Danger Gal Friday: Princess Leia Organa
“Someone’s got to save our skins!” (Princess Leia Organa, Star Wars: A New Hope)
I really can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to profile Princess Leia as a Danger Gal Friday. When Star Wars came out I was knee-deep in pixies and dragons and unicorns. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I still enjoy reading about pixies and dragons and unicorns. But Princess Leia Organa was the first princess I’d encountered who was a damsel but not in distress. Not to mention that Han Solo so ousted Princess Aurora’s (Sleeping Beauty) Prince Philip as my McDreamy. So much has been said already about what a watershed moment the original Star Wars trilogy was for the boys growing up in that generation, but less has been said about the girls. There are fewer of us, and my tastes in Science Fiction have changed since then, but the few female characters have matched the positive impact that Princess Leia had on how women are portrayed in Science Fiction and leadership roles in general for fiction. Along with watching the original Star Trek episodes at this time, Star Wars kicked off my interest in Science Fiction because there was as character I could identify with.
The only thing I would have changed about Princess Leia is to give her a lightsaber, and I’m still disappointed that there was no female Jedi as a main character in the Star Wars prequels. There are female Jedi, however, and characters in some of the books/comics (Mara Jade comes to mind immediately, but she’s a future Danger Gal post), but I’m still disappointed.
Deb Taylor at Mookychick summarized Princess Leia Organa beautifully:
Princess Leia was a strong and fearless character, who stood by her beliefs and fought for them. Whether it was saving the galaxy or the man she loved. She was more than willing to risk her own life for the struggle and never demanded that others do the same. Though she appreciated it when they did.
An important facet of Princess Leia’s story is that she not only had a career, but was at the top of the heap in her chosen profession, and she also didn’t have to sacrifice her love life for it. She fell in love with a rogue who decided to fly the straight and narrow path after experiencing her and Luke’s examples. She didn’t take a bad boy and change him, he chose to change himself.
Not only does Leia take charge, but people follow her commands. She also rescues the heroes several times over. She doesn’t fall prey to the SF stereotype of a scantily clad female until Return of the Jedi – and even then she’s saving all the guys, not to mention strangling her monster captor with her own shackles. Princess Leia challenges the stereotypical spacebabe when as a chatteled half-naked female turns the tables by slaying the monster herself. (Meanwhile, the guys are trying not to fall into a giant vagina dentata, but that’s a discussion for another time.)
No character is perfect, but a perfect character is boring. Real people are torn between social, political and religious issues and are not totally consistent in their opinions on those issues. Some have found fault with ways Leia could have subverted traditional feminine roles further and we should examine those. Mariana at Gatochy’s Blog makes a very good point about female Jedi in general and Leia in particular:
The Star Wars trilogy is generally great in keeping women in their place, because have you noticed how there’s not one. Single. Female. Jedi? Not one? Not ever? Puppets, yes. Samuel L. Jackson, sure, in the movies that followed. But women can’t handle that kind of power. And that’s where Princess Leia comes in: to show us how even if you do supposedly have the Force in you you simply can make no use of it unless you’re a man; and that even if you do hold a position of great power because it was handed down to you on a silver platter, if you’re a woman, you’re bound to be hopeless at it. In fact, you will notice it’s her twin brother, who she didn’t even know she had, who saves the universe, not her.
I couldn’t agree more (and I’ve made a similar complaint in the past), and there are many problems with other female characters in Star Wars as well. However, for the time she was written, this was a great step forward. Princess Leia became a template for later heroines and we continue to build on this new archetype in fits in starts, one step forward and sometimes four steps backward. Part of the motivation for me writing this blog is to highlight the great and not-so-great qualities in characters like Princess Leia so that we can discard the old, useless and degrading qualities of female stereotypes.
When as a kid in the 1970s I played Star Wars in the backyard, my version of Princess Leia indeed had a lightsaber and was a powerful Jedi. After she defeated the bad guy, she rode off into the sunset (the Tatooine binary star, mind you) in her landspeeder (or dragon or unicorn, sometimes) with Han Solo.
And, yes, she was driving.
Leslie said this on November 30th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
> And, yes, she was driving.
Leslie said this on November 30th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
AHEM! As I was trying to say before….
