideal manhood can be examined critically for their meanings (Cohan, 1997).
Like myths, popular films can be read in multiple ways because they contain multiple
and contradictory meanings. That is one of the reasons that they are popular. We believe
that examining masculinity through one central film character is a useful way to explore
and critique the dominant discourses of masculinity that are circulating, especially in
popular media.
First, drawing from the work of Joseph Campbell (1953, 1972, 1988), we situate
Star Wars as our nations most influential contemporary American myth. We then examine how some Star Wars fans make sense of masculinity as portrayed in the films.
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STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

Next, we briefly explore the boy crisis in the United States, and the concerns and solutions associated with this crisis, particularly as they relate to schools.
We provide three readings of the character of Anakin Skywalker, one from a popular conservative viewpoint, one from the perspective of well-known and popular psychologist William Pollock, and another from critical gender scholars who offer
conceptualizations of masculinity that serve as alternatives to those found in mainstream society. Finally, we explore the implications of Star Wars for a new and more
critical discussion of masculinity.
Star Wars as American Myth
Star Wars has been described as American societys most important modern myth,
popular memory, collective ritual, and spiritual or ideological representation (Brabazon,
1999; Johnson, 1999; Leming, 2002; Lev, 1998). Lev argues that Star Wars has been
so successful because it blends a variety of beloved American cultural narratives which
include Arthurian legend, Paradise Lost, the Western, and The Wizard of Oz. These elements are combined into a quest that includes mesmerizing visual and sound effects
and non-stop action. Further, Mary Jo Leddy, a theology professor at the University of
Toronto, maintains that Star Wars satisfies a deep spiritual hunger in the society at
large:
What is astonishing to me is the number of people who know the
Star Wars script by heart, as opposed to any form of the scriptures.
People need stories to make sense of the universe. That has been the
function of the great religious narratives, and as they become less
compelling, movies like Star Wars can provide people with an entire
theology or world view. (quoted in Johnson, 1999, p. 15)
Although Lucas has not claimed that the film series is theological in nature, he has
explicitly discussed his desire to create a contemporary myth. In an interview with Bill
Moyers prior to the release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Lucas commented: With Star Wars I consciously set about to recreate myths and the classical
mythological motifs. I wanted to use those motifs to deal with the issues that exist
today (Lucas & Moyers, 1999, p. 91).
Because of Lucas acknowledgement of his desire to create a contemporary myth,
much has been made of his relationship to Joseph Campbell, the eminent mythologist.
Lucas has expressed gratitude for Campbells work on numerous occasions, even referring to him as his own personal Yoda. In works spanning forty years, Campbell
(Campbell, 1953, 1972, 1988) repeatedly stressed the important role mythology plays
in human societies. He has argued that myth is the secret opening through which the
inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation ... the very
dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth (Campbell, 1953,
p. 3; see also Segal, 1990).
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Campbell notes that myths generally serve several major functions for society.
First, they express a sense of awe and wonder about the mysteries of the universe; second, they symbolically explain the lived world, but in a way that maintains the sense
of mystery; third, they maintain social order. Segal (1990) adds a fourth: Myth functions to harmonize persons with society, the cosmos, and themselves. It serves to link
them with everything both outside and within themselves (p. 234). For Campbell
(1953), myths explain life for specific societies at specific places in time. In doing so,
they help to integrate the individual into his or her society and the society itself into the
greater realm of the cosmos (p. 55).
For Campbell, the four functions of myth are universal. He adds that as times
change, so, too, must its myth. As he explained in The Power of Myth:
[M]yths offer life models. But the models must be appropriate to the
time in which you are living, and our time has changed so fast that
what was proper fifty years ago is not proper today. The virtues of the
past are the vices of today. And many of what we thought to be the
vices of the past are the necessities of today. The moral order has to
catch up with the moral necessities of actual life in time, here and
now. (Campbell, 1988, p. 13)
Lucas saw himself as the interpreter for this time and this generation, and Star Wars as
the vehicle.
However, myths do not merely comfort people and integrate them into society.
Like most great stories, they are paradoxical, and therefore sometimes threaten us as
individuals because they speak to our deeply held fears (Carson, 1999). Expressed as
myths, however, our fears become less threatening. If this is the case, then, to what
fears does Star Wars speak?
