Princess Leia is still alive (video)

Megan Kearns (btchflcks.com); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Princess Leia: Feminist Icon or Sexist Trope?

Megan Kearns

When I was a young girl, Star Wars was my favorite movie. I’ve watched it more times than any other film. Premiering in 1977, the same year I was born, the epic sci-fi space opera irrevocably changed the movie industry.

Beyond battle scenes, or the twist of Vader being Luke’s father, it impacted my childhood because Princess Leia was my idol.
 

In the Star Wars trilogy, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan (played by Carrie Fisher) was a member of the Imperial Senate, a diplomat, and a spy for the Rebel Alliance. Courageous and determined, she boasted a defiant will. Leia boldly spoke her mind. And it’s what resonated the most with me.

 

When I was 7, my mom sewed together a Princess Leia costume for me for Halloween -- a white dress with a hood cinched around the waist with a sparkly belt, accompanied by a plastic light saber. Yes, I realize Leia didn’t wield a light saber in the movies, but she did have a laser gun.
 

I continued to wear that costume long after Halloween. Every week (sometimes multiple times a week), I would pop in our VHS of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, don my white dress, and act out Princess Leia’s scenes. I probably would have worn that costume to school if my mother had let me.

Looking back, why did Leia have to be a princess? Why did she have to bear a title that too often symbolizes hyperfemininity, passivity, and sexualization? Why couldn’t she have been the president’s daughter or mere been a senator?

So, yes, Leia is a princess. But she’s a bad ass warrior princess -- a precursor to the rise of the warrior princesses.

(Russianvids) She lives! She lives? Carrie Fisher may not be dead.

O, Harrison, your muscle is so big!

In the very first scenes of Star Wars, we see Leia shoot a laser gun. Yeah, she gets captured, but she doesn’t go down without a fight. When she’s taken hostage, Leia unflinchingly stands up to Darth Vader, who intimidates everyone else but not her. She remains defiant. She stands up to Governor Tarkin, the Death Star’s commander, too, as we witness... More