It's partly George Lucas' fault. He gets that a lot, but in this case it's actually true: promotional images of Carrie Fisher dressed like several of the Arabian Nights was put out there for Return Of The Jedi without any kind of context, and context-free is how the image has remained. Let's not forget: Leia Organa is a legit princess, albeit adopted; a political animal (youngest galactic senator in history, remember?) and one of the principal leaders of the Rebel Alliance. When Solo is sold to Boba Fett to take to Jabba, frozen in carbonite, Leia disguises herself as a recently deceased bounty hunter named Boushh, talks her way into the Hutt's throne room with Chewbacca as her alleged prisoner, and then holds up the entire assembled entourage of killers, thieves and worse with a thermal detonator in order to impress them with Boussh's credentials. The lady is badass... it's not her fault she's caught, Jabba being a paranoid slug, and forced into the role of chained slave girl, after Jabba feeds the last one to his pet Rancor. These days, the feminist credentials of the character are lost in favour of cheescake posing and a tacit assumption in popular culture that Princess-Leia-in-the-gold-bikini is some sort of common watershed moment for young men of a certain age, a rite of passage and a relatable fantasy figure for geeks the world over. It's not like Star Wars has that many strong, fully realised female characters that fans can afford to reduce the best one in the franchise down to some form of submissive slave girl figure. Guys, she strangled Jabba The Hutt with those chains. Whatever... the damage is done. As you can see, today there are just too many Leias in gold bikinis to argue with. Too. Many. Leias.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
