Following the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there was a bit of a hubbub in the nerd biosphere as a small contingent had an issue with the lead character, Rey (Daisy Ridley), being as competent as her co-stars. While they claimed victory by costing the cinematic behemoth a bit of money in its march to be the most profitable film in history, by and large it didn’t make a dent. But the unfounded criticisms persist in certain corners of the internet, with people having problems with Rey’s abilities and claiming the character is a “Mary Sue” (an all-powerful, well-liked author surrogate). To answer those accusations, Jon and Al Kaplan have crafted a response that basically sums up as “Rey kicks ass, just accept it.”
Written by the Kaplans and performed by Drea Pressley, the rap takes on the various criticisms and brushes them off Rey’s impressively competent shoulders as it reiterates that this is the new status quo, and people better get used to it. It’s a nice rejoinder to the misplaced arguments that people have raised while also promoting the various other genre women who are currently kicking ass in film and TV, including Jessica Jones, Supergirl, and Brienne Of Tarth in Game Of Thrones. No, gender inequality in genre fare hasn’t been solved, but the video shows that right now fans are digging on ass-kicking women who are every bit as capable as their male counterparts.