We believe that Star Wars can tell us much about the fears currently circulating
around masculinity, particularly in relation to how it is understood in contemporary
American society. In the first three films of the series (1977-1983)A New Hope, The
Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedithe male life models Lucas presents are
standard mythological archetypes. These characters, who embody normative masculinity, were a response to the fears and uncertainties generated by the male panic of
the 1950s (Gilbert, 2005), the Womens Movement and the Vietnam War, which challenged the prevailing understanding of masculinity in the United States (Courdileonoe,
2005). Consequently, the main male characters of the first three filmsthe hero (Luke
Skywalker), the rogue (Han Solo), the wise man (Yoda and Obi-Wan) and the villain
(Darth Vader)represented familiar archetypes that served to reaffirm beliefs that
truth could be found in the past and that traditional heterosexual and white, middleclass masculinity could solve and overcome any problems and obstacles.
Twenty-two years after the first Star Wars film debuted, the first of the next three
installments of the saga was released. With the rapid influx of new technologies, greater
acknowledgement of gay, lesbian and transgendered lives, the shifting economic landscape, globalization, and most important, media focus on the crisis of masculinity and
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STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

the boy crisis in particular, the late 1990s and early years of the new century presented Lucas with a different social context in which to construct his films. Instead of
using safe and familiar archetypes, as he did with the first three films, Lucas combined
them all into one character, a seemingly contradictory representation of masculinity. In
Anakin Skywalker, we are given a much more complex masculine life model who by
himself encompasses three of the four archetypes mentioned previously. He is a hero
with phenomenal powers and abilities. He is also a rogue whose heart is good but who
breaks rules for what he feels is the greater good. He is also the villain who cannot
control his emotions and consequently produces violence. Instead of the reliable archetypical sage to guide him, as young Luke had in Obi-Wan, Anakin is given a very
young and more brotherly Obi-Wan and a duplicitous mentor, Palpatine. Unlike Luke,
the duty-bound soldier hero, Anakin is the soldier-victim (Beynon, 2002), a masculine figure who is damaged by his repression of feelings and inability to fully express
his masculinity.
The mythological dimension of Star Wars is not lost on fans who discuss almost
every aspect of the films series in conferences and online discussions. In one recent
exchange, an online community examined which Star Wars character represented the
Alpha male. The first fan wrote Id go with Luke in episode VI when he enters Jabbas
house. The next rebutted with: Hes a Beta trying unsuccessfully to act like an Alpha.
A third stated that the he would drink to the Alpha males demise and hopes that he
Rust(s) in Peace. A fourth contributor claimed that The Alpha male isnt dead, were
just experiencing a momentary lack of manhood in the film industry. This was followed by a strong endorsement of Bruce Williss character in the Die Hard film series,
with the characters infamous profanity. In another exchange about whether Luke or
Han is the Alpha male, one individual situated his answer within the current context of
masculinity and its threats. Vader was the alpha male. He surpassed his mentors, rules
with complete authority and took nothing from anyone. If that does not define Alpha
male, I dont know what does. (FYI, you could argue he listens to Palpatine and is
thus not an Alpha male, but I think Palpatine is more like a woman in this case, manipulating Vader. And anyone with a wife or girlfriend knows that this is certainly the
case. Women who wear the pants rock ... It is the 2000sha ha).
These online conversations among Star Wars fans illustrate the ongoing construction of masculinity via popular films and how individuals grapple (albeit flippantly)
with what it means to be masculine today through discussing movie characters. What
constitutes dominant masculinity appears to be under stress. Even when Darth Vader
was proffered as the Alpha male, the online fan qualified the claim with worries about
the implications of his relationship to Palpatine who is seen as manipulative and thus
womanly. The self-consciousness of It is the 2000sha ha and the changing role of
women in discussing the manliness of Darth Vader are telling.
Film critics have grappled with masculinity in their reviews of the films. For example, the well-known critic, Roger Ebert, was intrigued with how and why Anakin
lost his wayhow a pleasant and brave young man was transformed into a dark,
cloaked figure with a fearsome black metal face (Ebert, 2005).
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But Anakin is not the only boy/young man who is troubled. Across the United
States and around the industrialized world, politicians, media pundits, and some academics claim that we are experiencing a boy crisis and that boys are oppressed and
suffering, emotionally, academically and behaviorally.
Troubled Boys
The titles of recent popular press books reveal the concern around this topic: Real
Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood (Pollack, 1998), Lost Boys: Why
Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them (Garbarino, 1999), and most notably The War Against Boys (Sommers, 2000). Even a First Lady of the United States
contributed to the discourse of troubled boys. Laura Bush worried that weve paid a
lot of attention to girls for the last thirty years, and we have this idea in the United
States that boys can take care of themselves. ... And I think there are a lot of life skills
that we teach girls but we dont teach boys. We actually have neglected boys (quoted
in Winik, 2005, p. 5).