GO YOU! I’m totally with you that there aren’t enough strong heroines who aren’t cut short by being scantilly clad. Are writers/producers afraid men won’t watch if they can’t see skin? Perhaps men will feel threatened? I I’d have thought we’d come a long way in this day and age, but it appears we haven’t. I’d love to have seen Princess Leia swing that lightsaber and do some serious damage.
Carolyn said this on December 2nd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I love Princess Leia, and I totally remember being so surprised and impressed by her bravery when that movie came out. Thanks for spotlighting her.
Holly said this on January 4th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I don’t think it matters that Leia didn’t wield a lightsaber. She was a better shot than any of the men, more powerful politically, and higher-ranked in the Alliance (until they all inexplicably became generals). The fact that she was a Princess was a coincidence, and effectively provided a smokescreen for her Rebel activities prior to A New Hope.
As to why there were no female Jedi, I can’t be too hard on Lucas for not portraying them. Speaking as a female martial artist, (ranked 2nd in my class, and most of the time the ONLY female in my class, certainly the highest-level woman my teacher has trained in 30 years), you just don’t see that many high-level female martial artists because most of ‘em don’t stick with it. And even if you are high-level, a 120-lb. woman is not going to last long against an equally trained 200-lb. man. Ergo, the most skilled Jedi fighters would be men. Tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it’s a reality I accept.
Furthermore, in the societies of warrior-priests which Lucas was emulating (the Shaolin temple, the Wudan, etc.) the fighting art and the religion/philosophy were wrapped up together. The training emphasized devotion to an ideal, or a cause, and one’s brothers-at-arms, not to exterior ties like wife and family. Celibacy was often a part of the training (and still is, in very traditional schools) and all the practitioners lived a communal life–ergo, no girls allowed.
It is implied that the Jedi live a monastic lifestyle. However, given the contemporary American audience, there was no way Lucas could come right out and say No Girls Allowed without causing a fuhrer. He took the easy way out and just didn’t address it. However, I think the portrayal was accurate. There would be a few exceptional female Jedi on the fringes, taught by exceptional masters, but probably not in the communal schools.
Anyway, there are different roads to power. Luke and Leia were what they needed to be to make the story work, and managed to be reasonably well-developed personalities at the same time.
Wow, I’ve spent too much time on this.
Lisa said this on January 4th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
You make many great points, all informed by your experience.
What has always irked me though, is that Lucas placed such emphasis on the Force and the Jedi, that the message was if you’re not part of it, you’re not much.
Holly said this on January 7th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Meh. I didn’t get that from it, at least not from the original trilogy. I mean Return of the Jedi did give equal screen-time to the Luke/Darth struggle and the military raid on Endor.
If the Jedi do get the lion’s share of attention these days, I attribute it to the typical fascination of Americans with all things Samurai. Plus those lightsabers are super-cool.
Holly said this on January 7th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Oh, one last thing–I should clarify that, without retracting anything I said above, I’m fairly sure Lucas is a sexist dinosaur–perhaps without realizing he is. There are other indications, particularly in the second trilogy, that he is locked into 50’s-era gender and racial stereotypes. But much has been said about that elsewhere.
Lisa said this on January 7th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Yes, those lightsabers are super-cool. I’m a girl and I want one, dagnabbit. That’s OK, I’m a writer, so I’ll come up with something equally cool and make it girls-only. Neener.
Turning up the maturity level, I see your point about ROTJ.
And, SNAP! Lucas is so a “sexist dinosaur,” you got that right. I’ve ranted about that very thing previously.
Lisa said this on January 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Holly: Based on your comments about how Lucas based the Jedi on warrior-priests like those of the Shaolin temple, Wudan etc. and how the training encouraged celibacy and inhibited ties to family, what do you think about the development of the Mara Jade character?
Holly said this on January 9th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I wish I could comment on Mara Jade. She sounds cool. But I gave up on Star Wars after The Phantom Debacle and I’m just not that well-versed in the geekery.
What I can say is that most kung-fu movies have at least one female fighting character in it. However, that character is ususally a mother fighting to protect her children/family or a “virgin” character fighting to protect her honor.
In the recent “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” these stereotypes were tweaked a bit in Jen (Ziyi Zhang) who defied her parents and her station in life to run away and be an adventurer. Of course her breaking with tradition brought disaster to everyone around her. The other female lead, Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) was a fighter and ran a “security” business inherited from her father, but by doing so she had basically made herself unmarriable.
