Carrie Fisher and the Year of the Rooster

No doubt 2016 held significant disappointment and setback for women. It started well enough. There was the widespread expectation that it would be the year that saw the shattering of the highest glass ceiling in the land.

Of course, that didn’t happen, and along the way the tide seemed to turn.

Now we’re headed into the Year of the Rooster with news that Carrie Fisher — and her mother — have passed away.

Since Fisher’s death, I’ve managed to mash up in my mind a famous Elton John lyric with the first time I saw “Star Wars,” wistfully remembering myself as a young boy in the 22nd row watching as Fisher made the role of Princess Leia immortally her own.

And now, like with Marilyn Monroe, she’s gone before her time.

Obviously, Monroe represented an entirely different kind of woman. But it is that difference that’s most on my mind.

A caveat: I’m not a huge “Star Wars” fan. It’s telling that the easiest and quickest way to summarize my interest is to say I liked the movies in which Fisher appeared.

I was 10 when I saw her that first time. Most of the images of women and roles of women I had seen up to that tender age were more like the sirens of “Charlie’s Angels.” They were beautiful, but you weren’t really supposed to take them seriously.

But Princess Leia! Oh my word, Princess Leia also was beautiful, but you took her very seriously. A leader of an interstellar resistance, she fought better than Luke Skywalker and kept even dashing Hans Solo perpetually knocked back on his heels.

That’s too easy. She not only fought more naturally than Skywalker, she had the stronger temperament. If it had been Leia that Yoda had to train, “The Empire Strikes Back” would have been an entirely different film.

It would be soft-headed to give Fisher too much credit for the success of the Leia character. Fisher didn’t write the story or the screenplay. The role itself likely would have been phenomenal in the hands of another actress.

But Fisher made Leia uniquely hers. Convincing with a blaster, she also persuaded with a kiss and loving words. She was the total package, and her performance works in part because she never seemed to be overdoing the tough-girl thing.

She went on to deal with difficult subjects like bipolar disorder and drug addiction as a writer and artist. A flawed person in a flawed world, but tough enough to get the job done, and she remained generous and graceful about it.

I never really thought of women the same after seeing Princess Leia that first time. Soon enough in my young world, there were other heroines and pop culture icons that challenged the traditional views of women. Sigourney Weaver’s character in “Alien.” Cyndi Lauper. Madonna.

Generation X often is thought of as the sullen grunge reaction to baby-boomer burnout that left us struggling to find meaning after Haight Ashbury and Woodstock.

And while prior generations produced many strong women leaders in all walks of life, the pioneering women of my generation still came of age facing significant negative reaction to those who promoted feminist values. And yet, unlike a Jane Fonda, who got her start with eye-candy roles like “Barbarella,” feminists like Fisher were better able to make their debut less as sex objects, and more as equals.

The result has been a better world.

Closer to home, The Denver Post appointed its first woman as editor last year. Women run our newsroom, our business desk and our digital team.

I’ve benefited from working for and alongside many strong and independent women better with a blaster than any number of their male counterparts. They’ve enriched my life.

If I had ever met Carrie Fisher I would have wanted to say something like this to her, even knowing she had heard it before.

Like so many women of her generation, she helped us see what beauty could really be.

Here’s hoping her beneficiaries find all manner of surprising ways to encourage us now that the rooster crows.