Typically, those who support the troubled boy perspective first point to school statistics that purportedly demonstrate the declining status of males in American society,
often juxtaposed with statistics demonstrating the ascendancy of girls (Brooks, 2005;
Gurian, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003; Sommers, 2000). The following claims are presented
to make the case for the boy crisis: Girls outperform boys in all grades from kindergarten through college. In elementary school, boys are more likely to repeat a grade and
to be diagnosed with a learning disability and as emotionally disturbed. Boys are more
likely to kill themselves, much more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, and
much more likely to be processed through the juvenile justice system and incarcerated.
Although boys still maintain an advantage in national mathematics and science achievement tests, the margin of that advantage is decreasing. At the college level, women
now make up 58 percent of those attending two- and four-year institutions and constitute the majority of graduate students.
Social commentators and academics who argue that we are in the midst of a boy
crisis also point to another set of alarming statistics, those that document the violence
boys and young men perpetrate. Following the 1998 carnage in Columbine, Colorado,
in which two disaffected white middle-class boys killed thirteen classmates and a
teacher and then themselves, congress (Glazer, 1999) addressed the topic, quoting Pollack: Its a national boy crisis, and the two boys in Littleton, Colorado, are the tip of
the iceberg. And the iceberg is all boys (p. 523). In fact, well-publicized school shootings at Columbine, as well as in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Pearl, Mississippi, West Paducah, Kentucky, Stamps, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Tennessee, Conyers, Georgia, and
Blacksburg, Virginia, were all perpetrated by young males (Danner & Carmody, 2001).
Some scholars, such as Foster, Kimmel and Skelton (2001), argue that the crisis of violencethat boys and men are responsible for 95 percent of all violent crimes in the
United States and that boys die from homicides at ten times the rates of girlsis the
real boy crisis. Gurian (1998) attributes such high incidences of adolescent male vio26

STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

lence to post-traumatic stress due to school failure, the pain of family divorce, and
problems of solidifying peer relationships (p. 24). His argument that family divorce
contributes to adolescent male violence points to the third widespread concern for boys
and provides an explanation for the current boy crisis: the lack of male role models in
the lives of many adolescent boys.
The rate of births to unwed mothers has increased dramatically from the release of
the original trilogy to the release of the latest trilogy. As reported by the U.S. Census
Bureau, the rate rose sharply in the twenty-three year period between 1980 and 2003
in all age groups. One-third of all births were to unmarried women in 2002. In 2004,
nearly one quarter (23 percent) of children lived with only their mothers. The lack of
male role models is troubling to social commentators, academics and the public at large.
While most scholars and social commentators acknowledge the statistics and label
them as worrisome, they vary in their explanations and emphasis. Some even wonder
why these particular statistics are highlighted and others obscured. For example, an
analysis of national school achievement data from 1971 through 2001 by the Washington think tank, Education Sector, showed that over the past three decades, boys test
scores have actually increased for boys and that the Boy Crisis is overstated (Mathews, 2006). Nonetheless, most of the media discussion still frames the current situation
as a national crisis for boys.
Anakin Skywalker as the Boy Crisis Writ Large
Anakin Skywalkers fictional life mimics many of the concerns found in the literature on troubled boys. He is a young, white male born to a single mother whose class
status is that of a slave. Because of this status, he is not allowed to attend school and is
forced to work. Freed from slavery with help from a Jedi Master, he leaves his mothers
care and joins the Jedi to pursue his dream of exploring the universe. Because he is
older and given his concern for the welfare of his mother, the Jedi Council denies
Anakin the opportunity to enroll in the traditional Jedi school. Because of the rejection,
Anakin grows into manhood under the tutelage of another young Jedi and often defies
his authority. As a teenager, he is moody, arrogant and takes unnecessary risks, such as
driving recklessly. He continually ignores his mentors instructions and believes that he
is more talented than his teachers. He initiates an emotional and physical relationship
with a woman, which is forbidden by the Jedi Code. When he is 18 years old, he slaughters an entire village, including women and children, while in a rage after the death of
his mother whom he is unable to save. When he is 20, he physically assaults his pregnant wife, murders other Jedi, including young children, and fights almost to the death
with his mentor and teacher. Anakins dramatic onscreen life exemplifies the characteristics typically associated with the contemporary boy crisis: the lack of a strong male
role model in his life, his propensity to use violence as a way to solve problems, and
his academic and behavioral failures.
In the next three sections of this article we will explore three very different explanations for Anakins troubles found in the boy crisis literature. All three will be applied
to this popular movie characters life in order to examine the differences among the
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BETTIS AND STERNOD

approaches, and to critically analyze their assumptions and implications for policy and
practice. The first two are omnipresent in the popular literature and press.
Boys Will Be Boys
The first reading of Anakins life is from what we label the boys-will-be-boys
perspective espoused by First Lady Laura Bush, popular psychologist Michael Gurian,
and philosopher and social commentator Christina Hoff Sommers. On their reading,
Anakins problems lie in societys misguided attempts to alter his unchangeable masculine nature.
