Princess Leia is arguably the most iconic female character in the Star Wars saga, and possibly one of the most influential female characters in modern popular culture. Her image is pervasive—nearly everyone is familiar with her famous cinnamon-bun hair and long, white gown. She serves as a role model for many female fans of the franchise, but even so, her treatment throughout the saga often comes under examination from feminist critics. In a saga as popular as Star Wars, which shaped the course of modern science fiction and popular culture, the treatment of female characters (of which there are few) is especially important.

In their essay “Feminist Media Criticism and Feminist Media Practices,” Watkins and Emerson assert that media is shaped and directed according to societal expectations of gender. Women are portrayed primarily as domestic and subservient, which in turn subliminally convinces women consuming this media that this is what is expected of them. Images of women in the workplace or in positions of power are important in dispelling this assumption, however, women remain subordinate to men in nearly every piece of media regardless. The film industry exhibits countless examples: Arwen (The Lord of the Rings), Rachael (Bladerunner), Black Widow (The Avengers), Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Carribean), Janet Weiss (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)—although these women may be interesting or complex characters, they are secondary to the male characters and often serve mainly as love interests. The pervasiveness of male domination harms women, who are taught to believe that they are secondary to men.

In an examination of film dialogue, journalists Anderson and Daniels compiled statistics from 2,000 screenplays into a website detailing the discrepancy between the amount of dialogue given to male and female characters in blockbuster movies, based on the number of words said. According to these statistics, 78% of the movies studied have a majority male dialogue. The statistics from the Star Wars original trilogy (shown below) are not any better. Leia does not claim any of the top three speaking roles in original trilogy movies and even ranks below Obi-Wan in Return of the Jedi, which takes place after he has died. These data show that women, even those as strong-willed as Leia, are not the main focus of the original trilogy.

Leia’s character arc in Star Wars follows these trends—she is forced to take a backseat in order to focus on Luke’s story, and when female fans watch a “strong female character” used as a plot device to aid men, they are affected by that image, consciously or not. In the Star Wars universe, “men are active heroes, [and] Princess Leia is a damsel in distress” (Lev 31). Although Leia is just as capable as Luke, she is forced into a secondary role so he can become “the chosen one,” which ultimately influences fans and perpetuates the idea of male superiority that seems ubiquitous in popular culture.

Throughout the Star Wars saga, Leia Organa plays many roles: princess, general, sister, rebel, diplomat. She is referred to first and foremost as Princess Leia, although she wields no tangible power in this position. Her most consequential role in the narrative of the films comes along with the title of sister (and daughter)—another role in which she is relatively powerless. This title, sister, also invites the audience to compare Leia directly to her brother, Luke, around whom most of the action in the saga revolves. Luke, in contrast with Leia, is naïve and incapable at the outset of the original trilogy—yet he is selected to train with Yoda to become a Jedi, whereas Leia is relegated to the role of Han’s love interest and “the chosen one’s” sister.  Leia has the abilities necessary to be trained as a Jedi Knight, but she is instead forced into a secondary role where her sole purpose is as a plot device that propels the narratives of the men around her.

Leia is also known for her fiery nature and snappy remarks, as evidenced in the following audio clip:

(it is worth noting that these quotes come only from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back—according to the fan who created this clip, none of Leia’s lines in Return of the Jedi were among her “best”)

Despite the fact that much of Leia’s dialogue is scathing and quick-witted, her most iconic line in the original trilogy (which is arguably the best-known line in Star Wars history) features her imploring a man to help her and indicating that she and the rebellion are helpless without him:

 

A New Hope shows Leia at what is arguably the height of her character arc. The first time the audience sees Princess Leia in A New Hope, she openly defies Darth Vader, an extremely powerful Sith Lord who proceeds to torture her for information on the whereabouts of the rebel base. Not only does Leia resist his torture, proving herself to be extremely strong-willed, but she also manages to get the Death Star plans to safety before Vader can retrieve them, which was his reason for boarding her ship. Luke, on the other hand, begins the series in a place of immaturity—he immediately comes off as a whiny, entitled teenager who lacks worldly experience. In addition, Leia carries an immense amount of political responsibility on her shoulders (not only as a princess, but as a rebel as well) while Luke’s chores are nothing more than farm work and caring for droids (none of which are important to the fate of the rebellion, barring C3PO and R2D2). Leia is much more capable, as she not only has previous experience with the rebellion but also bravely faces her own execution in order to protect the rebel base. She lies even when threatened with the destruction of her home planet, Alderaan. Her combat skills are also exhibited when she wields a blaster to aid in her own rescue by Luke and Han, exclaiming “somebody has to save our skins” (A New Hope). She refuses to become the damsel in distress who needs rescuing by the male heroes and instead takes it upon herself to find a solution to their situation. Luke, however, fails to show any sort of tactical prowess until the end of the movie, when his force sensitivity allows him to land a torpedo shot and blow up the Death Star. There is a clear disjunction between Luke and Leia’s capabilities in A New Hope, yet Luke is the sibling who is given his father’s lightsaber and ultimately trained as a Jedi, and the power dynamic between them shifts rapidly after the destruction of the Death Star.

