Disney May Be Doing Away With Princess Leia's Iconic Slave Outfit For Good

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | November 3, 2015 |

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | November 3, 2015 |

It was only last week that Carrie Fisher bestowed upon Daisy Ridley her greatest (and saddest) piece of Star Wars advice: “Don’t be a slave like I was…You keep fighting against that slave outfit.”

That slave bikini is a major double-edged sword lightsaber for Fisher. It made her an icon and earned her the the love (sure, let’s call it love) of generations of boys and men (and women and humans in general).

The other side of that is that very few actresses want to have their careers defined by one super uncomfortable bikini they wore in their 20s. Similarly, most women and girls don’t want the only role models available to them in the worlds of sci-fi and fantasy to be those enslaved by monsters and dressed in a loincloth.

But now, according to one Marvel artist, the bikini might be getting tossed into its own personal sarlacc pit. That artist, J. Scott Campbell, weighed in on a Facebook discussion (“discussion” is being generous anytime internet randos try to tackle sci-fi misogyny) of whether the bikini is “good” or “bad,” and whether Ridley should be taking Fisher’s advice. According to Campbell, who hopefully won’t be getting fired for probably violating a whole stack of Disney NDAs, the entire point is moot.

Daisy Ridley won’t have to fight against anything. Disney is already well on it’s way to wiping out the “slave” outfit from any future products period. You will NOT see and future merchandising featuring the slave outfit ever again. Trust me […] I’ve heard it from two sources. We can’t even draw Leia in a sexy pose at Marvel, let alone in that outfit! We also had a 3-D [Slave Leia] statue killed at a major manufacturer because there will no longer be any [Slave Leia] merchandise.

How conflicted does this make you feel? There’s a tiny inkling in me that is sad to see the gold bikini retired, but, really, we’re not actually losing anything. Women aren’t going to stop cosplaying in the outfit at cons. It doesn’t sound like George Lucas is going to CGI a jumpsuit onto Fisher in future releases. And hopefully Disney is realizing that they are not obligated to strip down their female protagonist in order to make a crap ton of money off audiences of all genders. This sounds like a win all around.

Via Screen Crush.