Adventures in Life...: Princess Leia's metal bikini

I am 36, nearly 37. When I was 9, way back in the summer of 1983, some 27 years ago I was a massive fan of Star Wars. I had been too young to go and see the first film at the cinema (I was 4) and probably still too young when the Empire Strikes Back came out. I saw Star Wars when it was first on UK TV in late 1982 and loved it. I remember playing Star Wars with my next door neighbours. Everyone wanted to be Han... I guess even at that young age we knew that there was something about being the scoundrel, the bad boy... he was going to get the girl. Luke and his wishy washy magic force thing was a hero. But no one wanted to be him.

In the summer of 1983 my Dad took the whole family to go and see the 3rd film Return of the Jedi. I loved it. To date it is the only time I have been to the cinema and the whole audience has cheered when the opening credits came up and applauded at the end.

But there is one thing about that film that has passed into popular culture. People who have never seen the film know about it. Carrie Fisher... Princess Leia... in that metal slave girl bikini...

Why is that?
Well - she is attractive and alluring. She is chained to a fat slob (Jabba the Hutt). And she is a strong woman who is able to take control (she eventually throttles Jabba with the chain she is tied to him with). Maybe all guys who like this are looking for a strong woman to take control. Maybe a little bondage... maybe not... personally I'm not sure the throttling bit is for me, but I know some like strangulation!!! :)

The act I thought I was alonein fancying Princess Leia in her slave bikini . That was until that episode of Friends where Ross persuades Rachel to dress in the slave bikini:

Nice Buns!

Shit! Now I have Jennifer Aniston and Carrie Fisher in slave bikinis on the mind. But it doesn't end there. I don't watch Chuck but apparently...

Her name is Yvonne Strahovski (or something like that). But as you can see the slave bikini has become pretty iconic. I wonder if that is what George Lucas intended when he wrote ROTJ?

But the long and the short of it is. I gotta get myself a girl who will do the slave bikini thing for me....

There is a concept that started in Japan and is now popular in the US. I am not sure if it has taken off over here but it is called Cosplay. A play on the words COSTUME and PLAY. Basically as far as I can establish this means dressing up as movie stars, comic book characters, super heros, computer gane characters etc. Perhaps not surprisingly the Leia slave bikini is quite a popular choice... Here are a few examples...