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Star Wars Episode VII: The Feminist Movement
By: Andrew Totheroh
Professor Laura Turner-Reed
HUM210A
12/7/2010
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away there lived a princess who came to lead a rebel alliance against the hated Federation. She took her leadership role seriously and risked her life for the safety and freedom of her people. She had tremendous leadership qualities that set her apart from others fighting for the same freedoms, most of those being men. Princess Leia embodies a modern day woman with her strong will and willingness to go that extra mile for her friends. She must fight through typical barriers men place around her, but in the end she prevails and exemplifies a woman that anyone could look up too for motivation and courage.
In the movie Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker is completing his Jedi training with Jedi master Yodaon planet Dagobah. Luke is “supposedly” the lastchance the Rebel fleet has at defeating the Federation. While Luke is training, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca escape the Federation attack on their home base, which is destroyed, and flee to the Rebel rendezvous point. During Leia, Han, and Chewbacca’s flee, which takes place in outer space, their hyper drive brakes down on the ship they are flying on, the Millennium Falcon. In order to stay alive they take refuge with an old friend of Han’s, LandoCalrissian, on his floating city. Princess Leia has a bad feeling about Han Solo’s friend, but trusts Han’s judgment. When the group arrives, Leia turned out to be right as Lando has made a deal with Darth Vader, the Federation leader, to have Lando turn the group over to him in exchange for ignoring Lando’s illegal mining operation. In turn, Darth tortures Han Solo and freezes him, and sets a trap for Luke Skywalker, who had visions of his friends in trouble. Luke skips the rest of his Jedi training in order to save his friends, and in turn falls right into the trap Darth has set. In the end of the movie, Luke and Darth square off in a light saber dual, while Leia and Chewbacca escape without getting captured by the Federation troops. Luke narrowly escapes the dual with Darth, in turn losing one of his hands and finding out that Darth Vader is his father. The Federation believes they have won the war, but in reality the war has just begun. In the final chapter to the series, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker must free his friend Han Solo from Jabba the Hut. Han is still frozen in carbonate at this time and is desperately needed by the Rebel Alliance. Princess Leia is in on the rescue as well. She infiltrates Jabba’s palace, disguised as a bounty hunter collecting a bounty that is set on Chewbacca. When Jabba and his followers fall asleep for the night, Princess Leia unfreezes Han from the carbonate. It is here where Jabba discovers what has happened and imprisons Han, while Leia is Jabba’s personal slave. At this point, Luke shows up at Jabba’s palace and demands the release of his friends. Jabba laughs at this request, and drops Luke into a pit where a massive beast attacks Luke. Luke kills the beast and is then ordered to be executed with Han Solo and Chewbacca in the desert. Before the execution is to take place, Luke escapes and rescues the rest of his friends. Princess Leia kills Jaba, and the gang flees the planet. Luke goes back to the Dagobah, to complete his Jedi training with Jedi master Yoda while the rest of the group meets up with the Rebel fleet. Here Luke learns that he must face off against Darth Vader for his training to be complete, and learns that there is also another Skywalker, a long lost sister he doesn’t know about. Master Yoda dies from illness and Luke goes to the Rebel base. Here the Rebels learn of a new Death Star being constructed. They plan an appropriate attack against the star ship and begin to carry it out. During the attack, Luke goes into the Death Star where he faces off with Darth Vader for the last time. Throughout Darth and Luke’s battle, Darth’s master, the evil emperor, tries to persuade Luke to come to the dark side. Luke fights off Darth and the emperor’s request, but cannot hold off the emperor entirely. During the emperor’s attack against Luke, Darth Vader suddenly turns good, as he saves Luke from his old master by throwing the emperor into a pit, which in turn starts to destroy the Death Star. Luke rescues his father, once he has re-gained his strength, and barely escapes the fiery Death Star, before is it destroyed. Luke then takes his father and meets up with the rest of the rebel alliance. At this point, the rebels are throwing a big celebration in honor of their victory. Luke buries his father in a traditional Jedi ceremony and then tells Leia of the news he has figured out over the course of their adventure. He tells her that she is indeed his long lost sister and how they were separated by birth. She naturally goes into shock from the news, but later believes him because of her Jedi instincts, that carried over from their father.
Princess Leia is a prime example of women in second wave feminism. According to the text book, America on Film (2009), second wave feminism is a, “feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, centering on issues such as reproductive rights and economic equality with men.” This definition suggests that all women are different and have a right to be different, from the normal female mold society has cast them in. Each woman has a right to be who they choose to be, whether that is heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual, and sexuality is not the only case. They could choose to work next to men in the work place, becoming high powered executives or CEO’s of multi-million dollar companies, or yuppies, as they are sometimes referred. They could also choose to stay in the home to cook, clean, and raise children if they so choose. The main point is they have the right and choice to do what they want with their lives and are not restricted to the roles society has historically placed them in.
