Star Wars rumor-mill site Making Star Wars is reporting that Disney may be imposing a ban on any and all merchandise featuring Princess Leia in her slave girl outfit.
The theory is that the company feels burned from the backlash they received when fans noticed that the only female character in the Star Wars Black series of action figures was of Leia in the slave girl outfit. Perhaps if other outfits were also made available, the outcry would not have been so loud, but there was no Hoth Leia or Endor Leia or even Cinnabon-hair original Leia — and no other women at all. So the feeling was that Leia was being slighted and women were being short-changed.
This theory was bolstered by several comments made by comic-book artist J. Scott Campbell on his Facebook page.
With the new film, it is clear that Leia is being positioned as a military and political leader, and it is possible that Lucasfilm did not want reminders that Leia was held captive as a dancing girl on the shelves at the same time.
My personal theory is that the last batch of Slave Girl Leia figures just didn’t sell well because they were of poor quality. The expression on her face is wooden at best, and all the inhuman articulated joints that are hidden by clothes on other figures were laid bare to see by Leia’s barely-there bikini. It was not uncommon to see row after row of Leia figures still on the shelf months after all the other figures had sold out.
Fanboy reaction to the alleged ban was swift and predictable, with many accusations that Disney was ruining the franchise, the PC Police had gone too far, and generally the world was coming to an end because people may not be able to buy a poorly made plastic doll with a slightly constipated expression permanently baked on its face.
If the rumors turn out to be true, I’m sure the “ban” will be a temporary one. And perhaps when Slave Leia returns to shelves, she will be just one choice among a whole series of female action figures.
And while they are at it, maybe they can do something about her face.
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