THE Nerdiest Explanation, Bar None, for the Absence of Women in the Star Wars Universe

One of the most absolutely predictable reactions from the Internet to the announcement of a new Star Wars cast was that there weren’t enough women; a reaction so intense that it even prompted a follow-up announcement that, hey, JJ’s not done yet, he’s going to cast more roles including one that’s also maybe probably a significant female too.

But novelist Matthew Gladstone, in an essay from last October that’s getting a new amount of attention for obvious reasons, has an explanation as to why, in-universe, the male skewing of the story could make sense. He starts with the proposition that we falsely assume the human-looking characters are in fact human, since odds are they evolved differently from Earth humans, and from there posits a beehive like societal unit of queens and drones that explains everything from non-Force sensitives never talking about their families to the reasons why a “hermaphroditic gastropod” like Jabba the Hutt would display a scantily clad female humanoid slave in front of his throne.

He’s probably kidding. But wouldn’t it be great if he’d actually stumbled onto Lucas’ secret subtext?