I’m Still in Love with Han Solo
Posted on April 20, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture
Chick-Lit Warning: the following blatantly biased soapbox post contains high levels of estrogen.
Growing up, Star Wars was a ‘boy’ thing. It was what your older brothers and cousins played out in the street and in the back garden while we girls were meant to be playing dress up or some such nonsense. I wasn’t supposed to care about a galaxy far, far away or the fate of the empire or whether or not Luke was destined for the dark side…
And to be honest, I probably still don’t care…
What I do care about is that strapping six feet of cheeky, loveable arrogance—floppy ‘70s coiffure and all. Han Solo made me care passionately about the fate of, maybe not the empire, but definitely the fate of the Millennium Falcon, whether humans can survive carbon freezing and whether or not he was going to end up with Princess Leia, that spoiled little drama queen.
Granted, in the vast and varied world of SciFi and Fantasy geekdom, there are many characters that can be considered crush-worthy. (Legolass and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, anyone?) But none had the ability to turn a formerly normal adolescent girl into a bona fide sci-fi geek (and proud of it!) quite like good old Han.
But why Han, though? It had to have been more than the floppy hair and sideways smile, right? I mean, Luke had some truly exemplary floppy hair action and a schoolboy grin to boot… but was about as exciting to me as damp rag.
In addition to, you know, the whole well-fit Harrison Ford factor, there is Han’s undeniable bad boy appeal. Which is also what surely must be the separating line between Luke fans and Han fans: swooning over the virtuous, save-the-world hero or swooning over the reluctant anti hero who was always just that side of danger.
I have to say that I am comforted to learn that I’m not the only girl in our office with the similar feelings. A survey was recently sent to some of the other girls in the office to find out that if they were similarly swept off their teeny-bopper feet by the rugged Han Solo.
I’m happy to report that Han won hands down, beating out Luke, Legolas and Aragorn.
To quote:
“Yes for Han Solo. Hunky and saucy.” (This interviewee also hastened to add that Legolas had too much of the androgynous Bowie thing going on to work for her.)
“I am STILL in love with Han Solo from Star Wars.”
“I like them tall, dark, mysterious and broody. Typical scorpio types.”
“When I was ten I didn’t want to marry Han, I was going to marry him. End of story.”
It seems as though there is indeed a universal female appeal with that rugged, intergalactic flyboy. Which means, ladies, that if you’re a girl who grew up anytime from the mid 70s to the mid 80s chances are you’re a Star Wars geek too.
Thanks to one Han Solo.
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