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@landofree So what is your counterargument to the notion "Why does any character need to be a specific gender?" Why did Anakin "need" to be a guy? It was a decision by the writer, a fairly arbitrary decision. There is no reason that Anakin "needed" to be a guy unless you can pose me a reason why his masculinity is integral to the plot. (If Anakin were a girl, she could have babies with a man, for instance, and it wouldn't change anything).

In conclusion, the question is utterly irrelevant because the gender is arbitrary and not a key factor in the plot in any significant way. Rey did not need to be a girl just as much as Anakin did not need to be a boy.

The real question should be "Why isn't Rey a transgender character?"

Short answers like: "because" and "why would she?" or "Why did the character need to be a transgender?" are not acceptable. Give me a reasoned answer, if you can. Questions are not answers. Go...

she is the new Luke Skywalker, the new protagonist who is walking the same road to Jedi-dom and self-mastery that Luke did. This is an interesting plot device, introducing new blood to the story that might lead up to a re-introduction of the beloved Luke, whom we'd then get to see as a full-fledged Jedi.

her being a girl, in and of itself, would not be bad writing if it weren't for the fact that her exceptional skills make no sense in the context of how her character was written:

she is a prole, and the offspring of proles, without the genetic material for greatness of the caliber she is made out to be. It was already established that Jedi potential is inherited. It's possible that she's simply a freak, but it's so unlikely that it's stupid.

Her character becomes even more ridiculous and fartworthy when almost overnight, she learns skills that took Luke Skywalker a long time and intensive training. And she also manages, without training, to psychically fend off a mind-rape from the Emperor's top man (Kylo Ren). This is ridiculous, like an eighteen-year-old boxing novice beating up a Navy SEAL.

Given these details, she is not believable. Oh, and even though she makes her living working in a fucking garbage dump in the hot sun, apparently in a place like a third-world country, she looks like a painstakingly pampered Disney starlet.

No sunburns? No blisters? No dirt? No shitty hygeine? No lack of education apparent in her speech? Where'd she learn to talk like that? Where'd she learn to read? Where are all the men looking to pork her? Who protects her?

Rey needed to be a girl because it would make money. And it would make money because most people aren't smart enough to notice that her character is badly written, they just see that it's "a new Luke Skywalker, but a girl this time." Plus many people buy into the lie that men and women are interchangeable, and this indulges that belief.

Because there are two sexes, and one was already used.

I have no problem with Rey being a girl.

I do have a problem with Jyn Erso being a similar character played by a similar actress.

There are two genders, so it was a 50% chance that it'd be either a boy or a girl. Surely you don't have to be a feminist nowadays to see that this is a valid reason for a main character in a movie to be a woman

Rey was designed to push a feminist agenda, nothing more. The fact that she's a Mary Sue makes it worse.

Odd question... 🤔

Rey's character is pretty much asexual anyway... Could be played by either sex without changing the meaning of these movies... 😉

There is no romance and no comraderie between her and others either... No real human connection apart from the standard orphan-seeks-daddy/parents thing we get in most big American movies... So none of the aspects of being human that relate to one's sex...

Also, since it's a StarWars movie you have "the Force" so no need for muscles or supperior male strength, etc... 😁

But aside from all of that, it's a gift and a wake up call to all the manchild fans who latch onto new StarWars movies seeking to reinforce a young boy fantasy... it changes the small boy fantasy into a small girl fantasy and shatters the edifice that has been created over decades of men's attachment to a childish thing... It's a chance to be free, become fully adult and thus embrace their masculinity fully... Something that has be stunted for decades due to the widespread attachment to StarWars...

It is the adult man attachment to StarWars, not as a fond childhood memory, but as a current and ongoing obsession which has castrated more than a generation of men globally... Time to be free of it...

Geeks, man up! 😎

As i said before the films were even made and the protagonist was slated to be a (white) female, i had no problem with a main protagonist who happened female as long as they didn't make it about gender politics (they did) or make the character a bland, uncompelling Mary Sue (they did).