Ever since my first viewing in childhood, I have loved the Star Wars movies. The movies that were released in the1970s will always rule the franchise, in my humble opinion. A major point that solidified these movie's endearment in my childhood memories was Carrie Fisher's character, Princess Leia.
This princess was cool!
She was smart. She was strong. She was brave. She was well-spoken. She always hoped. She always fought.
I liked this "fairy tale" the best, where the princess got her hands dirty and got that handsome scoundrel.
Now taking this class has stirred my interest in revising this long-time favorite movie to analyze this character that I enjoy so much from a feminist perspective.
The first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, kicks off with what appears to be a mysterious damsel in distress, but she doesn’t go down without shots fired. She must be forcefully detained from fleeing the imperial soldiers that apprehend her space ship.
Before she is captured, she cleverly sends top secret information with instructions for its delivery to the rebels. which goes to key male characters, Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker. These guys pick up two more male characters, Han Solo and Chewbacca, who will provide transportation to Obi-Wan and Luke for a price.
After setting out to bring the top-secret plans to planet Alderaan, they discover that their destination has been completely destroyed by an ultimate weapon. Now with nowhere to go, they end up coming across the enemy ship where Leia is being held as a prisoner. The enemy ship captures their very small ship. By hiding within their ship's smuggling compartments, they avoid immediate capture, hatch a plan to escape the enemy ship, and, as an afterthought, decide to save the Princess.
Luke, Han, and Chewie's "storming the castle to save the princess routine" doesn’t go so well. The men do their best but kinda blunder and blast their way to the princess, and things just don’t go very well or covertly for that matter.
Leia then speaks up taking authority over her rescue, "Somebody's got to save our skins!"
She acts
Leia takes initiative in her own problems. She uses weapons when needed, and resists capture as long as possible in A New Hope. She is brave and faces torture for the sake of her rebel comrades to have a chance of defeating the empire.
She thinks
Leia outsmarts Darth Vader by sending the top-secret info off her captured ship in an unmanned escape pod. She thinks outside of the box even under blaster fire by escaping through the garbage shoot.
She communicates
She presents herself in clothing that fits the function. We see her dress according to the demands of her tasks. She is a person, not an object. In the last movie, The Return of the Jedi, she is forced to be objectified in seductive clothing when she is enslaved by Jaba the Hutt. She takes change again when the time comes to escape, and she kills the Jaba with the chains he put on her.
The original Star Wars movies seem to present a positive reading in regard to their portrayal of women with Leia. However, male characters vastly outnumber the female characters in all three of these 1970s movies.
I wonder if my classmates think that the newer Star Wars movies or spin-offs offer a positive feminist reading?
I would definitely agree that the Star Wars movies offer a positive feminist reading. Even going back to the beginning of the Star Wars stories, Padme, Luke and Leis mother, was the queen and senator of a planet Naboo. She was in a position of leadership, and that leadership passed down to her daughter as well who played a significant leadership role in the rest of the franchise. In the newer movies that female leadership transferred to Rey who really was the lead of the last three movies. She ends up being the one that saves the resistance. Star Wars definitely got it right with a feminist perspective in my opinion.
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