Princess Leia: A Feminist Icon

by Oliver Bleistein

Meet the Princess

“Lord Vader, I should have known. Only you could be so bold”, the first lines delivered from Carrie Fisher’s character Princess Leia in the movie Star Wars: A New Hope sets the tone for who and what Princess Leia is all about; being a rebel. This first scene in this iconic franchise that now has eleven films and multiple television shows, introduces us to 19 year-old Princess Leia standing up to one of the most notorious villains, Darth Vader. This scene sets the ground work for a feminist icon in the making who carries various titles throughout the franchise. She is a princess, a general, and most importantly the leader of the Rebel Alliance, fighting against the oppression of the evil Empire.

Princess Leia is a feminist icon on and off screen. On-screen, Leia redefines how princesses are expected to behave and shows that girls make powerful leaders. One feminist Star Wars fans even writes, “We all know who she is, whether you’ve seen the Star Wars films or not. Played by feminist icon, the late and great Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia redefines a trope.” (The Feminist Pop Blog). “Whether you have seen Star Wars or not” , the cultural impact of Princess Leia is one that has taken the world by storm. Off-screen, Fisher’s character has been put into video games for children and made into costumes and toys. Even taken out of the context of Star Wars, the imagery of Princess Leia is used in various political protests, such as the Women’s March in 2017. Princess Leia teaches girls that a woman’s place is in the resistance. While this feminist role has not always been the case for this iconic character, Leia shows the complexity of how girls are simultaneously valued and devalued in our society.

On Screen: Princess Leia

When imagining a princess one may think of characters like Cinderella or Snow White, or even a girl waiting for their Prince Charming to come rescue them from a tower. Perhaps the princess is wearing a beautiful dress with her face painted up in makeup, smiling cheerfully. One might not automatically picture a girl in a white space gown, holding a blaster with a smug expression like Princess Leia pictured below.
These concepts are just the surface of what can be defined as a “princess trope” or the“Cinderella Complex”. Alexandra Heatwole discusses the issue with the Cinderella Complex and similar princess tropes writing, “... [Cinderella Complex] drives young women to cultivate domesticity and beauty above all else, in the hopes of achieving future romantic bliss, and encourages a broad cultural belief that this is a valid life goal for young women” (Heatwole, 2).Not only do we see gender norms being established within this stereotypical princess trope, we start to see that girls are only valued for their beauty and their potential future romance. With the idea of how a princess should behave and look, young girls are taught the “correct” way to be a girl.

Similarly, in other works in girlhood studies, we see the idea of how society chooses which girls are considered to be a part of girlhood. For example, in Marnina Gonick’s work“Sugar And Spice And Something More Than Nice?”, she explains some of the contingencies girls are placed under to be given girlhood. Gonick writes, “Far too often when the category ‘girl’ is named, in the media, in education, sociology, psychology discourses, and in popular culture amongst other sites, it is white, middle class and heterosexual girls whose experiences are referenced” (Gonick, 1). The process of princess culture and princess tropes works in a similar way, with the production of white heterosexual women being seen as the ideal girl. Princess Leia in this case does fall into this discourse, but through her actions within Star Wars, her character begins to challenge our ideas of what makes a girl a girl.

Princess Leia challenges most of these stereotypical concepts, from the way she looks to the way she saves herself and even her love interest, Han Solo. Unlike the idea of waiting for a Knight in Shining Armor to come save the princess, Star Wars redefines a princess’s role. Leia leads a rescue mission to save the smuggler, Han Solo in Return of the Jedi, from the evil slugmob boss Jabba the Hutt. While one can argue that gender role reversals in movies still may hold some lingering ideas about gender stereotypes, this scene directly challenges the idea that girls are the ones who “need saving” and what is viewed as an expectation or “proper” for a patriarchal society.

The regulation of girl’s behavior and what is viewed as the “proper” way to be a girl, is a multi-layered issue throughout girlhood studies. Anita Harris discusses this complex process in her book, Future Girl, noting how, “Growing up ‘right’ has always been a highly managed process for girls in order for particular forms of gender relations to be maintained” (Harris, 15).When thinking about this concept, we can argue that having characters, like Leia, in a princess role where they are shown saving their love interest is the opposition to what is expected of girls.This is important to girl culture because if girls see themselves as heroes, they can apply that to saving themselves, which will hopefully lead to them advocating for themselves and their own autonomy.

On Screen: Slave Leia

Leia’s character shows the complexity of how girls are simultaneously valued and devalued in our society. While she has a voice and can save others, Leia is still subject to abuse and being hypersexualized. Sarah Projansky discusses this predicament that girls are in, usingHarris’ idea of the “can-do girl” and the “at-risk girl”. Projansky writes, “Harris argues two types of girls dominate in contemporary media and political culture: the can-do girl who is ‘confident, resilient, and empowered. And the at-risk girl who ‘lack[s] self esteem’ and/or images in risky behavior” (Projansky, 2). Here we see that girls are placed in either of these two categories, so when girls do not fit perfectly into one of these types it shows how society can value girls and devalue them at the same time.

Unfortunately, we see this happen with Princess Leia immediately after infiltrating Jabba the Hutt’s palace to save Han Solo in Return of the Jedi. Leia is captured and made to be a sexy slave, chained to Jabba’s throne and dressed in the infamous shiny gold bra.

