Summary: Every time I review a book or comic I always get asked how I felt the female characters were portrayed both visually and within the narrative. I started thinking that this issue seems to come up a lot whether it be from female fans that want women to appear more clothed or from men that are trying to be the good guy and have them treated equally. As I began to think about this more in depth I realized that there many different sides to this issue and there are probably plenty of us in the community with varying opinions. I myself realized that my opinion on the portrayal of women in geek culture might be a little different than other females. The guys I review books and comics with always seem a little taken a back when I say I like the tighter clothing on females and that I think showing there sexy side works to their advantage. They also seem to be shocked when I say that I did not notice their outfit at first what I noticed was the strength of their character. That is not to say that they notice these things first but perhaps a certain sect of feminists have been pushing so hard through blogs and social media that all women feel like women are being treated as sex objects. I will say right now that if a women has it why not flaunt it and better yet why not flaunt it in a classy, intelligent and you know you want it but you will never get it kind of way. As I thought about this more I realized that there is so much to discuss on this topic and the best thing to do would be to assemble a group of fans to have a roundtable discussion. With that idea I brought in my good friend and fellow fangirl who is also a progressive feminist Tricia Barr @fangirlcantina from Fangirl Blog, Bryan Young @swankmotron from Big Shiny Robot and the podcast Full of Sith (it is an outstanding podcast by the way), and the powerhouse brother and sister themselves Riley Blanton @therileyguy and Bethany Blanton @bethanylblanton from the Star Wars Report to discuss the topic of Feminism in Star Wars. The discussion covered a lot of ground from is Star Wars guilty of over sexualizing women to what is over sexualization? We discussed many of the outfits that we see and why feminists are so anti Star Wars. We talk about strong women in other franchises and how they are portrayed. At the end of the day though we come to a consensus on what it means to have women in the franchise and what is most important. The discussion flowed well and I can guarantee that you will enjoy the listen and perhaps it will get your ideas flowing on this topic. Feel free to leave comments below I would love to hear your thoughts. To catch the show simply go here or to read the posts on this issue from the people involved follow the links below. Star Wars Report Fangirl Blog Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, Teresa
