I love Star Wars, especially Princess Leia. When I was a kid, she was one of the few women I saw anywhere that wasn’t a stay at home mom or a teacher, and she gave me hope that, while I couldn’t be a princess, I could certainly be something else. Not only was I Princess Leia three or four Halloweens in a row, I kept wearing the costume every day after school until Thanksgiving. Mom took it away after that.
So, I was thrilled about the Star Wars postage stamps from the US Post Office. Princess Leia totally deserves to be on her own stamp, blaster in hand, ready to take down some Imperial scum. Booyah!
This is the Princess Leia stamp George Lucas and the US Postal Service is proposing:
She looks like she’s putting mail in one of those R2D2 mailboxes. THIS is the shot that will represent Princess Leia? Ass in the air, bent over a can, being sneaky?
I know this is when she’s making that “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope,” recording that kicks off the whole saga. But, there are other, better moments in the trilogy that demonstrate her character and her strength.
Leia blasting a hole in the wall of the Death Star and ordering Han and Luke into the garbage chute. Leia walking into Jabba’s palace disguised as a bounty hunter to rescue Han. Leia strangling Jabba with her own slave girl chain.
But, no. Princess Leia has to share a stamp with R2D2, with her ass in the air.
Padme Amidala has a proposed stamp, too, and she doesn’t have to share with Jar-Jar Binks or anything ridiculous like that. She’s more of a tragic figure than Leia, but she has her moments. Padme stormed into her occupied palace with a blaster to remove Nute Gunray. Padme was in the middle of the arena on Geonosis, fighting bad guys and monsters.
Her stamp portrays her standing around, looking regal in her queen’s robes and physics-defying hairstyle. It’s like 17th century portrait art. Pretty, but completely freaking inaccurate. Padme wore that costume for all of ten minutes in Episode I; is that really how she should be defined?
Princess Leia and Padme are really the only visible women in the Star Wars movies, and Leia is the only one that gets to live. There are a few lady Jedi in the prequels, but they’re all dead by the middle of Episode III. Most of Padme’s decoys wind up dead. There’s a female bounty hunter in Episode II, who also ends up dead. And, there are an assortment of slave girls in Jabba’s palace, one of whom gets eaten by a rancor, but not before her boob falls out of her outfit.
Is George Lucas afraid of girls? He just can’t seem to keep a girl alive. And, in conjunction with the US Postal Service, he’s stripped his most iconic women of their dignity in these stamps. As usual, strong, accomplished women are boiled down to simply being pretty.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
