As a new fan of Star Wars (Seriously, I watched all movies in the last two and half months, including a hunt to find the 6th episode before watching the 7th). I find it disappointing that this is what people choose to talk about. It doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but it still bothers me that people have to be so negative and ultimately sexist. Couldn’t we instead appreciate seeing original cast members fitting into a pretty good story line?

Carrie Fisher has hit out at social media trolls who have criticised her appearance in the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

Posting on Twitter on Tuesday, the 59-year-old actor lamented fellow users’ inability to focus on more meaningful aspects of her return to the role of Leia Organa – now a general rather than a princess – for the first time since Return of the Jedi in 1983.

“Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us.”

Fisher later added: “Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’re the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either.”
The actor, who has made a hugely successful career as a writer and comic in the wake of her early Star Wars fame, argued that her physical appearance should not be used to define her, adding: “My body is my brain bag, it hauls me around to those places and in front of faces where there’s something to say or see.”

Some noted that the writer and comic’s male co-stars from the original Star Wars trilogy, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, have faced fewer comments about their appearance in JJ Abrams’ critically acclaimed film. But other Twitter users fired abusive barbs – or told Fisher that as a public figure, she should be prepared for negative comments in the online arena.

Earlier this month, Fisher said she felt pressured to lose weight in order to reprise her role as Organa. The actor said she had felt an obligation to lose 16kg (2st 7lb), and lamented a film industry that “treats beauty like an accomplishment”. Such attitudes, she said, were “insane”.

The actor has proved one of the more colourful figures on the promotional trail for Abrams’ film, in the first new Star Wars film in a decade. She turned the air blue on the Hollywood red carpet for the world premiere of The Force Awakens on 14 December, and has warned young British star Daisy Ridley not to allow producers to exploit her sexuality.

“You should fight for your outfit,” she told the 23-year-old actor during a Q&A for Interview magazine, in reference to the gold bikini that Fisher was asked to wear in Return of the Jedi. “Don’t be a slave like I was.”

Fisher, who was just 19 when she filmed 1977’s Star Wars, also handed further advice to Ridley at the London press conference for The Force Awakens on 17 December. She told the young actor, who plays staff-wielding scavenger Rey: “Don’t go through the crew like wildfire.”
Carrie Fisher asked in December about weight loss for Star Wars reboot
The Force Awakens remains on course to challenge Avatar’s all-time $2.78bn (£1.87bn) box-office world record, and currently stands in tenth place in the pantheon of highest grossing films with $1.16bn. In the US and Canada, it passed The Dark Knight, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the original 1977 Star Wars to enter the all-time top five at the North American box office on Monday with receipts of $571m.

The new film, which is also tipped to be a part of the 2016 Oscars race, is expected to pass Avatar’s record $760m North American haul as early as this weekend.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/30/carrie-fisher-blasts-star-wars-body-shamers-twitter-social-media