Princess Leia Skywalker Amidala Organa Solohttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Princess_Leia%27s_characteristic_hairstyle.jpg
Let’s go back in time for a moment. It’s 1977, and up to this point there are virtually no strong female leads in popular culture and cinema. The only possible examples to be found were sidekicks, strong yet objectified vintage heroines, and Bond girls. That was it. Then suddenly, Star Wars burst onto the screen, and Princess Leia changed all of that. She was one of the first strong female heroines in cinema, displaying a multitude of heroic characteristics and repeatedly saving the day. As Natalie Reilly said, “It's easy to take for granted, just days away from 2017, that girls can be more than princesses; more than ladies waiting to be rescued. But forty years ago, nobody dared contemplate it. Carrie Fisher showed us that it was possible, and she kicked ass while doing it” (Reilly). Her strength, compassion, intelligence, resourcefulness, and bravery are what caused her to lead the Rebellion to victory.
One of the most prevalent traits we see from Leia is her strength. Her deep inner strength and strong will are what allowed her to fight to keep the resistance alive while undercover in the Imperial Senate for years, and later to resist betraying her cause when faced with torture from Vader and his interrogation droids. She is able to keep herself together and level-headed through anything, even when that means watching her home planet be destroyed right before her eyes. She is strong enough to lead the Rebellion even when she thinks she is leading alone, and that takes true strength. Leia also stands out for her physical strength. After being caught in an attempt to free Han from Jabba’s clutches on Tatooine, Jabba makes her a slave in a gold bikini. Later, when Luke’s escape plan is underway and she sees her chance, she breaks free and strangles Jabba with the very chain he used to imprison her. Unlike other women in the popular culture of the time, Leia is on the battlefield fighting with her friends and leading her troops. At cloud city when they were being escorted to Vader’s shuttle, Lobot creates a distraction and Lando hands her a blaster, and she and Chewy overpower the stormtroopers and chase after Boba Fett in an effort to rescue Han. Later, she and Han lead the Rebel Force on Endor in an attack on the shield generator protecting the second Death Star. With some help from her Ewok friends, they win the battle, the Death Star is destroyed and the war is over. All these accomplishments not only show Leia’s strength, but also her independence as a leader.
Another trait that really makes Leia stand out is her independence. Leia is such an inspirational figure because unlike so many other female leads of the time, she doesn't exist to add motivations for the male lead or simply to be a damsel in distress. She’s not there for the hero, she is the hero. She doesn’t need to be rescued, she does the rescuing. When Han, Luke and Chewy come to rescue her from the Death Star detention block without an escape plan, they become trapped in the detention block, pinned down under laser fire. In the midst of this perilous situation it is Leia who grabs the blaster from Han, fends off the stormtroopers and creates an escape plan by blowing up the vent and sending them down the garbage chute to safety. Natalie Reilly puts it quite perfectly, “Indeed, Leia joins the boys in every battle, whether she's on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, or the Forest Moon of Endor, literally hand-in-hand with Ewoks. Much has been made of her elaborate hairstyles, but you'll note that the only time her hair is out is when victory has been achieved at the end of Return of the Jedi. The reasoning is obvious: Leia doesn't take her hair out while there's still [work] to do” (Reilly). As the quote illustrates, Leia is very practical, and this was revolutionary for the time, as any other positive females in film at the time were objectified by the writing character design, as Glynnis MacNicol of Elle Magazine so eloquently put it: “This may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but in the world of female action heroes, cleavage is often a must. Consider Wonder Woman, who at her most powerful is basically in a bikini. Or Natasha Romanoff (The Black Widow) of the Avengers in her curve-hugging suit, or Mystique in X-Men who is essentially just naked but painted blue. And let's not even talk about female game characters.....It's also a big deal—and let's face it, a big relief—because it's entirely in keeping with the established Star Wars vision of womanhood: all action, some attitude, practical clothes. Or if not exactly practical, then covered. Very, very covered” (MacNicol). She is not there to be glamorous or aesthetically pleasing to the viewers; she’s there to get the job done and save the galaxy. She demonstrates how she is resourceful, independent, and, most of all, she doesn’t need to be rescued, she can rescue everybody else. Her strength and independence are what make her such a powerful force in the galaxy, and such a strong positive role model for young girls.
One of Leia’s greatest strengths is her intelligence. Throughout the series it is Leia who does the planning, along with her officers such as Admiral Akbar and Mon Mothma. She creates battle plans and them gives them to the troops, as she demonstrates when briefing the Rebel Troops on Hoth and then quarterbacking their assault from the command center. In Episode IV, when she realized the Empire was on to her, she sent the Death Star Plans to safety in the care of her droids, who could escape by evading the lifeform scanners on the Star Destroyers. Later, after the aforementioned garbage escape, she chooses to go the Rebel Base on the moon of Yavin, knowing her ship is being tracked. Upon arriving at the base, she turns over the plans and reveals the Death Star’s weakness, then organizes an assault on the Death Star. Leia had been leading the Empire into a trap all along, by leading them to the base so the Rebels could surprise attack the Death Star with the knowledge of how to destroy it, obliterating the Death Star, killing several of the Empire’s most important leaders and severely weakening the Empire.
Leia was one of the most influential women in cinema of all time, proving to women everywhere that they didn’t have to conform to society’s sexist views of what they should be. They could be strong, smart, wise-cracking, practical, and whatever kind of person they wanted. More than that, she showed all of us that despite what popular culture tells us, we women don’t have to wait and be rescued, because we are strong, smart, and brave enough to do the rescuing ourselves.
Works Cited (includes images as they all from Reilly’s article):
Page created on 1/10/2020 6:43:57 PM
Last edited 1/24/2020 9:27:30 PM
