Leia in the Gold Bikini

Wired magazine had this amusing article about the amazingly long shelf life of the “Gold Bikini” costume Carrie Fisher wore in Return of the Jedi.  What surprised me was not the 13 year old male fantasy aspect to it, but the fact that there are a lot of women who love the costume and often wear it in public.

The ‘graph that’s may start a lot of “Oh no you di’int” back and forth is this one:

“I saw the movie when I was seven and I was absolutely thrilled by Leia — what a wonderful character,” says Amira Sa’id, a dancer who has used a Leia bikini in her performances. “Jabba put her into the outfit to humiliate her, but Leia was such a strong character, her will made the costume empowering.” 

Empowering?  Huh?  I guess when Leia chokes the life out of Jabba, one could look at it as the “objectified slave-girl breaking free from the giant worm-slug of male oppression,” but I don’t see how her “will” made the costume empowering.  Leia was always a strong character (Well, until she met the Ewoks, and then it was all over), so it’s hard for me to believe that the costume was an attempt to humiliate her. Besides, why would a giant worm-like creature find a skinny human female attractive in the first place? Wouldn’t he be more interested a female worm?  I’m just asking…

Having her chained to within nose-shot of Jabba’s fetid breath and looking at his gross tongue seems like a worse form of humiliation than the outfit. But I’m a guy…  And I was 17 when the film came out…And yes, my friends and I were transfixed by Leia’s costume when we first saw Jedi…But we had girlfriends! So back off! 🙂

Okay, so who else likes this costume besides a so-so belly dancer?  Well, there’s Jennifer Aniston donning the costume in an episode of Friends.  And if you look at the photo gallery in the article, you’ll see Melissa Joan Hart wearing it, too.  Go figure.

Speaking of Friends…Here’s a bit from the episode where Rachel dresses up as Leia to fulfill a Star Wars fantasy Ross has”

ROSS: So, uh, the other night Rachel and I are in bed talking about
fantasies, and I happened to describe a particular Star Wars
thing….

CHAN: Princess Leia in the gold bikini.

ROSS: Yes!

CHAN: I know!

ROSS: Yes! Wow, well, that-that was easy. Okay, you-you go.

CHAN: Okay.

ROSS: Okay.

CHAN: Okay, you know, you know when your in bed, with a woman.

ROSS: Hmph.

CHAN: And, ah, you know, your fooling around with her. And you get all
these like, mental images in your brain, you know, like Elle
MacPherson, or that girl at the Xerox place….

ROSS: With the belly-button ring? Oh, muhawa!

CHAN: I know, And then all of the sudden your Mom pops into your head.
And your like ‘Mom, get outta here!’ You know, but of course,
like, after that you can’t possibly think of anything else, and
you can’t, you know, stop what your doing. So it’s kinda like,
you’re, you know. You know…(Ross just stares at him). You
don’t know!

ROSS: Your Mom, your telling me, your telling me, about your Mom, what
is the matter with you?

CHAN: You said…

ROSS: I said ‘*share*’ not ‘*scare*’.

–PK

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