In a recent late night revisit of The Last Jedi, one of my favorite entries in the saga (yes, I know that is a very bold and divisive opinion), I found myself thinking about a Facebook post I wrote in 2018, not long after the film first came out.
Reading it again, I caught myself and had to smile (and cringe). The title was clearly chasing shock value. Probably more than it needed to. But the thoughts behind it were sincere. It was me trying to make sense of the film in my own way.
I am sharing that post again here in full. No edits. Just as it was written back then.
THE LAST JEDI WAS A VAGINA MOVIE!
Bear with me. I must be reading too much into it. I’m sure it might have already been written somewhere. But I think TLJ is really a very very strong female-skewed movie. Not just with the strong female characters.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not reading it in a creepy or a sexist kinda way. That’s never my intention.
In its imageries. It’s full of femininity, “mother images.” The caves, the cave openings. The vulva.
I first noticed it when I first saw the trailer, the scene where Luke said “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”
The Jedi Tree. In my viewing today, it hit me! From the opening to the inner sanctum, akin to the vaginal opening up to the mother’s womb. I see that as symbol for a wanting to go back to the place where we came from. The mother’s womb as a symbol for comfort, for security (ie Luke’s retreat to the oldest Jedi temple after his Ben failure).
Don’t get me started with that (oh-so “hairy”) opening Rey fell into in search of her lineage. In her search of where she came from, she fell into the portal, straight into an enclosed body of water. A wish to discover from whose nurturing amniotic fluid she was delivered from?
In the final Crait scenes, when Luke told Kylo that the rebellion is reborn, the Rebellion was literally reborn — they all came out of that vulvic cave opening, with the help of a Jedi midwife?
In most cultures, caves are sacred symbols of the mothers’ womb. A grove, a large tree, those are also considered as popular female organ symbols in old beliefs.
Or I might be reading too much into it. Maybe I need to see it again and see if I will read it differently. Or maybe I should stop reading too much into it. Its’ just a movie, ain’t it.
That’s the power of great movies. It truly takes you to a state of catharsis. Not just a purgation of one’s emotion, but even your deeper thoughts.
T
