Ladies: You Cannot Be Objectified Because You Are Not an Object
Reflections on the Metal Bikini
Every time I watch Return of the Jedi, the whole slave-costume Leia thing gets more and more uncomfortable. It’s something every Star Wars fangirl has to deal with at some point. How can Leia go from being a three-dimensional character of strength and resolve, valued by everyone around her as an integral part of a galactic Rebellion — the “rock” of the Star Wars family, to being reduced to a sex object in a skimpy bikini for not only Jabba, but, let’s face it, the entire male audience, to leer at? The metallic bikini, the chain and collar — it all comes together to form one ugly picture: a woman as an object at men’s disposal. The fact that this image of sexual objectification coupled with bondage is one cherished and obsessed over by fanboys the world over does not make it any easier for the women who love Star Wars to stomach.
I don’t know if men can understand how uniquely humiliating this scenario is to a woman. A man can be beat up and tortured and his ego punctured, but this particular kind of humiliation is something that is reserved exclusively for women, and (men, you can correct me if I’m wrong), I don’t know that there is anything in the male experience that could be considered its equivalent. There is nothing more maddening than being reminded that no matter what you do, no matter how complex of a person you are, for some men you will never be anything more than an object to fill his sexual desire — a product to be consumed — and sometimes, they have the power to force that perception on you. At some level, every woman has to deal with the fear of this experience, and some have to deal with the experience itself.
I don’t think Leia’s slave-girl ordeal is ever going to sit pretty with me, but it does accomplish one thing: it makes Leia a very relatable character for women. Up to this point in the Star Wars saga, Leia has been treated as an equal by the men around her. Han may have poked fun at her and Lando may have made her suffer through some corny pick-up lines, but all in all she’s been treated as a human being with feelings that has something to offer besides the obvious, and it’s clear that that is how she sees herself, as well. It’s very jarring, then, when her capture puts her in the degrading position of being portrayed as merely a projection of male fantasy. The script allows Leia to deal out Jabba’s comeuppance by strangling him with her own chain, but that won’t quite erase the bright-green slime of this moment away. The fact that it happened in the first place leaves the audience (the female audience at least, and I hope, at least a portion of the male audience) with an unsettled feeling that won’t quite go away. Because strangling one giant slug doesn’t solve the problem (and frankly, women don’t want to have to keep strangling giant slugs over and over again). It’s always there, even for a Princess/Senator/Rebellion Leader in a galaxy far, far away.
Ladies: I can’t offer you any promises that there will ever be a world that has moved beyond its self-centered appropriation of your body. I can’t promise you that if you go through a 6-week self-defense course you will never have to be afraid of sexual assault. I can’t promise you that the world is ever going to refrain from glutting itself on the profits of selling your body, whether figuratively or literally. I believe in Heaven, but I don’t believe in Utopia.
What can I offer you that is real and truthful and that you can hold onto right now? Only this:
No one can take away your humanity. You were not created by man. The Jabba the Huts of this world may put you in the metal bikini eight days a week, but they can’t turn a three-dimensional being into a two-dimensional image. They may even succeed in convincing you that you are nothing more than an object, but it will still be a lie. No matter what you are wearing, no matter how you are being viewed, no matter how you are violated, you will always be a person with not just a body, but a mind and a soul.
You can’t turn a person into a thing. And that, I promise you, is the gospel truth.
