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Star Wars Day: A Big Deal

By Christina St Jean
Published on: 00:41 PST, May 4, 2016

May the Fourth be with us all.

It is Star Wars Day, or May the Fourth. Star Wars has been in my life in one form or another since 1977. As one who was born in the 1970s, I remember it as being larger than life and very much a family event. While my parents were generally low key in their affection for Star Wars, I remember how excited my mother would get watching me unwrap my own Millennium Falcon at Christmas or another Star Wars action figure on my birthday.

One of the fondest memories is when my family and I were watching Return of the Jedi, and one of the stormtroopers smashed into a tree after looking back to ensure that either Leia or Luke – I forget which – had been knocked off their speeder bike. A gentleman in the audience had hollered, “Next time, watch where you’re going!” to the roars of the Star Wars aficionados in the audience.

My love for Star Wars has only grown over the years and now has spread to my children. Naturally, I have bought them a range of Star Wars clothes to wear should I find the garments interesting, funny, or just plain well-priced. My 11-year-old greeted me this morning with an excited, “Oh, yeah!” when I dropped off a Star Wars T-shirt on her bed. The 7-year-old was practically begging me to allow her to bring her Kylo Ren lightsaber to school with the argument that everyone knows who the characters are by their lightsabers. While she didn’t get to bring the lightsaber, I was impressed by her ready argument.

Several global newspapers, such as the Independent, are peppering their publications with Star Wars references, with the Independent noting that Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a prequel reference that didn’t appear in the final iteration of the film.

CNET writer Bonnie Burton penned a piece about the strong female role models in the Star Wars series and noted that it was not only Leia who could fit into the image of a strong female who could kick butt.

I reference the strong female models that Star Wars has to offer, particularly Rey, who seems to resonate with both my girls — the youngest because she’s a good-looking girl who does amazing and acrobatic stunts and the oldest because she is strong and does not necessarily fall into the “typical” female stereotype. Both have seen all seven of the Star Wars films multiple times, and both continue to ask questions about the series that even sometimes leave me thinking — and I was a proud owner of the Jedi Master Quizbook back in the 1980s.

On another note, Vanity Fair also reported that Star Wars was going to work on “repairing Leia’s legacy,” as though there was something somehow wrong with the legacy the character left. Sure, in Episode IV: A New Hope, the character has a British accent in one scene, and there was the issue of the gold bikini in Return of the Jedi, but Leia was also a girl who killed her enemies and got her man because she was strong. What better role model could I, as a Star Wars fan and mother to two girls whom I hope will grow into strong women, ask for in inspiring my children?

Star Wars has left a definite impression on our collective conscience, and while those who played the original characters themselves might look back on some of the decisions made with those characters can now laugh and remember their golden days as they laid the groundwork for such a long-living franchise, it looks like the Force shall continue to be with all of us, in one form or another.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]

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