Coming to Realize How Important an Affect Princess Leia Had on Our Culture

I began last season of RPG Storytime: Star Wars with a tribute to Carrie Fisher, who had died the end of the year before.  It was a bit of a late tribute, but so was my recognition of her character's effect on our society.

I had never really thought about the impact the character of Princess Leia had on our society.  It is odd that such a feminist icon came out of the mind of a man who also said "there are no bras in space," but Leia made a huge impact on the way female characters were portrayed on film.

It's easy to look at it today and say of course women are supposed to be right there in the action.  But if you look at other media at the time, including other movies, TV, and even games and books, women were the "romantic interest" to be saved by the heroic man.  Star Wars began with that trope where the heroes were supposed to save a princess from the clutches of an evil empire.  But then it upended that idea by having the woman snap back at the men, criticizing them for their lack of planning.

Most of the time, the imagery of her was not as a victim needing to be saved, but as one of the heroes along with them.  Her very first action in the film is to shoot down a stormtrooper.  She wasn't intimidated by the lead villains, despite them scaring the crap out of the audience.

I say "most of the time" because there were advertisers who displayed her as the sexy damsel in distress.  One of the most famous posters is of her sprawling at Luke's feet, clutching to his leg for protection.  But that was by people who were still thinking in that period of time.

The presumptuousness of the film taking for granted that Leia is strong and in charge caused an entire generation, my generation, to grow up with an assumption that women can be in charge.  We've barely argued the issue because we know women's equality to be true.  Typically, these sorts of social changes are credited with some sort of more prestigious event or person.  But the simple fact is that EVERYONE saw Star Wars.  And it's that sort of huge impact that truly changes a culture.

I wish I had recognized all of this while Carrie Fisher was alive.  I know she didn't create the icon, but she deserves credit for breathing life into her, and carrying a torch of dignity and intelligence throughout her life.

Wonder Woman is Exemplary of Where Feminism Should Go

Wonder Woman has been out for so long now it's actually on DVD at this point, so singing its praises is a bit past due, but I think it's important enough to say something even if it's late rather than never.

Like so many people, I had expected this movie to be terrible after all the other DC bombs.  Arrogance by the filmmakers had gotten in the way of those.  However, it really seemed like they understood the importance of Wonder Woman as a symbol, and got their act together when they made it.

One scene that had made me cringe in the trailers, but brought me to tears in the movie, was when Wonder Woman climbed up out of the trench and led a charge.  I still can't put my finger on why it bugged me at first.  It just seemed... tacky for some reason.  I think it's because the trench warfare at that time was SO grim.  All of war is grim, of course, but there are some specific points that just go beyond a fun movie.  For instance, Captain America didn't go to a concentration camp.  That would have been just... too much.

However, the way it was portrayed in the movie was to have the trenches represent the stubbornness of the commanders, and their unwillingness to do something that needs to be done.  Wonder Woman going over the top represented the same thing as when she was scolding the commanders in their plush office; something has to be done now.

Most of all, what moved me about the scene wasn't that she was fighting a war, it was that a woman was standing up for what she believed in, and doing something herself.  It was a call to action to women, not just to men.  A lot of feminist programs and writings point fingers at men and complain about how things have been.  That's fair enough, as chauvinism has been prominent in humanity for as long as it's existed.  But nothing is going to change if women don't stand up for themselves and get active.

I've been very disappointed in a lot of entertainment in our culture that's been held up as either feminist, or has been popular among women.  Much of it is centered around the idea of women manipulating men to get ahead, rather than having the strength to do something themselves.  Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight were all about women whose loftiest goals were to score the hot guy, and they were considered strong for having won them over enough to get the men to do everything for them.  Sex and the City, for all its hype about portraying independent women in New York, at its heart, was all about what sort of rich and famous men they could get into bed.  I've even been bothered by Beyonce being held up as a feminist icon after listening to the song that made her famous, Crazy in Love.  What bothers me so much about that song is that, after she sings about being crazy for a guy, that guy jumps into the song and sings all about himself!  He doesn't support her song or anything she's saying, it's all about HIM.

It's been discouraging seeing women be their own worst enemies as they hold up these non-feminist shows and people as feminist icons.  True feminism should be about women being allowed to have the equal chances as men to get as far in the world as their talents and skills allow.  Not to see how  much they can manipulate men into doing things, then allowing them to take the lead.

Wonder Woman was all about a woman taking the lead to DO something, not manipulate a man into doing it.  This movie embodied a lot of what I was trying to get across in my documentary about women soldiers in the Civil War.  I didn't do that because I praise women who dress up as men, or strictly because they go to war; it's because they stand up for THEMSELVES.  They prove themselves as true equals, and we respect them for that.

Wonder Woman is the hero we all need in this day and age.