Anakin was born miraculously through the Force without the benefit of a father,
living only with his mother for the first eight years of his life. Blankenhorn believes that
a fatherless home leads to more male violence because no responsible adult male is
present to demonstrate what it means to be a man.
Despite the difficulty of proving causation in social sciences, the
wealth of evidence increasingly supports the conclusion that fatherlessness is a primary generator of violence among young men ... boys
raised by traditionally masculine fathers generally do not commit
crimes. Fatherless boys commit crimes. (cited in Sommers, 2000, p.
129-130)
If Anakin Skywalker is in fact a symbol for at-risk boys everywhere, not having a father in the home was the first condition for his use of violence and inevitable downfall.
Mirroring another issue faced by boys of today, Anakin grows into young adulthood without his gender-specific needs being met. As an audience, we first meet the
teenage Anakin Skywalker in Episode II. From this early introduction, we learn that
Anakin is a very active young man but has difficulty controlling his emotions. He is at
times defiant and reckless, and frequently engages in excessively risky behaviors. He
is reprimanded often by his very young, brotherly Jedi Master, Obi-Wan, as well as
other, more seasoned Jedi Masters such as Yoda and Mace Windu. They request that he
suppress his feelings and repress his extraordinary abilities. As a result, he is often
sullen and moody and seems unhappy most of the time despite his exceptional ability
and privileged position.
Examined from this perspective, Anakin can be seen as a symbol of what can happen if boys do not receive appropriate guidance and their biologically-based mental
and emotional needs are not met. Gurian (1997) contends that this problem is common
today among boys. He argues that boys are dominated by the hormone testosterone and
are thus programmed to be aggressive and take risks (p. 6). He points out that the
brains of boys are hard-wired to excel at spatial-mechanical tasks and that boys have
far less ability in the verbal-emotive realm than girls. He further notes that they have
less of the primary human bonding chemical, the substance known as oxytocin. This
makes it more likely that they will be more physically impulsive and less likely that they
will neurally combat their natural impulsiveness to sit still and empathetically chat with
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STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

a friend (Gurian & Stevens, 2004, p. 23). Gurian believes that schools and parents
alike are neglecting to take such factors into account in the education of boys and are
thus setting boys up for failure. He also believes that we must abandon the theory that
gender is plastic and can be altered. Instead, parents and educators should accept the
research showing that boys will be boys no matter how hard we try to alter that
(Gurian & Stevens, 2006, p. 91).
Applied to Anakins life, one could then argue that the Jedi also failed to take biology into account and attempted to take a naturally physical, aggressive and impulsive
young man and mold him into a pensive and subdued individual who solves problems
with words rather than actions. As a result, Anakin was forced to endure perpetual criticism for expressing his natural masculinity, and he began to act out as an expression
of his frustration.
In search of a father figure and deeply bothered by the Jedis intolerance of his actions, Anakin develops a relationship with Palpatine, the evil Sith Lord posing as an ambitious politician. Palpatine takes advantage of Anakins frustration and encourages
him to act on his feelings. In the process, he hurts himself and others and puts an abrupt
end to his once promising future. As Gurian (1999) points out, boys today also struggle to succeed in environments such as schools where their desire and proclivity for
physicality are ignored.
From this perspective, then, the symbolic message of the film series is that there
is a proper way to raise and educate boys and young men and that failing to recognize
this can have tragic results. Anakin lacked a male role model in his early years and so
his innate, healthy masculinity was stunted. He was later miseducated by the Jedi to believe that his male propensities were somehow inappropriate instead of being encouraged to use them in a more productive manner. As Sommers (2000) asserts, natural
boyhood has become pathologized and healthy boys are now labeled as deficient and
threatening: We are turning against boys and forgetting a simple truth: that the energy, competitiveness, and corporal daring of normal, decent males is responsible for
much of whats right in the world (p. 14). The Jedi then represent masculine rationality on the wane. They cannot fight the violent and pernicious threat of the Sith because
they themselves have become weak and have forgotten what it means to be masculine.
Anakin then serves as a symbol of how we, as parents and educators, are failing our
boys and how they inevitably fail themselves.
Sommers has been at the forefront of this perspective which has sometimes been
labeled as a backlash against feminism. For Sommers, the American Association of
University Women (AAUW) 1992 Report How Schools Shortchange Girls, among others, focused public concern on the plight of adolescent girls who had lost their voice
during the middle school years. Sommers contends that these same girls were actually
succeeding at the expense of boys because the pedagogy, the curriculum and feminist
teachers themselves favor the way that girls learn. Further, Sommers maintains that
government mandates like Title IX (1972), initiated to ensure that females received a
share of federal and state resources equal to that of the males, have long since achieved
their purposes. Further, the feminist-inspired drive to give girls their voice, based on
studies by Gilligan (1982), Sadker and Sadker (2004), and Pipher (1995), focused par29

BETTIS AND STERNOD

ents and teachers interest on the problems that girls faced in school. According to
Sommers, all of this focus on the success of girls has cost boys.
