How Princess Leia led the Women's March protest against Trump
With the Galactic Empire appearing to have taken control of the Senate, Congress, and the Presidency of the USA in short order, it seems only right that Princess Leia lead the resistance. As the image at the head of this article shows, pop culture is primed and ready to take on another unpopular president. Today we've gathered a gallery of images of protest signs and representations of Princess Leia as she appeared the day after the inauguration of United States President Donald Trump.
The photograph at the head of this article was captured by photographer Kevin Mazur at one of the many, many marches that took place on the 21st of January, 2017. These were collectively called the Women's March on Washington, one of the largest protests ever in Washington DC and what might be the largest demonstration in US history, so says a collected account of information available from this document compiled by Jeremy Pressman (U of Connecticut) and Erica Chenoweth (U of Denver) VIA VOX. Also, the quote above comes from Hamilton, the mega-popular sold-out-forever play about Alexander Hamilton.
The above Tweet comes from Mark Hamill. Hamill is the real-life embodiment of Luke Skywalker and space-brother of Carrie Fisher. You can bet your intergalactic rear end both Hamill and Fisher were on the side of the moral decency and patriotic greatness of this march and resistance.
Princess Leia is a perfect storm of an icon at this point in history for several reasons. The most successful movie of all time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, depicts Princess Leia as one of the leaders of The Resistance – essentially the new Rebellion against tyranny as it appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy. Princess Leia – an extremely lifelike CGI version of her – was shown in one of the biggest films of 2016, Star Wars Rogue One. And of course Carrie Fisher, the embodiment of Princess Leia and face of the princess, died just this past month.
Carrie Fisher was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump and a lifelong feminist. She was an intensely strong and majorly influential person. She was not afraid to be herself. She is the perfect icon to hold at the head of a rebellion against what Trump represents.
Fun fact: George Lucas suggested to Time Magazine that he took the look for Princess Leia's iconic hair buns from a real-life revolutionary. "In the 1977 film, I was working very hard to create something different that wasn't fashion, so I went with a kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from the turn-of-the-century Mexico."
On the 30th of December, 2016, The Denver Museum provided the following photograph of their display on Princess Leia's hair buns to Snopes. They go on to confirm that the woman in the photograph in the upper left is none other than Mexican soldadera and guerrilla fighter Clara de la Rocha. She was part of the Soldaderas, or Adelitas, women that took part in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, in which she (and the Mexian people) fought against Mexican leader Porfirio Díaz, and his failure to allow a fair and free presidential election and eventual succession.
Have a peek at the photographs from various creative contributors and photographers from across the United States and the world. These photos all come from the Women's March on Washington protests as they took place on the 21st of January 2016. If you find another that we don't yet have, please let us know!