Hi Susan,
Aiee, I was afraid my offhand mention of the Leia
bondage action figure would start a flame war.
I see and understand your point, but here's my
take on it.
I was talking to some friends last night about the
action figure; I showed them the advertising
flyer, which is the bulk of the Star Wars official
newsletter.
We were trying to figure out why it is that the
action figure annoyed us while the movie scenes
didn't necessarily do so. ("Us" being 4 people,
all fans of the original movie series, one the
author of a Star Wars novel mainly featuring Leia;
all 4 of us of the feminist/ liberal stripe,
computer geeks and writers, 2 women, 2 men, of
Seattle fishbelly complexion, toward the
straightish side of the preference curve.)
As you say: In the movie Leia not only escapes,
she uses the leash to strangle the slaver.
With the action figure, there's no slaver to
strangle.
It's static. It's Leia in the bondage outfit,
period.
Neither the doll nor the character in the movie
had any choice about the outfit she's wearing. I
wouldn't bet that no woman had anything to say
about the choice of the outfit... but I wouldn't
bet against the possibility, either.
(In what context does a slave have a choice about
what to wear, in any event?)
The other stuff being advertised prominently
features the other characters (perhaps I should
mention to any lurking Martians that the other
characters in the Star Wars movies are men) in
Jedi robes or flights suits or cool long black
capes, mostly carrying guns or light sabers.
I'm not that big on weapons -- though I have about
a thousand letters from people who liked my Star
Wars novel because it _wasn't_ all about space
battles, I'm the spawn of satan on the internet
for doing exactly what I was asked and expected to
do in my book: including women and (eek!) children
in the universe; and for _not_ blowing everything
up real good. (Except an entire star system at the
end, but I guess that doesn't count.)
I'm not saying, Leia has to have a gun too, just
like the boys.
What I am saying is, why is the slave outfit the
one they picked to sell her in? Why not the
elegant senator's robes, or the flying motorcycle
flight suit? Why not several outfits? (Then they
could charge more.)
Maybe they've done all those, but others aren't
mentioned in the newsletter. There's no Luke
covered with garbage action figure or Han Solo
trapped in black plastic action figure.
It just really pushed the wrong button for me. And
it added to my distress and disillusionment about
Lucasfilms, as did their support of the
no-royalties contract for Star Wars books. (I
won't bore the list with that story -- anybody
who's interested can click on the "writers deserve
royalties" button on my web page and get the
original information & update.)
I repeat to myself what I heard in Hollywood at
every turn, every time I mentioned that a scene in
a screenplay didn't make sense, that the emotional
reaction of a character was absurd, that a
biological process was spelled (and therefore
pronounced) wrong: Vonda, don't be so PICKY. It's
a MOVIE.
Why should I let it bother me? It's only a movie.
It's only a doll. It's only a modern myth.
Shouldn't count for anything at all.
Vonda
On Sat, 8 Nov 1997 13:43:00 -0800, Susan Palwick
<palwick@SCS.UNR.EDU> wrote:
>...
>Now I'm going to go into Devil's Advocate mode. To the folks who are
>complaining about the Leia-in-bondage doll: yeah, it's a pretty silly
>outfit, but please remember that in the movie, that's what she's wearing
>when she strangles what's-his-face with the chain and manages to get away.
>She needs a bit of help to do it, but the silly outfit doesn't remove any
>of her spunk. Please, let's not judge the character even of so 2D a
>persona as Leia by what she's wearing: that's a bit anti-feminist in
>itself, no? To me, one of the things feminism is about is realizing that
>women have brains even when they're wearing skimpy outfits . . . and even
>(*gasp!*) when they may have *chosen,* unlike Leia, to wear those outfits,
>for whatever reason. Granted, this may not have been the rationale of the
>people doing the marketing. *Sigh*
>
>...
http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
Some official good news at
http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946
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