April 2016
Both the film Star Wars: A New Hope Directed by George Lucas and comic, The Watchmen by Alan Moore had one thing in common. In the comic novel and film, the “superhero" protagonists are white heterosexual men. Neither Princess Leia nor Laurie Juspeczyk have plot lines of their own instead they revolve around men. In The Watchmen and Star Wars: A New Hope both author and director are male and give their characters a male protagonist role. In The Watchmen, Alan Moore introduces his character Rorschach who prefers to use brains more than fighting to enhance his character. This can be perceived as men’s intelligence is being valued more highly than women`s. Laurie Juspeczyk`s mother Sally acted like a talent agent for Laurie, introduced …show more content…
For example we can see in The Watchmen, the women are the only ones who conceal their identities like a veil. Silhouette, Silk and Laurie and are also the ones who wear provocative clothing, while the men dress in common superhero attire. When we look at physical attributes, the women are slender in build, and do not carry any sort of armor. Also similar to The Watchmen, Princess Leia is fully dressed, but not as overly sexualized as the female superheroes. Princess Leia’s dress is also elegant and not revealing. However, we must take into consideration that she is a princess and not a superhero. Princess Leia clings to an image of herself as wounded and needy, but there are lots of indicators to imply this is not really who she is at all. Princess Leia’s presence gives the notion that women must always look a certain way in order to affirm their femininity. Throughout the first movie, she’s shown in a white dress. To the subconscious mind, this is meant to suggest she is a virginal character, and innocent in some ways, even though we see the duality of her nature in her maturity in the face of war. However, the “show” of color and the implication of her virginal status remain. She later emerges from the Death Star’s torture chamber with no signs of visible distress but once freed, she grabbed a …show more content…
Unlike a lot of the lack of respect for women that we see in The Watchmen, Princess Leia portrays as more authoritative compared to most of the men she is surrounded by and ultimately, they answer to her. Princess Leia holds a lot more confidence, however she is not fleshed out in the way that fully developed characters are. Princess Leia can be seen as one-dimensional because she does not have a weakness, she doesn’t progress over the course of the movie, and her actions aren’t always seen as truly her own. As we have seen before, Princess Leia was not rewarded for her battles the same way Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were. As for The Watchmen, Laurie is shown speculating about getting a new costume with protective leather and a mask, and perhaps a gun. She also says “Silk Specter” is too girly and she wants a new name. This is an implication that she is breaking through from the comic`s traditional costumes for something of her own identity. In doing so, she’s able to forgive her mother for pushing her daughter too hard “you never did anything wrong by me,” she tells her mom. We see that at the end, Laurie gets what she wants. We see that she wants to create her own identity, not remain as her mother`s ideal. She is giving herself a new brand, and a better
Both the film Star Wars: A New Hope Directed by George Lucas and comic, The Watchmen by Alan Moore had one thing in common. In the comic novel and film, the “superhero" protagonists are white heterosexual men. Neither Princess Leia nor Laurie Juspeczyk have plot lines of their own instead they revolve around men. In The Watchmen and Star Wars: A New Hope both author and director are male and give their characters a male protagonist role. In The Watchmen, Alan Moore introduces his character Rorschach who prefers to use brains more than fighting to enhance his character. This can be perceived as men’s intelligence is being valued more highly than women`s. Laurie Juspeczyk`s mother Sally acted like a talent agent for Laurie, introduced …show more content…
For example we can see in The Watchmen, the women are the only ones who conceal their identities like a veil. Silhouette, Silk and Laurie and are also the ones who wear provocative clothing, while the men dress in common superhero attire. When we look at physical attributes, the women are slender in build, and do not carry any sort of armor. Also similar to The Watchmen, Princess Leia is fully dressed, but not as overly sexualized as the female superheroes. Princess Leia’s dress is also elegant and not revealing. However, we must take into consideration that she is a princess and not a superhero. Princess Leia clings to an image of herself as wounded and needy, but there are lots of indicators to imply this is not really who she is at all. Princess Leia’s presence gives the notion that women must always look a certain way in order to affirm their femininity. Throughout the first movie, she’s shown in a white dress. To the subconscious mind, this is meant to suggest she is a virginal character, and innocent in some ways, even though we see the duality of her nature in her maturity in the face of war. However, the “show” of color and the implication of her virginal status remain. She later emerges from the Death Star’s torture chamber with no signs of visible distress but once freed, she grabbed a …show more content…
Unlike a lot of the lack of respect for women that we see in The Watchmen, Princess Leia portrays as more authoritative compared to most of the men she is surrounded by and ultimately, they answer to her. Princess Leia holds a lot more confidence, however she is not fleshed out in the way that fully developed characters are. Princess Leia can be seen as one-dimensional because she does not have a weakness, she doesn’t progress over the course of the movie, and her actions aren’t always seen as truly her own. As we have seen before, Princess Leia was not rewarded for her battles the same way Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were. As for The Watchmen, Laurie is shown speculating about getting a new costume with protective leather and a mask, and perhaps a gun. She also says “Silk Specter” is too girly and she wants a new name. This is an implication that she is breaking through from the comic`s traditional costumes for something of her own identity. In doing so, she’s able to forgive her mother for pushing her daughter too hard “you never did anything wrong by me,” she tells her mom. We see that at the end, Laurie gets what she wants. We see that she wants to create her own identity, not remain as her mother`s ideal. She is giving herself a new brand, and a better