Women of Star Wars

This blog is dedicated to the women of Star Wars, in the movies and in the books, named and unnamed. 

The purpose of this blog is not only to show appreciation to these badass women, but also to discuss issues of gender in Star Wars. Two of the women in this photoset appear in the movies without ever being named and yet one of them is one of only two women with a speaking role in the original trilogy. At the same time, pilots in Empire Strikes Back have no problems with accepting direction from Leia, despite the fact that she is a politician. Leia was a groundbreaking character when A New Hope came out and yet she’s the only named woman who speaks in the entire trilogy. In the prequels, Padme is also the only main female character (though at least the few secondary female characters actually have names in the prequels). Unfortunately, Padme’s role is far less exemplary than that of her daughter.

The books expand on these women and create new ones, the most famous of which, of course, is Mara Jade. Despite the fact that women like Mara Jade have been instrumental in the creation of the Expanded Universe, there is only one book that focuses completely on a female protagonist and that woman is not even one of the main Star Wars characters. There are plans for books that focus on Jaina Solo and Leia, but Star Wars is thirty-five years old and the EU has been popular and growing for twenty-one years and this is the first time a woman will be the sole focus of a Star Wars novel (Allegiance and Choices of One were just as much about Luke and the Hand of Judgement as they were about Mara). Furthermore, the direction that women of the EU have been steered towards is becoming more and more worrisome and this blog will hopefully address many of those issues. 

Hopefully this blog will engender thoughtful discussion of a much beloved franchise. Feel free to submit anything you like - pictures, stories, essays, quotes - from or about the awesome women of Star Wars. I’m most familiar with the original trilogy and the EU from then on than I am with anything from before A New Hope. But feel free to submit anything you like related to the period, I just might not be able to answer all questions in as informed manner as I might like.