Mara Jade Catsuit: Fanservice run amok?

EUC Staff Joined: 15 Sep 2010 Posts: 1117 Location: Kansas

According to Club Jade, a cat suited Mara Jade Skywalker t-shirt might be a possibility for Her Universe, a clothing company designed for fangirls by a fangirl. I don't see how a cat suited Mara Jade would appeal to the targeted female audience other than it's Mara Jade Skywalker. No matter what she's wearing, Mara Jade will still remain a popular EU character. But is the catsuit really necessary?

Thinking about this, I wondered how men vs. women are visually portrayed in the Star Wars media. Aalya Secura, Ahsoka Tano, Mara Jade Skywalker, and especially Darth Talon wear little or tight clothing. Padme Skywalker has more variety: she's worn heavy, multi-layered clothing in TPM, bared her mid drift in AOTC, and matronly outfits suitable for a pregnant mother in ROTS. (The same with Princess Leia in OT.) Other women, like Kotor II's Darth Traya, are fully clothed, and frankly you wouldn't want to see her in a cat suit anyway.

Men, on the other hand, don't have the same outfit variety. If you're a guy in Star Wars, it's expected that you will be wearing:

A. Armor
B. Jedi/Sith/politician's robes
C. Smuggler's attire, meaning pants, shirt, and a possibly cape.

It's not say that there aren't any female fanservice moments out there, like Cade Skywalker wearing a speedo in Legacy comics. But generally, guys are fully clothed. Not really sexy.

Bringing back to my original point, I'm wondering if the Mara Jade cat suit reflects the culture we live in. Girls are generally portrayed rather vamp-y while guys generally aren't. I don't think the different portrayal is inherently sexist, just completely unnecessary. After all, that's entire point of fanservice. I don't think the catsuit image belongs on a female clothing company, though. Mara Jade Skywalker will still inspire girls whether she's wearing Jedi robes - or not.

Discuss.
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Observation: Life would be cooler if everyone spoke like HK-47.

Communications Coordinator at EUCantina.

I'm a little confused about what exactly we are talking about here. Are you talking about a mara jade costume for a person to wear, or the costume that mara jade would wear as depicted on a piece of clothing, say a t-shirt?

I guess it comes down to the fact that for better or worse, a cat suited Mara Jade is one that is most iconic for that character. A Jedi Robe is intended to be humble and anonymous and it does that.

But in general I totally feel you. The overall lack of costume variety in SW is just laziness. I talked about it in my post for Dawn of the Jedi.

Many of the female depictions are purely male sexual fantasy fulfillment. BDSM Leia, hello? This is a PG movie George! Middriff-ripped-away-shirt Padme is just as bad.

Although not specifically about SW, here's a real good article from Comics Alliance that talks about the unnecessary and one-sided "sexiness" in comics.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/16/superheroine-sex-art-story/[/url]

I also think Adam Hughes, whose artwork is shown in the link you posted, is a huge ***hole. But that's another subject.

Speaking towards outfit variety, I think that's down to the not-altogether-incorrect belief that women are more interested in fashion. Thinking about my friends, there are a lot more women interested in fashion than men, in my circle, and I think my male friends are pretty diverse in their interests.

Anyhoo, moving on to the actual topic. No, I don't think a cat-suit is necessary at all. Sadly, I think, as Walker says, the image of Mara in said suit is more well-known than Mara in Jedi garb and because of that that image will win out over perhaps a more up-to-date depiction.

Quickly, when you think of Mara, what do you imagine? I'd be willing to bet that for the most part, if you're caught unaware, then you'll imagine the cat-suit. It more rapidly comes to mind, because it's been overdone.
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EUC Staff Joined: 15 Sep 2010 Posts: 1117 Location: Kansas

Knight Joined: 07 Feb 2012 Posts: 358 Location: USA

I think females are depicted showing more skin because the creaters may feel that men like SW more than women. Plus, most of the designers are men.
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"Vote for Papa Palpatine".

The depiction of women is probably my biggest (only?) gripe with Star Wars. It boasts strong female characters, but then lets them wear as little as possible so that fanboys can goggle.

