bdmetronews Desk ॥ On Tuesday, Carrie Fisher passed away following a heart attack she suffered aboard a flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday. Fisher was an actress, author, mental health advocate, writer and mother, but to many, she will be most fondly remembered as Princess Leia, the iconic heroine she played in the Star Wars trilogy.
One of the most prominent images of Fisher as Leia involved that legendary gold bikini — a metal two-piece the character was forced to wear after she was captured and imprisoned by sluglike supervillain Jabba the Hutt, chained to the evil creature, and made to be his slave. Leia, a member of the Rebel Alliance and all-around kick-ass female, managed to make her way out of the shackles and [spoiler alert] strangle Hutt to death with his own chain.
The sexualized portrayal of the warrior princess in the metallic bikini is an image that has been etched into the collective consciousness — and it helped cement Fisher’s status as a science-fiction sex symbol. There is even an episode of Friends in which Ross famously asks Rachel to role-play in the bikini to fulfill his childhood fantasy — and she did, hair buns and all.
The gold bikini itself was an elaborate number that wrapped around Fisher’s upper arms and bore an interwoven snake detail. According to Fisher, it was pretty uncomfortable to wear. She once called the costume “what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell,” according to Movie Pilot. “I had to sit very straight because I couldn’t have lines on my sides, like little creases. No creases were allowed, so I had to sit very, very rigid straight,” she told NPR, according to Bustle. But it was also uncomfortable for what it represented: conquering and objectifying a powerful woman and attempting to render her helpless.