Boy Code = Jedi Code?
A second explanation of why boys are in trouble today focuses on the importance
of socialization and sex role theories such as those found in the work of Pollack (1998)
and Kindlon and Thompson (1999). Like Mrs. Bush, Gurian and Sommers, Pollack is
also concerned about the relationship between boys and their parents, the nature of
boys, and the tendency for boys and young men to express their emotions through violence against themselves and others (Pollack, 1998, 2006). Pollock grounds himself
in a psychological understanding of masculinity and claims that a powerful Boy Code
does not allow for male emotional well-being, but encourages stoicism, physical and
emotional aggressiveness, and false bravado. According to this perspective, it is not
the case that feminist teachers prohibit boys from being successful academically (although schools do tend to ignore the developmental differences between girls and boys)
but that the dominant ideology of masculinity devalues masculine school success (Foster et al., 2001; Pollock, 1998, 2006). Instead of seeing boys problems as rooted in
unmet biological needs and calling for a return to traditional masculinity, Pollack (1998)
places the blame on what he has labeled the Boy Code:
Research shows that male infants are more emotionally expressive
than female infants. However, as a boy ages, his emotional expressiveness decreases. Why? Because The Boy Codesocietys definition of what it means to be a boydemands that boys suppress or
cover up their emotions. As a result, boys develop a mask of masculinity to hide their shame, vulnerability and the other feelings they
cannot express publicly. The inability to show true emotions hardens
a boy until, ultimately, he loses touch with them. (p. 11)
As a boy, Anakin is described as caring and selfless by his mother. He gladly gives
of himself to help others with no thought of personal gain. But as he becomes part of
the Jedi order, another codeThe Jedi Codebecomes the template by which he is
judged. Similar to Beynons ( 2002) discussion of the relationship between the British
Imperial Empire and the construction of masculinity, the Jedi Code produces a particular type of masculinity, one that is characterized by physical fitness, a particular type
of morality (a superficial combination of Christianity and Buddhism), and a reliance
and nostalgia for Empire or the Republic. Just as the British Empire was an imaginary
place in which men could enjoy homosocial comradeship in physically challenging,
arduous circumstances far from what they perceived to be the damaging influences of
the feminine (p. 31), so too is the previous Republic, where a rational Jedi Council
ruled over unruly alien nationalities. Like Beynons argument, that ultimately imperial
masculinity damaged those who fought for it, Pollock might agree that the Jedi Code
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has damaged its upholders by enforcing the repression of feelings and encouraging
duty and loyalty to the Jedi.
Standing in front of the Jedi council as an eight-year-old who has left his mother
for good, Anakin is told by Jedi Master Yoda that the Council senses much fear in him
and that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. For this
reason, the Jedi Council is at first unwilling to allow Anakin to enter their order. When
he finally is accepted, Anakin is repeatedly admonished for expressing his emotions and
is taught to be mindful of his feelings because, as he is warned, they betray you. Pollack (1998) believes that a similar judging socializing process occurs with boys: Even
when boys appear to be sad or afraid, our culture lets them know in no uncertain terms
that they had better toughen up and tough it out by themselves (p. 25). Unfortunately though, as Pollack contends, this process of toughening up boys and showing
them how to bury their feelings can have serious effects on their development into
young men. They may become depressed, show symptoms of serious learning and behavioral disorders, and may even turn to violence.
Another dilemma for boys in our society according to Pollack is premature separation from their mothers. Fearful that boys will not become tough or be able to live
up to the Boy Code if they are allowed to remain with their presumably more nurturing and emotional mothers, Pollack (1998) argues, society mandates that they give
up their affiliation with the maternal too early in their lives. In fact, normative masculinity in Western culture defines boyhood and masculinity in opposition to femininity. Thus, boys are encouraged to separate from the close-touch world of mother and
all things feminine or maternal including warm, tender feelings, such as vulnerability, empathy, and compassion (p. 28). Anakin experiences such a disconnection when,
at eight years of age, he leaves his mother to join the Jedi. Throughout his childhood
and adolescence, Anakin struggles with the Jedi Code and the separation from his
mother.
