An Optimistic Feminist Perspective of Star Wars
I wanna take you all back. Back to a time, when I heard the entire Star Wars fandom's souls cry out in agony. Back in October 2012. You all remember the headlines?
"Oh the tragedy!" they claimed.
"George Lucas is a sellout!" they cried.
"WHYYYYY?!?!"
And to really give it to the fans, Disney started releasing pictures like this:
And my little Star Wars geek friends all trying to cope and deal with the news, ultimately looked like this:
I, myself, am a pretty big fan of Star Wars. At the time, I remember there was quite a backlash against Disney, mainly because people were seeing sexist and demeaning roles within their movies. I may be an outspoken, obnoxious, feminist...but I love me a good Disney princess movie! Yes, I can definitely recognize flaws in their characters and gender roles, but I also can't deny them the credit they deserve for playing a part in making me the feminist I am today. Belle taught me that brains is worth more than beauty. Jasmine taught me that even though her father was trying to sell, oh I'm sorry, marry her off, "She was not a prize to be won!" Mulan taught me to stand up for what I believe in and most importantly to be brave.
But I'm getting side tracked. My point is: I wasn't too shaken by what was happening. On top of that, I needed to remind people, "Um, hello! They also own Marvel and Disney kind of has a really great way of making big franchise movies!" Need I remind you all of the Pirates of the Carribean? Yes even the last two! They're fantastic! Get over yourselves, you movie prudes! Now, of course, Star Wars: The Froce Awakens is one of the most anticipated movies OF ALL FRICKIN' TIME!
As I get older, and I start to question things more and more, especially in regards to feminism, I finally came to Star Wars, and really did a feminst evaluation on female representation in the franchise. Before I get started on that, I need to explain that I am an optimistic feminist. Meaning, yes, I expect society, entertainment, and politics to always be moving forward and I can be very critical of society when it comes to gender, race, and LGBTQ issues, but I also appreciate the little things. For example, while James Cameron's Avatar does not pass the Bechdel Test, I still see it as progressivley feminist considering the strong AND feminine female characters represented. (We'll talk about closet feminist James Cameron another time)
Some of the main issues that I have seen and read about regarding the Star Wars franchise has to be the lack of female representation, and...you guessed it, the metal bikini Princess Leia wore in Return of the Jedi.
To begin with, it's important we remember the first trilogy came out between 1977 and 1983. Although we weren't stuck in Leave-It-To-Beaver-How-To-Please-Your-Husband days, feminism had a long way to go. It still does, but in comparison, we've seen some progression.
If you think about it, it has not been until recently that Princess Leia's metal bikini became her identifier. Glynnis Macnicol of Elle wrote a fantastic article titled "In Defense of Princess Leia & Star Wars Feminism", and she mentions that as a little girl, Leia was usually fully clothed in the toy deparment. But in recent years, we've only seen action figures of Leia in her metal bikini.
Some might argue that this was when she was strongest because she single-handedly killed her oppressor AND she did it in a killer outfit!
But let's not forget that she's a rebel leader. Let's not forget that she takes charge of her own destiny. And she usually doesn't have to do it in a bikini.
One of the things that is most interesting to me about George Lucas handling this was not that he was necesarily trying to objectify Leia. In fact, it was Jabba the Hutt who objectifed her. It's my understanding Lucas did not actually want to oversexualize Leia. For example, he made sure she wasn't showing too much cleavage in her metal bikini. And in fact wouldn't let Carrie Fischer wear a bra under her white gown, because he did not want her to appear to "perky". Apparently, he was concerned about Leia's safety and a bra would have just strangled her in space. Apparently we expand...? But none the less, I can appreciate a director who doesn't just go for the skin-n-tits deal to get a reaction.
The first time I watched Star Wars, I was 13 and watching it with my parents. And I remember seeing this scene, and not necessarily thinking "Oh man, she looks really pretty" or "Sexy" or "I wish I had a body like that." In fact it was more along the lines of "How dare that disgusting asshole force her to wear such things." And I'm pretty sure this is how George Lucas intended. Even though, Hollywood overplayed the metal bikini.
