{"id":70482,"date":"2017-08-31T09:29:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T14:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=70482"},"modified":"2017-08-31T00:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T05:27:45","slug":"the-beauty-and-strength-of-wonder-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2017\/08\/31\/the-beauty-and-strength-of-wonder-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"The beauty and strength of Wonder Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted at Gender & Society<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Photo by JCDecaux Creative Solutions<\/a> flickr creative commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I recently took in a poignant guest lecture on hookup culture by\u00a0Lisa Wade.<\/a>\u00a0During the talk, Wade detailed the link between rape culture and\u00a0hookup culture<\/a>. While hooking up encourages women to behave \u201clike men,\u201d it simultaneously creates an environment that rejects feminine traits (kindness, care, empathy). Since then I\u2019ve continuously noticed how we celebrate women who display traditionally masculine characteristics (be aggressive! lean in!). But, we often do so in ways that devalue feminine attributes. It is with this framework in mind that I went to see\u00a0Wonder Woman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Donning my \u201cfeminist mama\u201d sweatshirt, I expected to be\u00a0underwhelmed<\/a>\u00a0given the mediocre reviews describing the film as just\u00a0another boilerplate superhero movie<\/a>. With my critical 3D glasses on, I understood why many were frustrated. Steven Trevor always has a protecting arm over Diana, even after she demonstrates that she\u2019s indestructible. The persistence of\u00a0the male gaze<\/a>\u00a0was also disappointing. I recognize the need to reflect Marston\u2019s 1940\u2019s creation, but expecting Diana to run through forests, scale mountains, and beat down villains in a\u00a0sensible wedge<\/a>\u00a0was as laughable as Steven Trevor\u2019s ridiculous assurance to the audience that his genitalia was \u201cabove average.\u201d It is no coincidence that Wonder Woman\u2019s strong but \u201csexy\u201d image was the one chosen by Douglas to represent her concept\u00a0of\u00a0enlightened sexism<\/a>\u00a0nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I think it is important to recognize the film\u2019s strengths. The women cast as Amazonians are\u00a0athletes in real life<\/a>\u00a0with muscular bodies that challenge anglocentric beauty ideals. Diana is a unique combination of sex appeal, acumen, and wit. She is fierce but nurturing, emboldened to take down Ares but driven by her desire to protect children. Her outfit choices are elegant but practical and she even managed to\u00a0stash a sword<\/a>\u00a0in her stolen evening gown. Diana asserted confidence and ability while her male sidekicks over-promised and under-delivered. In short,\u00a0Wonder Woman<\/em>\u00a0seems to encapsulate the kind of feminism Wade described as lost: embracing aggression\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>kindness, strength\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0beauty.<\/p>\n

Given Diana\u2019s character complexity, I find language lauding the film for its ability to break the\u00a0\u201ccurse of Catwoman\u201d<\/a>\u00a0particularly offensive. Perhaps if Hollywood had chosen to produce\u00a0Joss Whedon\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0version of\u00a0Wonder Woman<\/em>, where Diana\u2019s uses a \u201csexy dance\u201d to thwart the villain, it might warrant a film comparison. After all, the\u00a0Catwoman\u00a0<\/em>\u201cplot\u201d was a lurid focus on Halle Berry in a tight-fitting costume, a hypersexualized\u00a0(de)evolution of a female protagonist<\/a>. It tanked in the box office because, like most female characters in superhero films, Patience Phillips was a two-dimensional stereotype of femininity \u2013 meek, fickle, a tease. She had to \u201covercome\u201d her feminine traits to succeed and used sex appeal as a weapon.\u00a0Comparing<\/a>\u00a0the films conflates the\u00a0presence\u00a0<\/em>of a female lead with the notion that both films were\u00a0made for women.<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s like those who questioned if Clinton supporters might vote for McCain in 2008 because\u00a0he put Palin on the ticket<\/a>.\u00a0Having a woman lead doesn\u2019t mean women\u2019s interests are being considered.<\/p>\n

Despite these attempts at male wish fulfillment,\u00a0Wonder Woman\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>success was not due to men aged 15-25. Unlike other superhero flicks,\u00a0Wonder Woman<\/em>\u2019s audience was\u00a0roughly 52% women<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0women and older audience viewers\u00a0continue to build its momentum. When the Alamo Drafthouse risked\u00a0litigation<\/a>\u00a0to host an\u00a0all-female screening<\/a>\u00a0it sold out so quickly it\u00a0added more women-only events<\/a>\u00a0to respond to the demand. Nevertheless, the comparison to\u00a0Catwoman<\/em>\u00a0persists as does the dominant narrative that films outside of the\u00a0Captain America\u00a0<\/em>framework are a \u201cgamble.\u201d \u00a0Ignoring the success of films like\u00a0Wonder Woman\u00a0<\/em>(Arrival\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Get Out\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Moonlight<\/em>) allows executives to deflect the fact that most \u201cflops\u201d were made with an exclusively white, heterosexual, male audience in mind (I\u2019m looking at you\u00a0Cowboys & Aliens<\/em>). \u00a0Yet celebrating\u00a0Wonder Woman\u00a0<\/em>as a \u201ctriumph,\u201d allows us to pretend that similar female protagonists dominate the screen instead of calling more attention to the fact that women still only accounted for\u00a032%<\/a>\u00a0of all speaking roles in 2015 or that non-white actors are\u00a0continuously overlooked<\/a> at the Oscars.<\/p>\n

Diana showcases a physical resilience seldom credited to women \u2013 let\u2019s celebrate that. She encapsulates a kind of feminism that Wade rightfully notes is nearly nonexistent. Diana is a warrior who is agentic, driven, nurturing, protective, and merciful. She exhibits masculine strength without having to cast aside her feminine traits. \u00a0She voices concern for those who cannot protect themselves but she is a trained killer. By labeling\u00a0Wonder Woman\u00a0<\/em>not feminist enough we overlook the crux of the problem:\u00a0Wonder Woman\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>empowerment narrative was likely tempered because Hollywood doesn\u2019t really care about appealing to women. Highlighting the importance of Diana\u2019s feminist dichotomy challenges Hollywood to build on that momentum and make a sequel without pandering to young, heterosexual, male audiences. In doing so, my hope is that in the future we have so many superheroes like Diana (strong\u00a0because\u00a0<\/em>of their femininity, not strong\u00a0despite<\/em>\u00a0it) that critics will have ample \u2014 and equivalent \u2014 characters for comparison.<\/p>\n

Francesca Tripodi, PhD<\/a> is a sociologist who studies how participatory media perpetuates systems of inequality. This year she is researching how partisan groups interact with media and the role community plays in legitimating what constitutes news and information as a postdoctoral scholar at Data & Society. Francesca would like to thank\u00a0Caroline Jack and Tristan Bridges for their helpful feedback on this piece.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted at Gender & Society. I recently took in a poignant guest lecture on hookup culture by\u00a0Lisa Wade.\u00a0During the talk, Wade detailed the link between rape culture and\u00a0hookup culture. While hooking up encourages women to behave \u201clike men,\u201d it simultaneously creates an environment that rejects feminine traits (kindness, care, empathy). Since then I\u2019ve continuously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":70484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,23678,2096,2095,2093,129,343],"class_list":["post-70482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-androcentrism","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-feminismactivism","tag-gender-objectification","tag-media","tag-tvmovies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2017\/08\/5.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70485,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482\/revisions\/70485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}