It is important to point out, as another feminist Star Wars fan, Emily Hauser, mentions in her piece about Princess Leia being a feminist hero that, while “...she's in that bikini for less than three of the 399 minutes that make up the original Star Wars trilogy”, it is the viewers that reduce Leia and even Carrie Fisher to only this one scene.This shows how society denies girl’s autonomy and hypersexualizes them. Carrie Fisher even speaks out about this scene in an interview during The Force Awakens press in 2015, responding to the question, “What am Igoing to tell my kid about why she’s in that outfit?, answering, “Tell them that a giant slug forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it”. Which is exactly what happened, Leia used the very chain she was captured with to strangle her oppressor, showing that girls are powerful and strong enough to save themselves.

Projansky also points out that “The can-do girl is independent and confident” while the“The at-risk girl is hyper-sexualized at too young of an age” (Projansky, 2). Here, we can argue that Princess Leia alternates between being seen as a can-do girl and an at-risk girl showing the complexity of girlhood. Leia is independent in escaping captivity, while at the same time is hypersexualized with the attire she is forced to wear and reduced to most commonly being known as “Slave Leia” all for a three minute scene in a franchise where she is constantly saving others, herself and being shown as a confident rebel. This concept is important to girlhood because it gives us a glimpse into some of the discourses raised in girlhood studies.

Off Screen: Being Princess Leia

It is not so secret that merchandise for films are sometimes just as popular and sought after than going to see the actual film. When there is a popular character on screen, the chances are fans want to have this character on t-shirts or even as toys. Having Princess Leia merchandise such as action figures, costumes, or video game characters is important for girls and girlhood because it allows girls to invoke what it means to be Princess Leia. Toys are a big part of childhood, a lot of times they are physical embodiments of what roles society expects children to associate with. For example, girls are often given dolls to take care of and boys are often given a ball to play with. Toys in this case can be linked to socialization.Emilie Zaslow discusses playing with dolls as a process of socialization in her book aboutAmerican Girl Dolls, writing, “In addition to teaching girls about the aesthetics of normative femininity, dolls have long been understood as tools to prepare girls for their roles within the domestic sphere” (Zaslow, 43). Using Zaslow’s idea of dolls as a tool of socialization, when a girl plays with a Princess Leia action figure, they are being taught to be a rebel, to be a hero, and redefine what means to be a girl just like Leia does in the movies.

Not only do girls have the opportunity to play with a Princess Leia doll, they are also able to be Princess Leia in a few other formats such as costumes and while playing video games. If a girl wants to dress up as Princess Leia for Halloween they have the option to do so. Girls now have the option to dress up as a non-stereotypical princess. Another way girls are able to bePrincess Leia is in video games catered to children such as the Lego Star Wars games.Representation of women in video games is important because it allows girls to feel empowered, as they may associate themselves as the character they are playing as. This idea is also discussed in the study Female Representation in Video Games that analyzes female characters within multiple video games. The researchers write how, “The woman's representativeness in games aimed at empowerment and protagonism is a way of breaking the paradigms attributed to their image and behavior...”. So when a girl plays as a female character who stands up to her oppressors, saves her friends, and is the leader of the Rebel Alliance, they can be socialized to believe this is how to be a girl. Using this idea we can conclude that Princess Leia’s likeness could be linked to changing how girls view their role within society.

Off-screen: Princess Leia & Girlhood

As we can see Carrie Fisher’s role on and off screen as Princess Leia is very important to girlhood and girl culture making Princess Leia an important feminist icon. Princess Leia does this by redefining how princesses are expected to behave and shows that girls make powerful leaders. Leia also shows the complexity of how girls are simultaneously valued and devalued in our society throughout Star Wars which directly relates to a key discourse within girlhood and feminist studies. Lastly, Princess Leia is value to girl culture overall is incredibly important to feminism. The ability to challenge what roles are expected of girls to conform to through the merchandise and imagery modeled after Princess Leia, allows girls to explore what it means to be a rebel, after all a girl’s place is in the resistance!

Works Cited:

Bristot, Paula Casagrande, et al. "Female Representation in Video Games." Clei ElectronicJournal 22.2 (2019).

Gonick, Marnina. “Sugar and Spice and Something More than Nice? Queer Girls andTransformations of Social Exclusion.” In Girlhood: Redefining the Limits, edited by YasminJiwani, Claudia Mitchell, and Candis Steenbergen, 122-137. Black Rose Books, 2006.

Harris, Anita. “THE ‘CAN-DO’ GIRL VERSUS THE ‘AT-RISK’ GIRL.” Future Girl: YoungWomen in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge, pp. 1–23.

Hauser, Emily L. “Princess Leia, Feminist Hero.” The Week, The Week, 27 Dec. 2016,https://theweek.com/articles/594202/princess-leia-feminist-hero.

Heatwole, Alexandra. "Disney Girlhood: Princess Generations and Once upon a Time." Studiesin the Humanities, vol. 43, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-VII. ProQuest,https://login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fdisney-girlhood-princess-generations-once-upon%2Fdocview%2F1858228995%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D13626.Projansky, Sarah. “Introduction.” Spectacular Girls, 2014, pp. 1–24.,https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814770214.003.0001.

Sloan, Amanda. “Star Wars and Feminism: An Intersectional Look into the Galaxy by AmandaSloan.” The Feminist Shop, 4 May 2020,https://thefeministshop.com/blogs/the-feminist-shop-blog/star-wars-and-feminism-an-intersectional-look-into-the-galaxy-by-amanda-sloan.

Zaslow, Emilie. “Situating American Girl: Tolls of Socialization In a Changing Culture .”Playing with America's Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection, PalgraveMacmillan, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2017, pp. 35–63.