Colin Hanks had an eye-opening experience on May the 4th.
Hanks and his 4-year-old daughter, Olivia, were watching "Star Wars: A New Hope," and she immediately fell in love with Carrie Fisher's character.
"It was her first time watching it. She loved it. Her favorite character was Princess Leia. She kept asking 'Where is Princess Leia? Where is Princes Leia?'" the 37-year-old dad, whose own father is Tom Hanks, shared in an Instagram post on Saturday.
A few nights later, the actor showed her "The Empire Strikes Back."
"Within four minutes of watching the movie she says, 'It's so tiring watching these movies. It's always boys, boys, boys and there's only one girl,'" he wrote.
Hanks said he "could not have been more proud of her" for protesting the lack of female characters and took her to Toys 'R' Us to buy her a lightsaber and a Princess Leia toy — but the father and daughter were told that the lightsabers were "in the boys' section."
They picked one out anyway and set upon finding the Princess Leia toy, but became even more frustrated with that selection.
"One problem: they only had the 'slave Leia,'" Hanks explained, sharing an image of the plastic figure. "As you can see, sad depressing, 'slave Leia'. So wrong."
But he was able to put the experience in a positive light, writing, "The only good to come from this is that, once again, my daughter makes me look at the world in a whole new light."
Just last week, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" star Mark Ruffalo called for more "superhuman women" in movies. He also expressed the need for more merchandise featuring Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow character for his young daughters and nieces.