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bonny_kateThere seems to be a strange lack of women in the Star Wars universe.
Now, this comes with a huge caveat. Princess Leia. Leia is a great character that I've always liked. Watching Episode IV, I realized that she is just as amazing as I remembered. She comes up with a plan to get the Death Star schematics to Obi Wan. She doesn't give away the Rebels even when being threatened by Darth Vader himself. When her home planet of Alderaan is threatened, she thinks on her feet to try to save it. She comes up with the idea of diving into the garbage shute. And so on.
Leia was such a big influence on me that in high school when we had a superhero day and I couldn't think of any female superheros to dress up as; I went as Leia instead.
It is rare to have female characters like Leia even in present day action adventure or sci-fi movies. (Although tv series seem to do a better job, but that is another post.)
But Leia is practically the only female character we see in Star Wars. After watching Episode IV, the only other character I can think of is Luke's aunt. Looking only at characters who are given lines, there is a wide variety of male characters: Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke, Han Solo, all the generals and admirals and such on the Death Star, everyone we see in a uniform on the Death Star, all the Rebel pilots who attack the Death Star, even all the Storm Troopers seem to be male.
This is troubling because it makes Leia the female perspective in the movie. We see a range of men, but when it comes to women, there's really only Leia. As awesome as she is, she is still the exception in a movie dominated by men. We don't get to see a woman seduced to the Dark Side of the Force, or a woman who is a wise Jedi leader, or a woman who comes from Luke's home planet and is killed flying a fighter against the Death Star, or a woman as a mercenary pilot with a snarky heart of gold. I wish that we had these perspectives because the film would be richer for it.
Now, this comes with a huge caveat. Princess Leia. Leia is a great character that I've always liked. Watching Episode IV, I realized that she is just as amazing as I remembered. She comes up with a plan to get the Death Star schematics to Obi Wan. She doesn't give away the Rebels even when being threatened by Darth Vader himself. When her home planet of Alderaan is threatened, she thinks on her feet to try to save it. She comes up with the idea of diving into the garbage shute. And so on.
Leia was such a big influence on me that in high school when we had a superhero day and I couldn't think of any female superheros to dress up as; I went as Leia instead.
It is rare to have female characters like Leia even in present day action adventure or sci-fi movies. (Although tv series seem to do a better job, but that is another post.)
But Leia is practically the only female character we see in Star Wars. After watching Episode IV, the only other character I can think of is Luke's aunt. Looking only at characters who are given lines, there is a wide variety of male characters: Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke, Han Solo, all the generals and admirals and such on the Death Star, everyone we see in a uniform on the Death Star, all the Rebel pilots who attack the Death Star, even all the Storm Troopers seem to be male.
This is troubling because it makes Leia the female perspective in the movie. We see a range of men, but when it comes to women, there's really only Leia. As awesome as she is, she is still the exception in a movie dominated by men. We don't get to see a woman seduced to the Dark Side of the Force, or a woman who is a wise Jedi leader, or a woman who comes from Luke's home planet and is killed flying a fighter against the Death Star, or a woman as a mercenary pilot with a snarky heart of gold. I wish that we had these perspectives because the film would be richer for it.
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Date: 2013-12-04 04:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-04 02:57 pm (UTC)I would love to see genderbent and/or racebent Star Wars fan-casts. I think Dame Judi Dench would be an amazing Obi-Wan, for instance, and I rather favor Katee Sackoff for Han Solo.
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Date: 2013-12-04 07:54 pm (UTC)When Episodes I - III came out, I hated them. There are many reasons for this (the dialogue, whiny Annakin, the overuse of CGI), but one of the big ones for me was that I felt betrayed. Once again, there is only one female character, and instead of being capable and brilliant, she is kind of blah. Instead of Leia, we get Padme, whose character seems to be defined by Anakin. It was a brilliant opportunity to incorporate a diversity of women, and that didn't happen.
Joel reads a lot of the Star Wars novels, and says that they are better on the issue than the movies. I am a tiny bit hopeful that the new Star Wars will go somewhere new, instead of working with all the same characters, to give us a different sort of story. I don't think it is that likely, but maybe we can get a different sort of story arc.