Although she shows little weakness in A New Hope, Leia soon becomes a secondary character used to motivate and supplement Han and Luke. She remains a leader within the rebellion, but this is featured only briefly before her chief purpose in the movie takes over; her main story arc in The Empire Strikes Back involves her falling in love with Han. Nearly all of her scenes in the movie involve Han in some way—she is confronted by, worries about, and is saved by him on Hoth, and although she initially rejects his advances, she eventually falls for him. Her attempts to retain her agency are ultimately fruitless when she gives into his bad-boy charms (a trope common in popular culture, and highlighted by Han’s quote from A New Hope: “Do you think a Princess and a guy like me…?”). The audience, too, is aware of the fact that Leia’s rebukes of the “scruffy-looking nerf herder” do not indicate her hatred for Han, but, rather, her cloaked desire for him (The Empire Strikes Back). She becomes a conquest for Han: he continues to get on her nerves until she admits that she loves him, and, when she does, he responds with “I know” (The Empire Strikes Back). In this way, she is painted as the more rash and emotional of the pair, even though Han was initially the childish pursuer. It could be argued that Han changes his smuggling ways in order to be with Leia, however, he initially stays with the rebellion because of his close friendship with Luke (remaining to fight after rescuing him on Hoth), and is subsequently affected by his role as a rebel. Although he has generally left behind his criminal past, he still acts emotionally detached from Leia and toys with her emotions to win her over. By perpetuating the trope of an initially powerful woman falling for the underdog and eventually becoming secondary to him, the Star Wars saga devalues Leia’s character and places more importance on male characters.

Leia’s story is also sidelined in order to focus on Luke’s Jedi training. The Empire Strikes Back features the first use of Leia’s force sensitivity, however, it is only used in order to contact and rescue Luke. It would have been possible for Leia to be trained as a Jedi, in fact, Yoda indicates that this is the backup plan in case Luke dies when he tells Obi-Wan “there is another” (The Empire Strikes Back). This brings into question the decision to train only Luke—while it is possible that they wanted to keep Leia hidden to keep her safe, she is in more danger in Cloud City than she would have been in on Dagobah, and Yoda is prepared to leave her in the hands of Darth Vader in order to protect Luke. Yoda could have trained both her and Luke, and it may have even been easier to train Leia since she has already proven that she has more self-control than Luke. Instead, she plays only the role of his mysterious sister—and isn’t even revealed to be so until Return of the Jedi. In the eyes of the audience, Leia in The Empire Strikes Back is simply a lovesick young woman who shares a strange connection to Luke, rather than the powerful woman she appeared as in A New Hope, or a woman with the capability to become a Jedi.

Leia’s character devolves even further in Return of the Jedi, which contains one of her most iconic and disputed scenes in the entire trilogy, in which she is branded as “Slave Leia.” Simply the title alone degrades her and reduces her character to someone who is completely controlled by another character, who in this case is the horrendous Jabba the Hutt. The juxtaposition between the “Slave Leia” scene and the scene immediately previous, in which she nearly rescues Han from Jabba’s clutches, is striking. Leia appears once again as a strong woman, this time rescuing a man who is perceived as tough, but she is quickly stripped of this power and subjected to abuse at the hands of Jabba. She is forced to wear a revealing bikini outfit and a chain, which Jabba repeatedly chokes her with. She also has no lines while wearing the demeaning costume, further removing her agency and reducing her to a pretty object—something to be seen, not heard. The objectification of Leia in this scene has been the cause of much contention among fans, and many criticize the scene for its clear objective to play into Leia’s sex appeal, further degrading her and indicating that she exists only for the pleasure or purposes of men. Leia ultimately strangles and kills Jabba with her chains in a visually powerful scene, but she has already been made vulnerable by being subjugated and exposed. This is also the only fighting she does in the escape scene, as opposed to Luke and Han, who are the focus of the action. The degradation of Leia’s character to “Slave Leia” not only robbed her of her agency but had a profound impact on the audience’s view of her as a capable woman.

Leia becomes a plot device in the narratives of Luke and Han for the remainder of the movie. To Han, she is an object of jealousy and obsession, someone to protect when she gets injured on Endor and someone to inspire him. To Luke, she is a sister—information he initially withholds from her. He gleans a memory about their mother from her, and when he goes to fight Darth Vader, she is left behind on Endor. Leia does nothing but sense that Luke is alive while Luke duels their father and ultimately leads him back to the light side of the force. Although Leia is incredibly powerful in the force (as evidenced by Vader’s hope that she might turn to the dark side) she is never allowed to exhibit that power over the course of the original trilogy and is instead forced to serve as a motivation for Han and Luke. She does not train in the force after the events of the original trilogy, either—Luke takes her son as an apprentice rather than teaching her how to use her gifts. When the audience is shown that Leia is capable of wielding immense power but she is never seen using it, the films subtly perpetuate the notion that women are not allowed to be powerful or exhibit their strengths.

This continual deterioration of Leia’s character throughout the Star Wars saga represents a trend in popular culture of female characters being forced into secondary roles and being important in the narrative solely to motivate or elevate male characters. In a popular saga such as Star Wars the treatment of women is especially visible, and as Leia is the only main female character in the original trilogy her character arc is brought to the forefront in terms of representation. When female fans watch Leia, who is initially a powerful woman who can fend for herself, become a love interest for Han and a second thought to Luke, they receive a message that women may only exist to serve men (at least in media, however, media has an impact on the socialization of women). Leia could have been the “chosen one” of the saga, but Luke is chosen over her, which perpetuates the societal conception that men are naturally predisposed to become heroes over women—a notion which is pervasive in popular culture and the film industry.

 

Works Cited:

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1977. Film.

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Dir. George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1980. Film.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Dir. George Lucas. Twentieth Century Fox, 1983. Film.

Anderson, Hanah, and Matt Daniels. “The Largest Analysis of Film Dialogue by Gender, Ever.”The Pudding, Apr. 2016, pudding.cool/2017/03/film-dialogue/.

Lev, Peter. “Whose Future? ‘Star Wars,” ‘Alien’, and ‘Blade Runner.’” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 1, 1998, pp. 30–37.

Watkins, S. Craig, and Rana A. Emerson. “Feminist Media Criticism and Feminist Media Practices.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Sage, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000271620057100111.