This is nothing short of erasure. Leigh Brackett’s centennial birthday found her most well known contribution to sci-fi under attack by a concerted media narrative across multiple platforms.
Read her script and tell me again how it was “discarded”.
…the lone credited female screenwriter who worked on one, The Empire Strikes Back‘s Leigh Brackett, died after completing a first draft, which was discarded. – ComingSoon.net, The Next Star Wars Director: Lucasfilm Meets With Mystery Women
…one big surprise about the “Star Wars” films have been the lack of any women as writers or directors beyond an uncredited screenplay polish on “The Phantom Menace” by Carrie Fisher, and a very early (and discarded) “The Empire Strikes Back” draft by Leigh Brackett. – Dark Horizons, Lucasfilm Seeks Female Director For “Star Wars”
Leigh Brackett initially worked on The Empire Strikes Back, but her screenplay was discarded shortly after her death – Hey U Guys, Lucasfilm Meeting With Mystery Female Directors for Future Star Wars Movie
yet the lone credited female screenwriter who worked on one, The Empire Strikes Back’s Leigh Brackett, died after completing a first draft, which was discarded. – Steelers Lounge, Carrie Fisher’s Response to Slave Leia Merchandise Controversy Is Fantastic
The only woman to have written a Star Wars script was Leigh Brackett, who passed away before completing work on The Empire Strikes Back; her draft was subsequently discarded. – Screen Crush, ‘Star Wars’ Could Be Written or Directed by a Woman Soon
Leigh Brackett – a woman – did work on a script for The Empire Strikes Back, but she died and her work was apparently discarded. – We Got This Covered, Women Writers And Directors Are Finally In The Running For Star Wars Movies – But Not For Another Five Years
yet the lone credited female screenwriter who worked on one, The Empire Strikes Back‘s Leigh Brackett, died after completing a first draft, which was discarded. – Camara Oscura, Will “Star Wars” Be Directed by A Woman??
Empire Strikes Back’s Leigh Brackett did her screen writing for the fifth episode. Brackett passed away after the first draft of the movie, which was left unused for the final product, according to Coming Soon – Inquisitr, ‘Star Wars’ Crew Members Going From ‘Boys Club’ to its First Female Director?
The Empire Strikes Back‘s Leigh Brackett, died after completing a first draft, which was discarded. – Albany Daily Star, Will the next Star Wars director be a woman?
The cynic in me wonders if we’re seeing another Journolist/Games Journo Pros here.
It’s definitely a concerted effort using very similar language to push a narrative. I mean, we’ve seen this before with both Gamergate’s “Gamers are Dead” articles and the Hugo Awards “The Sad Puppies are racist homophobic misogynists who want to run women out science fiction” articles.
I can’t help but see the reasoning behind these is that new women cannot position themselves as groundbreaking pioneers unless they destroy or denigrate the contributions of the women who came before them.
Even if the similarities in the articles were not orchestrated as with Games Journo Pros, it does show incredibly lazy journalism that pushes a united front narrative across multiple platforms.
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