re: Which Scene Is Most Cringeworthy?

Yes it would have been fine for Leia to do it. I'm sure there would be some sort of outrage b/c everything causes outrage in our overly dramatic clickbait world.

I'm well aware of visual metaphor. I simply do not think it was meant to have any sort of deeper meaning in this case. IMO it was simply there to make Luke look like a cook and b/c they wanted to get a silly gross out gag in there. I also wouldn't be surprised if they end up selling that sea cow thing as a toy that squirts out goop.

Again, everything doesn't always have to have some secondary meaning behind it. Sometimes a duck is just a duck.