From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!hou5f!ariel!orion!lime!burdvax!bmcjmp Newsgroups: net.women Title: one female in Star Wars Article-I.D.: burdvax.528 Posted: Thu Feb 3 18:06:38 1983 Received: Sun Feb 6 08:54:44 1983 I think that the shoddy treatment of females in motion pictures in general is one bad deal. It seems that every once in a while there is a short round of good women's roles, and then Hollywood having done it's duty, returns to its "safe" world of strong men and women that are little more than props. Science fiction films are often the worst offenders, much as I love science fiction. Even the role of a strong woman like Leia is defined more in terms of a woman being of value because she as "as good as a man" than of a woman being of value as a woman. The only science fiction/fantasy film I have seen of late where a woman was given any kind of fair treatment was the female lead in "CONAN". I know the movie was not wonderful, but here we have a woman who is brave, strong, loyal, etc., and still very much a woman. I think part of the problem in Hollywood is that because actresses were selected more on the basis of sex appeal than an abililty ot act, the parts available were more those of visual props than of thinkng people. Still, it is hard to deny talent, and I think that there are enough talented women in the acting business that if they are vocal enough about getting good roles, then the writers and producers will do something about seeing that the roles are there. Barb Puder burdvax!bmcjmp