Does Mara Jade fit into any of those categories? Since I don’t remember seeing her in any of the movies, I would conclude she’s not very important in the grander scheme of things. Perhaps that’s an answer in itself?
Holly said this on January 9th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hi–just got back from Wikipedia.
Mara Jade–now there’s a character I can rant about. I haven’t read the Zahn books, and probably won’t. However that brief glance was enough to get my dander up, so when you write your post about her, here are some things to consider:
She was abducted from her parents by an evil man (read: raped).
She was corrupted via brainwashing/stockholm syndrome into serving the man who corrupted her (read: fell in love with her rapist).
Was assigned to kill the hero, Luke, by dressing up in a skimpy outfit in Jabba’s palace, but failed because she was constrained by her male captor (Jabba).
Was eventually redeemed by marrying the hero, Luke, and having his baby, thus restoring the proper balance to the patriarchal universe. Oh, and given permission to fly the phallis-shaped spaceship he gave her. On missions in his name.
To wit: holding a lightsaber (read: penis) does not necessarily render one “powerful”.
The specifics may change, but the dynamics stay the same. So yeah, I’d rather be Leia any day of the week. She knows her strengths and she still gets her scoundrel. (Should I point out that The Empire Strikes Back was the only one of the screenplays credited to a female writer?)
Somewhere on the web is a catalogue of all the female comic book characters who have been raped, murdered, and/or stripped of their powers, never to be revived. I seem to remember there was a pretty good perspective of how powerful women are treated in a fanboy universe. Might be of interest.
Lisa said this on January 9th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
It’s amazing you got all that just from reading a Wikipedia entry, but you’ve articulated well what’s always bothered me about Mara Jade, and also why I haven’t profiled her as a Danger Gal. She’s essentially a victim who’s traded one master for another. I haven’t read all of the comics she appears in, but I have read the Thrawn trilogy and, just as I’ve pointed out about Padme, we missed a great opportunity to go somewhere new with a female character — like A New Hope did with Princess Leia.
This type of romance, where a character like Mara isn’t really an equal partner, is so contradictory to what Romance as a genre is all about, which ultimately is about not restraining female sexuality and finding a balance between men and women in relationships and society. Granted, some Romance novels achieve this better and more elegantly than others, but this is the reason I read Romance.
At some point I’d like to read the rest of the books and comics that Mara Jade appears in and do a more in-depth character study.
Is this the site about female comics characters you were referring to?
lisapaitzspindler.com»Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup said this on January 9th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
[…] The Literary Assassin and I have been having a great conversation about female characters in the Star Wars universe in the comments to my recent Danger Gal profile of Princess Leia Organa. […]
Holly said this on January 9th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The site I was thinking of is called Women in Refrigerators. I had to do a bit of hunting to find it. It’s a lot older than I thought.
Amen re: Padme and missed opportunities. Note how she was effectively rendered powerless once she was impregnated?
And now I have to go do some posting of my own. Cheers!
The Vintage Reader said this on January 10th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I disliked Mara Jade when she first showed up, and quit reading the Zahn books shortly thereafter, so I can’t comment on her.
But speaking of books… I liked Princess Leia as portrayed in the first Star Wars novel (by Alan Dean Foster, but credited to Lucas) and in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (also by Foster, and credited to him). Especially in the latter, where she piloted her own X-wing (or Y-wing, maybe) and successfully brought it in for a crash landing, survived several nights in a swamp full of horrible things, and later, IIRC (amazing how I can’t remember the details of a book I read four times in SIXTH GRADE ALONE, and yearly after that until I was in college), picked up Luke’s lightsaber after he became disabled and totally thrashed Darth Vader. I agree that Lucas, and maybe Zahn too, are dinosaurs, but Foster isn’t.
Lisa said this on January 10th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I haven’t read the Foster books, but now I may have to! Thanks for the run-down.
Holly said this on January 11th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I haven’t read any Foster, either, but my husband likes him a lot, and my husband is a bonefied feminist, among other things.
The Vintage Reader said this on January 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I think those two are the only SW books he wrote… Splinter of the Mind’s Eye came out in late ‘77/early ‘78, I think, and probably nobody had planned on a movie sequel just yet. It’s not Canon, anyway.
