And yet there’s a warped undertone to this entire conversation-one in which two seconds of two women kissing is, somehow, significant. It is undeniable that franchise fare has taken over the world of movies, and hardly only in the U.S. I knew that the two-second peck between two women that I saw-just barely, I almost blinked and missed it-was a moment that some people must have gone into the film expecting to see, because the studio and/or filmmakers had already patted themselves on the back for it. As soon as those women appeared onscreen I knew, instinctively, that at some point, someone associated with Skywalker must already have hinted at the film’s “LGBT representation” early in its press cycle.
Abrams’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-the ninth film in the storied Star Wars saga, and a sure-fire box office hit, per Mickey Mouse’s grand design-was Google “star wars gay kiss.” Not because I needed to verify that the moment in question really happened-I’d seen it for myself: a brief flash of two women kissing late in the movie, among a crowd of characters, humanoid and not, all of them hugging, kissing, and cheering away. Another hit movie, another crumb of gay pandering, another round of the usual complaints.