Although Pollock agrees with Sommers and Gurian that testosterone contributes
to boys behavior, he disagrees with the significance of that contribution and he worries about the effects of the testosterone myth in explaining male behavior. Pollock argues that this type of thinking allows society to abdicate responsibility for male
aggression. Although testosterone may produce a specific type of energy in boys, it is
not responsible for how that energy is shaped and used. It is societys responsibility to
do this thoughtfully. According to Pollock, violence is the most problematic and visible result of the process of socializing boys to be masculine in this society. Anakin has
frequent emotional outbursts which occasionally end in violent behavior. Even when
hes acting heroically, Anakin is prone to excessively and unnecessarily taking risks,
and is accused on several occasion of being arrogant and overly confident in his abilities. Pollack would argue that Anakins behavior is motivated by shame, the shame he
feels about his true, un-Jedi like emotions and the sense of loss he feels in regards to
his relationship with his mother. He writes:
When boys feel disconnected and afraid of being shamed, when they
harden themselves and put on the macho mask, the one emotion they
feel its acceptable to show, and thus the only emotion they will show,
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BETTIS AND STERNOD

is anger. That anger can come out as risk-taking behavior or, as I
sometimes call it, death-oriented bravado. The boy has such a phobia of showing his shame that he counteracts it or overcompensates
for it, by showing the oppositerecklessness and risk-taking and
even violence against himself. (Pollock, 1998, p. 347)
Inevitably, it is Anakins own emotions which lead him to the Dark Side and the
end of his only honest and loving relationship other than with his mother; namely, his
marriage to Padme. Indeed, Yoda was correct when he said that fear leads to anger,
anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Anakin was fearful of losing his wife
and unborn child, and this fear led him to feel anger towards those he believed were
threatening their lives, the Jedi. Eventually, this anger became hatred, clearly expressed
in Anakins memorable dual with Obi-Wan. And then came the suffering. Padme loses
her life, Anakin is severely injured and nearly killed, and his fellow Jedi are nearly exterminated.
Pollack believes that many boys are experiencing something similar and are encouraged to be ashamed of all of their feelings other than anger. This has caused many
boys to suffer silently and occasionally strike out at those around them, even loved
ones. But, as he writes, all of this violence and destruction could be avoided if boys
were allowed to remain as loving and sensitive as they are as young children:
Violence is the most visible and disturbing end result of the process
that begins when a boy is pushed into the adult world too early and
without sufficient love and support. He becomes seriously disconnected, retreats behind the mask, and expresses the only acceptable
emotionanger. When a boys anger grows too great, it may erupt
as violence: violence against himself, violence against others, violence against society. Violence, therefore, is the final link in the chain
that begins with disconnection. (Pollack 1998, p. 338)
At the end of Episode III, we witness the literal mask of masculinity being placed
on the scarred and battered Anakin, making him the Darth Vader that we all recognize.
From Pollacks perspective Anakins transformation is symbolic of the way many of our
boys are socialized into becoming real men. Behind this mask, Anakin hides his
shame and vulnerability and becomes, as an aged Obi-Wan puts it, more machine than
man. The boy that Anakin once was is buried behind the mask and cloak of Darth
Vader and the only emotions he allows himself to feel are anger, hatred, and the desire
for power.
Alternate Universes for Masculinities
The third reading of Anakin Skywalker is derived from the work of contemporary
masculinity scholars such as Kimmel (2004) and Connell (1995, 2000, 2002) who argue
that there is not one correct, monolithic version of masculinity but rather multiple forms
of masculinities, although uneven power relations exist among these. They contend
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STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

that the contradictions between the lived experiences of men and boys and hegemonic
notions of masculinity can potentially open up space for masculinity to be rethought,
but that all too often males are forced to choose to conform to hegemonic masculinity
or suffer the consequences of not doing so. Like Mrs. Bush, Gurian, Sommers and Pollack, these scholars are also concerned with the ways boys are raised, their emotional
well-being, and the violence they commit and are exposed to on a regular basis. However, instead of looking to biological differences between boys and girls as the answer
or pointing out the constrictions of a social code such as the Boy Code, Kimmel and
Connell encourage us to re-envision what it means to be masculine and open up a variety of possibilities for how to be boys and men. But, as they stress, these alternative
ways of being male struggle to be recognized and affirmed given the hold of hegemonic masculinity.
In Anakin Skywalker, we are given an example of this dilemma. According to their
Code, the Jedi are to be strong and rational and are discouraged from expressing any
and all emotions, even love. In terms of hegemonic masculinity, todays men and boys
are encouraged to behave in much the same way. Despite heavy pressure from his peers
and role models and repeated attempts to conform, Anakin struggles with these stereotypically masculine norms. He appears to want a fuller and richer human life than the
Jedi Code will allow. Anakin remains emotionally attached to his mother after being
separated from her as a child. He becomes romantically attached to Padme and eventually marries her, which is forbidden by the Jedi Code. Many men also struggle with
the norms of masculinity and lead lives that are very different than the traditional male
stereotypes. They are nurturing fathers, loving partners and husbands, and empathetic
friends. So why does this rigid definition exist if so many fail to meet it?
