Leia is Not Enough: Star Wars and the Woman Problem in Hollywood

Yes, Princess Leia was a smart, resourceful woman who had action hero chops of her own. She wasn’t just a princess waiting around in a castle for men to save her — despite the infamous scene where she ended up in a metal bikini as a sexy slave to a giant space slug.

But the fact remains: If you count up all the significant female characters who appear in the original Star Warstrilogy, the list reads as follows … Princess Leia. The only other two women with names and speaking parts in all three movies are Aunt Beru, and that Rebel Alliance representative at the end (who no one remembers until they’re forced to come up with more women).

As great a character as Leia was, however, she was functionally the lone representative of the female gender in a larger Star Wars universe where every other character moving the plot forward was a man. It’s even sadder when you consider that the dearth of women who play important roles (or any role at all) in the classic George Lucas films from the late ’70s and early ’80s echoes a problem we still have today: Women are dramatically under-represented in films and media.

Source: Wired

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  5. inkandash reblogged this from helenaisis and added:
    The “Rebel Alliance representative” at the end, is actually a Galactic Senator and a founding member of the Rebel...
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    I have absolutely nothing of interest to add to this conversation at all (except maybe that OP forgot about Mon Mothma,...
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    Ok, and over half the characters in Star Wars aren’t even human. This is a film series made in the ’70s/’80s, aimed...
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