The Quinlan Vos omnibus is the only Star Wars book, comic etc. that I threw down with disgust and refused to finish. It was just so absurd. Here you have a character, Aayla Secura, who was manipulated by her uncle and essentially lived her early life as a sex slave. She gets freed and becomes a Jedi. It should be a powerful moment, but we soon see her, as a Jedi, still clothed in a ridiculous skintight outfit. I couldn't read any more, it was just so stupid. I can't possibly connect emotionally with this garbage.

It's a large part of the reason I don't generally read Star Wars comics. I swear the plotlines are devised based on how the female characters will get in a certain situation so they'll be able to look sexy. I'm serious. Read any number of comics and you'll see it. Do the creators of the comics want to take a passionate stance against slavery or do they deal with slavery so much because they know they can get their female characters in costumes following the legacy of the golden bikini. Hu-hyuk.

*headdesk*
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Last night I was looking over the Star Wars comic Union. Mara wheres a lot of clothing there that isn't a catsuit. But then she wasn't in combat mode in that series. My observation would be that Jedi robes are too cumbersome for combat. Beneath the robes, Jedi wear tunics and slacks, which you seem Anakin and Obi-Wan wearing in the PT. I have to admit that they really do need to spend more time giving the characters more believable clothing.

Now searching Wookieepedia, I did come across the Choices of One PB cover.

I wouldn't categorize that as a catsuit, and it does sport some body armor. However, it still looks too tight to allow freedom of movement.
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Knight Joined: 07 Feb 2012 Posts: 358 Location: USA

As a female, I believe that women can be sexy without being in skin-tight clothes!! Mara Jade sould be shown in the Jedi Tunic not a catsuit as the tightness would restrict movement because, skin-tight suits do not stretch.
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"Study art...", said Thrawn.

"Vote for Papa Palpatine".

EUC Staff Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 1204 Location: Nirn

Well, Maul is topless a lot. So is Kit Fisto. I do know what you mean though, but apart from the gold bikini, Leia (portrayed as and indeed, is, the strongest, most intelligent respectable character in SW) is pretty much always moderate like her Princess robes in ANH, her Rebel trooper gear in RotJ. There does tend to be a lack of variety, but all of the guys do wear tight fitting clothes (save for the Jedi, but Adi Gallia is always in robes) but all of the spacers are wearing skin-tight suits. And all of the guys are stereotyped into having massive bulky muscles. Maybe men don't dress sexily, but the all have unrealistically big muscles. Cade, Vilmarh, Kit, Maul, Lando, all of the spacers and people you see in bars. But yes, most female characters do dress somewhat skimpily.
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You shall learn that history is an intricate weaving of many events. No one thing can be understood without the proper context.

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I wouldn't mind the catsuit if it were actually what she was described as wearing in the book.

There are some images of her I like in the catsuit. So I'm not a total hater. I just hate the voluptuous, over-sexed images. That's not who she is.
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“You are greater than the Jedi of the former days. Because unlike the Knights of old, Jedi Luke Skywalker…you are not afraid of the dark.”

EUC Staff Joined: 15 Sep 2010 Posts: 1117 Location: Kansas

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread!

What do you think is the solution here? How would you like your characters depicted?
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Observation: Life would be cooler if everyone spoke like HK-47.

Communications Coordinator at EUCantina.

I think it depends on the character. Female Jedi need to wear Jedi robes. Especially in the Old Order with the no attachments rule. Expecting young Jedi males to control their hormones with Jedi like Aayla and Ahsoka walking around is absurd. I can see certain characters dressing like J-Lo, but it's way over done. Like I said earlier, I think the motive behind the prominence of slavery in Star Wars is not from a strong anti-slavery sentiment but a want to show skin.
_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Knight Joined: 07 Feb 2012 Posts: 358 Location: USA

Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1410

Personally, I'd like to wipe everything about Sacrifice from my mind, and while I agree that the Mara image is a good one, it wasn't for her age. She was 57 for pete's sake. Leia gets age appropriate (and dignified cover images), but not Mara. That, imo, is pandering.
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