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(I'm crossing movie and TV lines here, so it's in the general area)
After a day of watching the traffic, I've been hearing from many that to them, the character of Princess Leia was what showed that women could be heroes and fighters. So let's look at that from a few angles.
First of all, let's set aside any trilogy and take each movie separately. The trilogy and Canon really upset things and besides, it took us 6 years (1977 to 1983) to even have a trilogy.
A New Hope was in 1977.....and Battlestar Galactica was in 1978. If one goes with the belief that Glen Larson was the great thief, then it follows that "Athena", Maren Jensen, should have been the TV image of Princess Leia. If so, then unfortunately, Jensen's acting ability couldn't carry the part.
So then we come to "Sheba", Anne Lockhart. Should Sheba be seen or at least remembered in the same light?
Now, one might say maybe.....but the TV series got cancelled too soon. That the media blitz after A New Hope was far greater in books, toys, games, and movie video than it was for the TV series. So even though we only had one video for 3 years (The Empire Strikes Back was 1980), there was enough to keep the drive going.
If we take one step forward from that point, with Buck Rogers, then why not Colonel Deering? Perhaps three reasons. First of all, again, it got cancelled too quick (to say nothing for the format changes). Secondly, the media blitz afterwards was far less than for Battlestar Galactica. Finally and perhaps most damaging was that as a TV show, "Colonel Deering" was perhaps more eye candy than one to aspire to. As my father once observed watching a repeat, she was poured into that outfit.
BUT, what if we look before 1977? Wonder Woman was 1975 and The Bionic Woman was 1976. While Wonder Woman might have been said it was all about the outfit (or the scenes as Diana Prince were overshadowed by the outfit scenes), that wasn't necessarily true with The Bionic Woman. So why is the apparent focus on Princess Leia a few years later?
Perhaps because those TV heroines needed something that the ordinary woman didn't have to fight. If so, then the TV heroine who should have stolen the banner would have been Purdey, Joanna Lumley, of The New Avengers in 1977. Should have but since that show was on limited showing, perhaps not enough saw it.
Finally, how long did it take for Princess Leia to achieve the Banner? Was it done by the first movie? Did it need the second one in 1980? Or the garroting in the third in 1983? Personally, I would say the second movie but the entrance to the trash compactor scene in the first was rather motivating.
The accolades of her as a hero are a bit overblown and part of the hyperbole that surrounds any iconic figure dying. Awkwardly shooting a blaster a few times while wearing a pure white robe doesn't make a hero, any more than people who give a donation when asked at a grocery store are heroes.
By the time Lumley arrived on the Avengers the program had gone almost completely camp. If anyone, Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel would be deserving of the claim of strong role model. She played the part with the reserve that made it work. Release in the U.S. was delayed, so fitting her into the 1970s works.
There were strong roles for women in movies in the 1970s. Cicely Tyson won best actress for her part in "Sounder" as one example. Although she is loathed by many haters even today, Jane Fonda played strong female roles in "Klute" and "China Syndrome."
The thing about Emma Peel is that she is more of the 60's than the 70's and hence a different, if unknown, woman to those of the mid 70s (though she did motivate me to learn judo).
Purdey is a lot in my psychology makeup of the 70s but I think that may have come about by having come across her at an impressionable time.
Just as it was me with Purdey, so it might have been someone else with another.
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