ABSTRACT
Since its acquisition by Disney in 2012, the Star Wars franchise has been widely praised for its feminism. New heroes such as Jyn Erso and Rey have been hailed as feminist triumphs for Star Wars and mainstream entertainment more broadly. New characters aimed at a new generation of fans, like Rebels’s pink-clad fighter-cum-artist Sabine Wren, and new novels devoted to characters like Leia Organa and Ahsoka Tano (from The Clone Wars), 1 are often cited as part of a growing commitment to female characters and to feminism by association. Likewise, the marketing force of Star Wars can now be felt strongly in female-targeted sectors (makeup, fashion, dolls). 2 Does all of this mean, as one reviewer put it, that Star Wars “finally awakens to a feminist world”? 3