According to Connell (1995), the number of men rigorously practicing the hegemonic pattern in its entirety may be quite small. Yet the majority of men gain from its
hegemony, since they benefit from the patriarchical dividend, the advantage men in
general gain from the overall subordination of women (p. 79). For Connell and others, there is something to be gained from complying with such narrow definitions of
who men are. In the case of Anakin, complying with the Jedi Code allows him to enjoy
the privileges and powers associated with the order. For men, complying with the hegemonic ideal of masculinity allows them to enjoy the privileges of being the dominant
gender in a patriarchic society.
However, the contradictions between the man Anakin is becoming (emotional and
loving) and the man the Jedi want him to be (controlled and stoic) cause him to rethink
the hegemonic norms in which he was trained. During his adolescence and early adulthood, Anakin lives strictly by the Jedi Code and buries his feelings as he had been instructed to do. However, as his love for Padme grows, he contemplates other
possibilities. He begins to see the contradictory beliefs of the Jedi and starts to negotiate a space for himself to comfortably exist. Once again, Anakin is not alone. As Kimmel (2004) argues, men everywhere are coming to understand just how limiting
hegemonic notions of masculinity are and are beginning to question whether the benefits are worth the costs.
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Men are just beginning to realize that the traditional definition of
masculinity leaves them unfulfilled and dissatisfied. While women
have left the home, from which they were imprisoned by the ideology of separate spheres, and now seek to balance work and family
lives, men continue to search for a way back into the family, from
which they were exiled by the same ideology. (p. 292)
Anakin eventually understands that the Jedi identity, much like being the traditional man, is a limited and stunted existence. On a number of occasions Anakin worries that the Jedi Council is limiting his growth and power, but another reading is that
the Jedi ideology is holding him back from being fully human. Conversely, many contemporary boys and men recognize that there is more to life than the traditional gendered model they have been taught to accept. For gender scholars like Connell and
Kimmel, this is certainly a step in the right direction.
However, rebelling against societys norms is not without its risks. The incidents
of school violence makes this point exceedingly clear. Kimmel and Mahler (2003)
write:
In conducting our analysis, we found a striking pattern from the stories about the boys who committed the violence: Nearly all had stories of being constantly bullied, beat up, and ... gay-baited. Nearly
all had stories of being mercilessly and constantly teased, picked on,
and threatened. And most strikingly, it was not because they were
gay ... but because they were different from the other boysshy,
bookish, honor students, artistic, musical, theatrical, non-athletic,
geekish or weird. Theirs are stories of cultural marginalization
based on a criteria for adequate gender performance, specifically the
enactment of codes of masculinity. (p. 1445)
While the acts of violence committed by these boys were certainly not justified, the
treatment they received from their peers should not escape scrutiny. By rejecting these
boys for not meeting certain standards of hegemonic masculinity, Kimmel & Mahler
(2003) argue, our schools and society have created a climate where such acts can and
do occur. Paralleling this is the violent end to Anakins young life. At the conclusion
of the more recent trilogy, the audience witnesses what can happen when one is forced
to choose between the norms of hegemonic masculinity and any alternative way of life.
By choosing to love yet remain a Jedi, Anakin makes himself vulnerable to anyone
who knows the secret of his double life. In Episode III, Palpatine manipulates Anakin
into believing that he has to make a choice between being a Jedi and living up to their
code or saving the lives of his wife and unborn children. Being the loving man that he
is, he chooses the latter. But in doing so, Palpatine leads him to believe that he must
wholeheartedly give into all of his emotions. With this decision, the filmmaker shows
us that men and boys who reject the dominant mode of masculinity put themselves at
risk. Much like the recent perpetrators of school violence, Anakin lashes out at those
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STAR WARS AND THE TROUBLE WITH BOYS

who rejected him and ironically uses one of the most hegemonic of male behaviors, violence, to do so.
You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned.
Around the world, millions of fans eagerly anticipated the final film of the Star
Wars saga, Revenge of the Sith, to understand why Anakin Skywalker turned to the
Dark Side of the Force. Of the contemporary best-selling commercial films that appeal
to a family audience, Star Wars is the only one in which the major male character
chooses to lead a life filled with anger and hate. Harry Potter along with Aragorn
and Frodo (Lord of the Rings) may misuse their powers, but they do so temporarily.
Anakin, however, turns to the Dark Side for half of the movie saga. What lessons can
we learn from his turning to the Dark Side and the Star Wars series itself?