Also regarding Princess Leia is her romantic interest, Han Solo. Yes yes yes! I've heard the argument! "Princess Leia is totally weak because she stops the rebellion to go save her man. That's a woman for ya!" Give me a break! Love is love! Men totally put lives at stake as well to save their ladies, and nobody bats an eye! They see it as romantic, but when women do it, she's weak! Not cool, guys.
Anyways, I read another fantastic artle by Meghan O'Keefe on why Han Solo is the ultimate male feminist. Hell Yeah! And it's pretty frickin' obvious. It's easy to miss, because he's not exactly romantic with her and he can be kind of a dick. "I know," right? (You all see what I did there!?)
But that's because Hollywood has kind of trained us to believe that all women want romantic and flowers and hearts and smooches. Not dissing on any of that. I like plenty of those things. But what ultimately made me fall in love with my husband and say "Yes" was his mutual respect for me. And Han Solo has mad respect for Leia. He sees her as an equal. He's untrusting of her, not because she's a woman. But because he's untrusting of everybody! He respects her decisions and never forces her to have affection or feelings towards him. In fact when he thought she was into Luke, he said he wouldn't stand in her way. Respect! No force! No fights! Respect.
O'Keefe brought up something great that I hadn't noticed. Han Solo never saw Leia in her metal bikini! So this might not seem like a big deal, but in Hollywood terms, when you fall in love with somebody, usually sexual tension comes first. They like the way you look and it often has to do with sexualizing oneself. The only time Han Solo sees Leia, she's usually fully clothed. And I mean FULLY CLOTHED.
Aww yeah! It doesn't take skin to get him to have affection towards her. It's mostly her attitude and her independence he loves.
Moving forward from Princess Leia, I definitely want to talk about Queen Padme Amidala. I was in 6th grade when Star Wars Episdoe I: The Phantom Menace came out. Wasn't the most critical of movie critics, so I immediately fell in love with Queen Amidala. And what pre-teen girl wouldn't fall in love with her?
Queen Amidala took the throne when she was only 14 years old. As a young girl, I was seeing a young female character, bossing and telling a whole bunch of senators, "What's good?" and it was empowering. Keep in mind, I had not had my feminist awakening yet. But, seeing strong female leads really does effect young girls. And Queen Amidala is no exception.
I hear plenty of the arguments about why Queen Amidala is the worst and she backed up the most evil Senator (Palpatine), but c'mon. She was only 14 years old and sure she's flawed, she had a lot of really great qualities that are extremely admirable.
Again, love and motherhood makes women weak in Hollywood, but at least it didn't turn her into this insane psycho freak who kills Jedi children!
The only thing that is dissappointing was her storyline stopping short. I wish her death hadn't happen becuase of labor. Labor isn't deadly! Yes, women have died in labor, but people also die from choking on a peanut! Doesn't mean it's common. So, it bums me out that it was such a cop-out death. We know she dies eventually because Princess Leia mentions it before. But, I truly believe Padme Amidala deserved a better death than that. She was fierce, kind, loyal, and tough. She deserved better.
So what do I hope to see in the next Star Wars Trilogy? I really want to see whose hand that is! Because that looks like the hand of a woman, and although we've had female Jedi's we haven't had enough of them!
I'm excited to see diversity. We could say Star Wars has been plenty diverse with Lando Callersion and Mace Windu, it's not enough. But already in the trailer, we see a Stormtrooper played by John Boyega and he seems to play a pretty vital role.
Being a Game of Thrones fan, I'm also excited to see Gwendolyn Christie take on a vital role and kick even more ass.
Everyday Feminism brings up some important points that Star Wars can do differently to appeal to a much more diverse fanbase. However, like I said, I'm an optimistic feminist. And so far what I've seen, there's already major steps forward.
