Dune breaks Star Wars stereotype
The Mandalorian’s Cara Dune is no mere sidekick. For proof, just check out those guns,
Ihate it that I noticed. It was her arms. These strong arms were not your usual svelte arms found on Star Wars women. No, these were gladiator rebellion shocktrooper arms. And shock they did.
Watching The Mandalorian with my son, I was instantly intrigued with Cara Dune, who swiftly went into hand-to-hand combat with the Mandalorian himself. Few characters are a match for the mighty masked one, yet this highly skilled, battle-hardened, warrior woman kicked ass.
‘‘Awesome,’’ said my son after watching the two of them fight, neither of them winning or losing.
He wasn’t talking about the arms or thighs – he wouldn’t notice such things – but I did. I didn’t realise, until I saw Dune, how conditioned I was to a certain kind of female body type in Star Wars: brunette, white-skinned, able-bodied, large-eyed and as slender as a lightsaber.
Remember Carrie Fisher’s sylphlike limbs in Princess Leia’s exotic leather bikini chained to Jabba in Return of the Jedi? Or Natalie Portman’s royal leanness revealed in Padme’s tight white outfit in the arena scene of Attack of the Clones? How about Daisy Ridley’s bondage-looking Jedi costume hugging Rey’s slim figure in The Force Awakens? Felicity Jones may have been covered up in her rebellious army fatigues playing Jyn Erso in Rogue One, but we could still see her frame. It was the same.
Star Wars women may have enough fighting spirit to take on any wayward galaxy or imperial army – they are the kind of women we want our sons and daughters knowing – but when it comes to seeing them, diversity has not been strong in the franchise. All the Star Wars women have traditionally been a similar size (I know, as I can annoyingly look up their weight, height and bra size on Google).
Yet here was Dune, full of muscle and wielding all kinds of weapons with those strong arms, being, as my son said, totally awesome. It was more entertaining to watch her than Baby Yoda (well, OK, perhaps not more, but definitely on par). Who was this beautiful tough actor playing a fierce fighting hero?
Gina Carano used to be a star in a different galaxy – that seems far far away – that of MMA (mixed martial arts). The American Gladiators
champion was named the ‘‘face of Women’s MMA’’ in 2008, then went on to play parts in action flicks such as The Fast & The Furious 6, Deadpool and Haywire, but remained relatively unknown until The Mandalorian. She’s been snapped up on The Mando’s publicity circuit, sharing her story about the prejudice she previously faced about her body.
The 37-year-old told Refinery29, ‘‘When I tell people I’m an actress, they’re like, ‘do you do stunts?’ because I don’t look like the average actress – I’m not a sample size.
‘‘I don’t feel like I look like what an actress should look like. I’ve always had these big legs, big thighs. I am like a Mack truck.’’
She was not used to wearing costumes that exposed her arms either. ‘‘I always like to cover up with a poncho and just kind of hide. I don’t like to really show my body. It’s something that I’ve been avoiding for a very long time.’’
After filming season 1 of The Mandalorian, she said, ‘‘I’ve always been strong. I’ve always been this person. I’ve really come to accept and embrace that through playing Cara. It’s just meant the world to me because, really, beauty doesn’t just come from what we think of all the time as beauty, it comes from the inside.’’
The former MMA champ is speaking her truth,
but I would argue her beauty comes from both her inside and out. She’s captivating and fantastic to watch (so is the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda, let’s be inclusive here). But Carano challenges the waif beauty stereotype we are often fed in popular culture. Beauty isn’t a size. It’s a combination of aesthetically pleasing qualities, and film and television have large roles to play in how we define those qualities.
A few years ago, Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, was criticised on Instagram for being ‘‘too slim’’ and accused of setting unrealistic expectations for young girls. This is not the way to challenge the status quo. Nobody should shame any actor for their body type, even if it’s what we normally see. Instead of blaming actors’ bodies, we need to blame the casting agents and producers and directors of the films. They are making the decisions about who and what we see; they create stereotypes of beauty. Seeing Carano on The Mandalorian is refreshing – better than a pod race with Sebulba any day, and hopefully most people watching don’t even notice her body type, like I did.
There might not be many of them, but the Star Wars women have traditionally had a typical body and it’s excellent to see that change. They are a force, after all (couldn’t resist). If we see more variety, the narrow ideals of beauty stretch, unconsciously. Hopefully the Star Wars franchise will keep expanding its range of body types for all its leads to be as inclusive as the Republic itself – and let’s challenge the white-skinned, brunette and able-bodied next, casting agents!
Princess Leia said to Hans Solo in A New Hope, ‘‘Some day, you’re gonna be wrong. I just hope I’m there to see it!’’ Carrie Fisher didn’t live long enough to see Gina Carano kick butt in The Mandalorian, but she can rest in peace that the Star Wars empire is striking back against stereotypes. In a good way.
‘‘I’m not a sample size. I don’t feel like I look like what an actress should look like. I’ve always had these big legs, big thighs. I am like a Mack truck.’’ Gina Carano