First, we think popular mythologies like Star Wars can help adults recognize and
better understand their own fears about the changing dynamics of gender. Further, the
character of Anakin Skywalker can offer boys and adolescent and adult males the opportunity to consider how multiple versions of masculinity can be embodied in one
man and how powerful patriarchy can be. As bell hooks (2004) notes: The crisis facing men is not the crisis of masculinity, it is the crisis of patriarchal masculinity (p. 32).
When Anakin Skywalker chooses the Dark Side, it is patriarchal version of masculinity which limits the possibilities for the kind of man he could become. His emotions are
limited to anger and aggressiveness, and his life goal is the acquisition of power for his
master, the Dark Lord. He has now become a man of action and few words. The cumbersome metal mask is the mask of patriarchal masculinity, one that obscures the individual man and his unique aspirations and way of being in the world but one that also
solidifies his power, his patriarchical dividend.
Unfortunately, much popular discussion of Anakins actions centers on psychological explanations of his choice. For example, the cover story of Time (Corliss, 2005)
framed Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3) as a story about how ambition can twin with
obsession and twist toward the dark side (p. 54). For some scholars, this perspective
is not surprising: The psychologizing of social problems is so much easier because
psychology directs us to look inward, to personal solutions rather than institutional
change (Tavris, 2002, p. 9). This psychologizing of social problems can also be found
in much of the troubled boy literature. For example, Pollock problematizes the Boy
Code and the constraints that this form of masculine rationality imposes on the lives
of boys and adolescent males. He begins the analytic work that must be carried out if
dominant forms of masculinity are to be challenged, but he falls short in linking the
Boy Code to patriarchy, power, and institutionalized forms of dominant masculinity.
We recognize that there are many limitations in our attempt to use the life of
Anakin Skywalker and Star Wars in making sense of the Boy Crisis today. Although
it is framed around the lives of all boys, the statistics certainly detail another story. Poor
African-American, Latino and Native American male youth are disproportionately disciplined in schools and in the juvenile justice system (McDowell, 2000; Titus, 2004).
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BETTIS AND STERNOD

Anakin Skywalker, although born of a single parent and into slavery, still carries the
privileges of being white and heterosexual. A quick perusal of the main characters and
heroes found in all six films in the series reveals the importance of that particular group
in this story. As Lev (1998) notes: One should also remember that the Star Wars rebellion in no way challenges gender, race, or class relations. White male humans are
naturally in positions of authority ( p. 33). It is not just white males who are in control. Their heterosexual orientation is also never questioned. Part of what Anakin struggles against is the celibacy and emotional detachment of the Jedi Code; however, he still
gets the girl of his dreams, albeit for a short time.
The way that the Boy Crisis has been framed in the media does not challenge
class relations either. As McDowell (2000) writes: It may be that large-scale economic
restructuring of recent decades really is a crisis of masculinity, or more accurately, a
challenge to hegemonic notions of masculinity and male superiority ... the old ways of
being a man are increasingly counterproductive in the face of the long-term economic
and social changes in the West (p. 207). Thus, working-class men now face a radically
different workplace, where niche markets, technology and service markets predominate.
New kinds of work require different self-presentations and relational skills than those
found in wage-labor and industrial settings.
The Boy Crisis is not unique to our time. One hundred years ago, scholars, politicians and social critics worried about boys, giving similar reasons that we give today.
This earlier period was also a time of dramatic economic and social change as industrialization, immigration, urbanization and nationalism combined to produce near hysteria over the future of boys. The proliferation of secondary schools, extracurricular
sports, and youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts were adult-controlled vehicles
to encourage the kind of adolescent and masculine development thought necessary for
the production of good citizens and good workers, and ultimately for the success of
the nation. Todays social critics and politicians also frame their concerns and celebrations of youth in gender-binary terms. If girls are successful, boys must certainly be failing. We continue to live what Tavris (2002) calls good, old fashioned American
historical amnesia (p. 9), which lets us continually recreate gender concerns and binaries, albeit in new forms. The gender binary paralysis also encourages a disavowal
of the roles that race, ethnicity and social class play in how masculinity and femininity operate and simplifies what has always been a complex matter. Ideal femininity and
ideal masculinity are not static constructs. They are ongoing historical constructions
which are evidenced in popular venues such as films.
Although presented as a story that occurred a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far
away, we believe that the Star Wars saga provides an opportunity to explore what it
means to be male in this galaxy at this time. Yoda, the two foot tall sage who embodies the way of the Jedi and presides over the Jedi Council, admonishes Luke during his
Jedi training: You must unlearn what you have learned. That is what we think we
must all do in reconceptualizing what it means to be masculine in contemporary culture.

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