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Is Wonder Woman a Feminist?

Updated: Sep 1, 2018

What does it mean to be a feminist anyway?

June 17, 2017.


My thoughts on this issue were brought about after hearing numerous criticisms on the film Wonder Woman, which has taken the world by lasso.


I loved Wonder Woman. It was a breath of relief for the DC franchise and a good superhero film (no qualifiers). The film was a success for women that I am proud to champion. I loved the way they handled Wonder Woman's femininity by making it a non-issue. Yes, she's a woman, but besides that point, she's a badass person.


Diana's gender is a part of her, it shapes her identity certainly, but it is not the crux of who she is as a person or what she stands for as a superhero. The film and story treated her as a whole person, in a way that perhaps only a female director could have accomplished in a male-dominated superhero genre. The fact that she is a woman is not moot, but lays beside the point, true and present nonetheless. Isn't that what we want as women?


"Women Woman isn't even a feminist."

Many, I found, disagree. I saw so many criticisms along the lines of "Women Woman isn't even a feminist."


What??


This exact criticism was posed to the Wonder Woman cast by Taylor Ferber of Bustle in "The Wonder Woman Cast Responds to Internet Trolls" and I adored what the cast had to say about it. Robin Wright (Antiope) exclaims "Do you even know what feminism means?" Another commented "Here is a strong hero doing something, and she happens to be a woman."


Here was a director who succeeded in making a great superhero movie, and she happens to be a woman.


My favorite was a comment by Connie Nielson (Hippolyta): "...She [Wonder Woman] walks into this room full of men and doesn't even realize that she's not supposed to be in there. She comes from a culture that assumes she has every right to be there. That's feminism." *ugly cry*


"She walks into this room full of men and doesn't even realize that she's not supposed to be in there. She comes from a culture that assumes she has every right to be there. That's feminism."

(Side note: I wonder how could Wonder Woman have possibly been any more feminist? Maybe she wasn't stereotypical enough. Maybe she ought to have had unshaven armpits and legs. Or instead of fighting the God of War they could have had her demolish cat-callers on the street? Perhaps she should have looked right into the camera and said #MeToo. I mean the way it's discussed is like they want to make horrible cheesy on-the-nose movies the way Evangelicals do. *shudder*).


So, in agreement with the cast of Wonder Woman, I would like to submit an observation. It seems to me, that EVERYTHING nowadays must make a bold, political statement. It seems to me that if you choose to rise above petty politics and focus on your art, a la Lady Gaga simply singing the anthem at the Superbowl, or say, Wonder Woman just being Wonder Woman... you are chastised for not taking the opportunity to blast a particular agenda.


"It seems like some would rather rub our noses in the problem than actually try to solve it."

It seems like some would rather rub our noses in the problem than actually solve the problem. It's like it's more important to shame the (sometimes unwitting) participants in a social injustice, than it is to actually address the injustice and those affected by it.


Sexism does exist. It is nefarious and wrong and definitely there. But I would contend that the women affected by this evil are not actually made much better off by smearing men's noses in their implicit privilege. That is not what empowers women.


You know what does empower women? Powerful women.


YES we should resist sexism, raise awareness about it, and advocate for equality in all arenas. But to become entangled in the pettiness of forcing the facts of feminism down others' throats, demanding retribution from men everywhere-- that is to embrace a victim mindset.


It's like becoming bogged down in the mud transfixed on our own feet when instead we should be rising upward, heads tilted to the sky, arm and fist outstretched in front of us like Wonder Women, ready to blast through that glass ceiling. Our focus should be pushing upward.

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