Tatooine Needs Women!

Slave Leia is to sci-fi conventions
what 'slutty nurse' is to Halloween.

Hey look, there's a casting breakdown for Star Wars: Episode VII and it includes not one, but two female characters! One of them is listed first leading to speculation that the new trilogy will not only include major female characters, but maybe even feature a female lead. And before you remind me that Princess Leia is a woman and a major character do an image search and see how long it takes before you come across Carrie Fisher in a gold-bikini. I mean, she wears it for like ten minutes in Jedi yet 95% of female Star Wars cosplay is devoted to slave girl Leia.

Above: The smouldering remains of
Aunt Beru represented exactly 50% of
A New Hope's female characters

I think it's safe to say that George Lucas's universe has been somewhat lacking in female space-hero department. Seriously, name some other original trilogy female characters? You've got the Twi'lek dancers, Mon Mothma and Aunt Freaking Beru. So strippers, the Rebellion's den mother and one of like five people in the entire galaxy the Storm Troopers actually managed to hit. That's it. You'd think that George Lucas would have taken the opportunity to address this imbalance in the force when he made the prequels, but no, not so much. 

While there are certainly more women in Episodes I-III, you kind of get the impression that the Star Wars universe hates them. Behold this rundown:

"Oh...I see how it is."

So strong female characters for Episode VII. Progress, right? Well, sort of. While the characters listed do sound a little more diverse than the galactic sausage fest that was the last six Star Wars movies, there is a weird 'no fatties' subtext going on. All the characters but one are described as 'fit' and the one who isn't '[a]pparently doesn't need to be fit' (but probably will be). Anyway, as someone with nieces being raised geek orthodox, I guess I should be happy that they'll have some more nerd role-models to look up to who aren't just space Kabuki Barbie dolls and rancor snacks. 

*Yeah ok, the books and The Clone Wars series have Mara Jade and Ashoka Tano, but J. J. Abrams is probably not going to use the Expanded Universe as a basis for the new films. What few women there are in the EU (badass they might be) are soon to be consigned to non-canon oblivion so so much for that.

J. J. Abrams isn't exactly known for sticking to canon. Take Benedict Cumberbatch
in Star Trek Into Darkness. I mean, how did Eric Bana going back in time and
killing Captain Kirk's dad turn Khan into a white English dude?