Throughout the Star Wars films, Princess Leia is shown wearing white robes as her main style of dress. The robes cover her entire body, showing little skin. However, through the robes, you can clearly see the outline of her breasts in some shots. Her hair is pulled back into two little buns that cover her ears. She has make-up on that makes her face glow and tells the audience of her beauty. However in the film Star Wars Episode VI: The Empire Strikes Back, her character takes a dramatic turn. During her time as Jabba’s slave, she is clothed in a metal bikini while her face glows through low key lighting. The bikini leaves nothing of her body to the imagination, and in fact gives off the persona of a, “sex slave.” The focus is shallow, with the director wanting only her to be in focus and everything else in the background to be blurry. The camera angles used in the bikini scenes are both high and low. One shot in particular is that of a low camera angle where she is laying next to Jaba. The angle shows the audience Leia’s entire bikini outfit and is a real attention getter for the male audience. Green’s (2010) response to this outfit is this, “a backlash response to the growing autonomy of women in the 1980s”. While the Star Wars films depicted a strong willed female character that could handle herself and showed little skin, the directors still wanted the audience to know that this is a female character with a lot of sex appeal. While she was Jaba’s sex slave there were numerous chains wrapped around her body, so that she wasn’t able to escape. I believe these chains to represent that while she is a strong female character, she is still being held captive by society, so that she cannot totally break out of the typical female mold. Every time she wanders too far, she is constantly being pulled back to Jaba’s side, or society. However, at the end of her “sex slave” persona, she breaks free from the chains and is able to choke Jaba to death with the same chains she was once held captive with.
In all the Star Wars films, Princess Leia is shown fighting right next to men for the Rebel alliance, most of the time, saving those same men’s lives from the Federation troops. She is a sexy female that is tough like a man, who would usually be depicted in these types of action films. She is not your typical female character in action films, in fact, she’s the complete opposite. Quoting Barile (2000), “She is not just the object of desire of these heroes. She is her own individual with her own beliefs. She is shown taking a proactive stance. Instead of being helpless, Leia does everything in her power to save herself. Leia is the fairy princess who breaks the mold of what youngsters have been taught. She is completely original in this aspect.” Personally when thinking of a princess, I don’t imagine Princess Leia. She is completely original in the sense that she does the fighting for herself and waits for no one to come save her. Throughout the films she is seen shouting orders to her fellow Rebel troops in critical battle situations, a job usually performed by men. Barile (2000) goes even further saying, “Leia has multiple layers to her character she is chosen as a female who is equal to men. She has incredible strength and devotion to the Rebellion … She is strong and self-reliant. Leia proves that in a male-dominated world, women can succeed…. Star Wars would not be complete without Leia's dedication to the Rebellion and her determination.”
Even with such a strong female character that has a “take charge” attitude, there will always be those male characters that don’t respect her based on her gender, something all women have faced throughout society. In Leia’s case, this sexism comes from Han Solo. Towards the beginning of the films, Han makes multiple remarks toward Leia because of her gender. He doesn’t take orders from her very willingly and in some cases would do the complete opposite of what she said because he didn’t feel it was right. Green (2010) takes a quote from Han Solo stating, “Either I'm going to kill her, or I'm beginning to like her." An example of this sexism from Han comes in the movieStar Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, when Han, Leia, and Chewbacca are fleeing the Federation ships and seeking refuge with an old friend of Han’s, LandoCalrissian. Leia has a bad feeling about going to Lando’s floating city based on his reputation as a smuggler. She tells Han that she doesn’t feel comfortable with this decision, because it could potentially put the group in danger. Han reassures her that she can trust Landobased on the relationship Han and Lando have. As the story unfolds, Leia turns out to be right as Lando has made a deal with Darth Vader for the groups capture. They are captured and the mission is put on hold. According to Green (2010), “Han's response to Leia's power is to sexualize her in an attempt to put her back in her place.” By doing this it represents that Han Solo is the one with the supreme judgment in the situation and that he is not going to take any other opinions, especially when it comes from a woman. Men seem to struggle with the idea of giving up power to a woman. It isn’t rare to see a woman in power even in modern times, but the extra obstacles they must overcome are indeed, a lot more than men have to. The worries of women becoming pregnant and having to take time off to have a baby and not being able to make decisions in critical moments are examples of stereotypes women with power face on a daily basis.
Princess Leia’s portrayal in the Star Wars films is one ahead of its time. An audience had not seen a woman with the sex appeal, leadership skills, and personality that Princess Leia brought to the screen. Her portrayal began a time in which independent women no longer had to stand in the shadows of men. They could explore their sexual freedoms and choose what they wanted to do in their lives. To quote Green (2010), “No longer must a woman be a whore or be an angel. It is no longer the age of Mary Ann and Ginger, "Gilligan's Island", or Aunt Bee of "The Andy Griffith Show.” Princess Leia embodies all of these qualities of the modern day woman. Her strong characteristics that exemplify the modern day feminist played a key role in making the Star Wars films what they are today. To quote Green (2010) a final time, “However, in "Star Wars," the film that entertained audiences in the era of growing political and sexual freedom, Leia embodies a feminist. She is tough and powerful. She is erotic and sexual, not whorish or cold and frigid like her earlier counterparts. She is the ideal feminist of the second wave.”
References
Barile, N. (2000). Film and Feminist Criticism in the High School Classroom.The Women in the Literacy and Life Assembly.Retrieved December 1, 2010, from
Benshoff, H.M., Griffin, S. (2009). America on Film.West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Green, P. (2010). Presenting a Feminist Ideal-Star Wars. LiveJournal.Retrieved December 1, 2010, from