40 years after 'Return of the Jedi,' how Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia in a gold bikini became one of pop culture's most enduring images

• Carrie Fisher wore a famous gold bikini in "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi," released 40 years ago Thursday.
• The hero was forced to wear it when she was captured by space gangster Jabba the Hutt.

When moviegoers first sat down to watch "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" 40 years ago, they were likely eager to find out what would happen after the devastating cliffhanger to 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back."

Little did they know that the first 20 minutes of the sequel would deliver something nearly as iconic as that Daddy Darth reveal.

In the opening moments, Princess Leia — played by the late Carrie Fisher — and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) mount a mission to save Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from sluglike gangster Jabba the Hutt. Leia masquerades as a bounty hunter to free Han, but it turns out Jabba has laid a trap for her — imprisoning the princess as his slave in a gold bikini. And so, a piece of cinema history was born.

Until this point in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, Leia had largely been depicted as headstrong, and a gutsy fighter. Here, we see her stripped of her agency, as Dr. Becca Harrison, a lecturer in film and media at the UK's Open University and author of the 2020 book "BFI Film Classics: The Empire Strikes Back," points out.

"It's a world away from her typical conservative costuming," Harrison tells Insider. "It's designed to sexualize and expose her, and to make her more physically vulnerable in a dangerous space. And, lest we forget, it's not just a bikini that she's wearing — she's in chains."

In true Leia style, however, the resourceful heroine turns the tables, killing Jabba with the very chains he had shackled her in.

In doing so, Leia quickly re-established herself as the capable character we had always known her to be, and sent a message to women and girls around the world that still reverberates today.

"This is such an iconic power move — literally using the chains that oppress you to overcome your oppressor," says Harrison.

According to Harrison, the scene, from a "broader, feminist perspective," symbolizes that "men's attempts to demean a woman based on her clothing fail."

That sentiment is echoed by Amy Richau, the author of "Star Wars I Love You. I Know: Lessons in Love and Friendship."

"Jabba chose the outfit to sexualize and demean her, and Leia shows her strength once again by not being thrown off or slowed down by it. She's racing around in the film as the heroes are escaping as if she's wearing a comfy yoga outfit," says Richau.

The takeaway, then, at least for some viewers, is empowerment.

"You can wear a gold bikini and not be undermined as a leader providing it's your choice," adds Harrison.

How the gold bikini took over the world

While "Return of the Jedi" raked in over $475 million upon release, the impact of Leia's gold bikini was felt beyond just the box office.

Around the time the movie was released, Fisher graced the cover and pages of Rolling Stone magazine wearing the outfit in a now-infamous beach photo shoot. This sealed the bikini as indeed a defining moment in pop culture history.

And in the 40 years since, the iconic image has been reproduced on posters, cardboard cutouts, and fridge magnets; parodied in shows like "Friends" and "Family Guy;" and even copied by Kim Kardashian. All this continues to contribute to its enduring legacy.

The gold bikini is also a staple costume on the cosplaying scene the world over, as popular with convention-goers as Darth Vader's helmet, and Chewbacca.

Cosplayer Tabitha Lyons — who goes by the handle "artyfakes" on Instagram, where she has over 140,000 followers — tells Insider the look has come to represent a person's self-confidence and agency.

"To see Leia defeat the bad guys and looking feminine whilst doing so always meant something to me. It personally taught me that I don't have to be a stereotype," she says.

Lyons recently dusted off her own gold bikini for Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, and says: "It felt empowering."

"I was surrounded by other Leia cosplayers, including men, which was so fun to see," she adds.

Julia Wold, the cohost of the "Star Wars English Class" podcast, which analyzes the space saga from a literary perspective, says: "I know quite a few women who cosplay this exact costume and find it highly empowering."

In November 2016, just a month before her death, Fisher told NPR that wearing the costume "wasn't my choice," and that she felt "nervous" when creator George Lucas first showed it to her.

The act of wearing the costume can be considered subversive in this context, says Wold.

"In large part, I think, they find it empowering because it is their choice to put it on, a luxury neither Leia nor Fisher had," she says.

Is the bikini too gratuitous by modern standards?

In 2015, reports emerged that Disney was looking to phase out the iconic image of a bikini-clad Leia by discontinuing merchandise and marketing that featured the revealing outfit. This sparked debate online over whether the costume was too gratuitous by modern standards.

And in 2019, a study by researchers at Florida State University argued that Leia is objectified in the original "Star Wars" films in part due to her costumes like the gold bikini, which leads to her being seen, not as "a strong-willed leader, princess, and politician," but "viewed through the male gaze."

In 2023, however, Richau argues that even if the costume was meant to sexualize Leia — and by extension Fisher — back in the early 1980s, when the film was made, preserving the scenes serves as a historical record of how far we've come.

"It has always been common for filmmakers to find excuses to have female stars wear skimpy outfits, and I think this is one of the most famous examples of that from that time period," says the author. "I'm not a fan of changing the original versions of films, so I wouldn't want anyone to change it now."

Harrison, the film and media lecturer, meanwhile, says that modern censorship of the bikini is misguided.

"I don't think the story is necessarily worse off for the gold bikini," she says. "For a start, I don't buy the idea that it's always degrading or demeaning for people to appear in clothes like the gold bikini and chains, which are essentially fetish wear that others may find sexual."

Matt Hudson, the cohost of the popular "Star Wars Sessions" podcast, argues that the stark contrast between Leia's meager costume and her transgressive actions — killing Jabba — is what differentiates her from the myriad gratuitous bikini-clad movie scenes of the era.

"Can you imagine how the scene plays out if it's an entirely different costume… if it's the white 'New Hope' costume? Does the scene have the same impact without the bikini?" he says.

"Star Wars" is ultimately a story of "hope and rebellion," says Hudson.

And who better epitomizes the rebellious essence of the franchise than Leia?

"This costume," and Leia's personal act of rebellion in it, "has gone a long way to proving that point," says Hudson.