"I Know:" Han Solo's Journey through Toxic Masculinity
In the midst of realizing that he is about to be transported to Jabba the Hut, frozen in carbonite, Han Solo has just a moment to say his farewells to those most important to him. As he is torn apart from Leia, who sends him off with a simple “I love you,” rather than reciprocate this missive, Han delivers what is arguably the most famous line in Star Wars history: “I know.”
In my younger days, I loved this line. The rogue smuggler, smarmy to the last, gives Leia that simple line instead of the expected answer. As an adult, the line scans much more problematically to me, but also highlights Han’s journey from toxic masculinity to accepting the emotions and feelings that should be natural for men to experience.
Let’s go back, briefly, to A New Hope, where toxic masculinity makes its first appearance in Han’s behavior and attitudes. For the purposes of this essay, toxic masculinity will be viewed as the idea that society puts upon men that there are certain acceptable ways to exist as a man, and that these modes of behavior do not leave room for emotion, sensitivity, feelings, or outward expressions of any of those things. In addition, toxic masculinity often sees violence as a valid form of solving problems.
Which brings us back to Han’s behavior in A New Hope. Our first introduction to him involves the negotiation of transporting Luke and Obi-Wan in the Millenium Falcon. Throughout the interaction, Han seems capable and aloof, but the second Luke questions his abilities, Han becomes aggressive in response. Essentially, having his ‘manhood’ challenged is unacceptable, and almost throws off the whole deal. One of Han’s first actions in the film is to solve a problem by killing another being, in the form of his interaction with Greedo. Rather than work out a deal, Han resorts to violence to solve his problem, again proving that he doesn’t know how to interact with other men in a non-violent way.
Once aboard the Falcon, we see Han’s inability to access his feelings in his insistence that the Force is a ‘hokey religion.’ Using the Force requires accessing feelings, and in toxic masculinity, men are unable to do so. To Han, the ability to access feelings and senses is, indeed, mumbo jumbo. Once on board the Death Star, Han tries to find a non-violent way to solve a problem by faking his identity over the radio, but as soon as he loses confidence in this ability, he once again resorts to violence, shooting the radio with his blaster and calling it a “dumb conversation.”
Fast forward to The Empire Strikes Back, and Han’s toxic masculinity continues to rear its ugly head, especially in his interactions with Leia. In this case, his romantic preludes are overbearing and could easily be seen as far too aggressive. He often is physically intimidating to her, and rather than talk to Leia and tell her his true feelings about her, he forces a kiss on her at one point. While she does seem to respond to the kiss, this is a classic case of “she didn’t know she wanted it until I gave it to her.”
And then we come back to “I know.” By this point, it seems fairly clear that Han has strong feelings for Leia, but instead of being able to express those feelings in his moment of weakness, he is compelled to act as though he has no feelings in response.
However, this is not the end of Han’s story or relationship to toxic masculinity. As anyone who has seen Star Wars knows, Han ends up being frozen and then thawing out. Surprisingly, the thawing out process seems to also thaw some of his hang ups in regard to toxic masculinity. When he is unfrozen by Leia at the beginning of Return of the Jedi, Han seems to accept that he has been rescued by a woman. Rather than having to demonstrate that he is in charge, and the strong male figure, instead, he allows others to lead, and seems merely happy to be with Leia again.
Later, during the rebel excursion to the forest moon of Endor, the male/female traditional roles are reversed. When Han realizes that Leia is hiding a blaster and has the ability to save them from a tricky situation, he allows his true feelings for her to be verbalized. This time, he is the one saying “I love you,” while she responds with the ironic, “I know.” Shortly after that, Han gets the chance to make up for the poor handling on the first Death Star by using subterfuge instead of strength to trick the Imperial Forces to open the doors to the shield generator. This time, when he uses the radio, the forces are tricked into coming out, where they are immediately surrounded and forced to surrender without violence coming to the forefront.
The final evolution for Han Solo comes after the battle of Endor, as Leia explains her complicated feelings about Luke, recently revealed to be her brother. A classic view of women in toxic masculinity seems to be that all men are viewed as enemies when it comes to their relationship to women. It would be very easy, with this construct in mind, for Han to angrily decide that he wants to confront Luke over Leia when she admits that she loves him. Rather than doing that, however, Han shows that he has escaped the construct of toxic masculinity, by saying that he’ll stay out of their way. Of course, Han is rewarded for his evolved views when Leia reveals that Luke is her brother, and that she still loves Han romantically.
Han Solo’s evolution throughout these three films shows an interesting take on toxic masculinity, despite the term not being in use when they were made. While he begins the trilogy immersed in toxic masculinity and unable to solve problems in any other fashion than with violence, and completely unable to admit any emotion or feeling, by the time the rebellion destroys the second Death Star, he has matured into a sensitive man who can express his feelings and doesn’t feel threatened by other men. Perhaps this can be a road map for other men who struggle to escape the roles that toxic masculinity throw on them.