You should be able to pick it up on eBay, half.com, or Paperbackswap. I see it fairly regularly at book sales, too.
I rode on an elevator with Alan Dean Foster at a science fiction convention in 1979. I meant to tell him how much I liked that book, but couldn’t say a word. Hey, I was 13.
lisapaitzspindler.com»Blog Archive » Danger Gal Friday: The Starkiller Who Could Have Been said this on January 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
[…] quite a bit of discussion has been going on in the comments of my Princess Leia Danger Gal post, and then I chimed in on some ruminating on the hero’s journey of Han Solo over at the io9 […]
Blake Stacey said this on February 9th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Meh. Whatever good Leia’s role in A New Hope did for female characters in SF was surely undone by what happened to her character in The Empire Strikes Back. Instead of being a military leader, she’s pushed aside while men with no personality or character development make all the decisions. (Who is that guy who runs the Rebel base on Hoth?) Instead of helping her comrades survive their tough scrapes and narrow escapes, she becomes a whiny bitch — “This bucket of bolts is never gonna get us past that blockade!” — and lets Han come up with every single solution, make every decision. When they reach Cloud City, she paces around a penthouse apartment changing her hairstyle and trying new dresses, while she could be — oh, I dunno — making sure the Millennium Falcon gets fixed, or something like that.
While I think TESB is better than A New Hope in every other way — hell, it’s really the only Star Wars movie I’ll watch without somebody paying me — what it does to Leia’s character is awful, and Leia never recovers from it.
What happened to Padme is not a surprise.
Holly said this on May 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Sorry, Blake, but I think that’s an awfully reductionist analysis of what happened in Empire.
>Instead of being a military leader, she’s pushed aside while men with no personality or character development make all the decisions.
Nonsense. She was issuing orders even while Han was dragging her away. The thing everybody forgets is that Leia was a high-ranking officer in the Rebel army. She had to be kept safe and evacuated first because she was more important than the foot soldiers. The guy running the Rebel base on Hoth was, in fact, the commander of the Hoth base. Every major Rebel outpost would have one. She outranked him, and it was his job to stay there while the really important people were removed from Harm’s Way–much like putting the President in a bunker during a bomb scare.
>Instead of helping her comrades survive their tough scrapes and narrow escapes, she becomes a whiny bitch
I strongly object to the description of her as a whiny bitch. Yes, she was being rude to Han, but since they spent the whole movie trading barbs, and that behavior was intended to develop the subplot of their attraction to one another, I hardly think that Leia deserves to be singled out for inappropriate behavior.
>lets Han come up with every single solution, make every decision
Was she supposed to tell him how to fly his own ship? And were any of the decisions he made poor ones, considering the options? (Trusting Lando doesn’t count, because clearly his betrayal was unexpected by all.)
>When they reach Cloud City, she paces around a penthouse apartment changing her hairstyle and trying new dresses..
This is utterly unfair. They were there to rest and clean up. Even Chewie had his hair brushed. I dismiss this point entirely.
>while she could be making sure the Millennium Falcon gets fixed, or something like that.
Not her job. Did Captain Picard ever fix the ship? No. He designated people who know how to do it. Also there was a certain amount of diplomacy involved at Cloud City–they were in someone else’s city, asking for hospitality. It was Han’s job to liaison with Lando and Lando’s people, not hers.
I’m sorry, but I think you have selectively chosen to ignore the context of the scenes you describe.
Lisa said this on May 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
All good points, Holly.
Blake, RE: Leia’s behavior in Cloud City. It’s not so much that Leia started putting on pretty dresses that diminished her. As Holly pointed out, every person in the group was being groomed at that point. It was a reward/boon phase of the hero’s journey. What was more interesting was the way Lando treated her — sure, like a princess, but in the beginning like a figurehead with no power. Han, on the other hand, fought with her every step of the way, refused to cow-tow to her. That’s why she fell for him, b/c she could trust him to tell her like it was. He was by no means perfect, but by ROTJ it was clear Han respected Leia.
As Holly just pointed out in the Trixie/Scarlet/Jun post from yesterday “adventure-seeking and fashion-consciousness” are not “mutually exclusive.” My main issue with how female characters are dressed in movies is the impracticality of it most of the time. Case in point, Scarlet’s breast armor and absurdly tight suit in the new G.I. Joe movie.