Is Wonder Woman a good symbol for women?

Post Reply New Topic

It's all over the news.

I have no problem with it.

As for real-life women, I would suggest Joan of Arc, Susan B. Anthony, Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousefzai, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman...basically anyone I would consider groundbreaking in progress for women.

She's alright, I guess----but, I prefer Rosie the Riveter.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter

The way *I* see it, Rosie is someone more real, and more represents equality in jobs. When I think about my mom climbing-up on a huge war-plane to affix the U.S. flag decal, during WWII, I just think that's WAY cool----because my mom was, ALSO, pretty much, the epitome of a "Southern Belle"----THAT, to ME, says "A woman can do ANYTHING"! !

To ME, Rosie represents a woman being able to do a MAN'S job----much like STEM careers are still considered men's jobs, TODAY.

Last edited by Campin_Cat on 21 Oct 2016, 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

^ This

Wonder Woman is a fine symbol but she is not a realistic role model. Give girls someone they can aspire to be.

Rosie could touch a nerve. It's probably safer to say that a woman has super powers than to say that she can do a man's job.

Kinda pointless, honestly. Why name a fictional character to be honorary ambassador, when there are plenty of real women who deserve it more?

Why not Malala Yousafsai? Why not Emma Watson? Why not Yoko Ono? Why not Caitlyn Jenner? Why not Ibtihaj Muhammad? Why not you or me? There are approximately 4 billion women in the world, that means there are four billion potential ambassadors they could have picked before Wonder Woman.

I mentioned Malala. Aung Sang Soo Kyi would be another good choice, but I don't know if she was specifically campaigning for womens' rights, or simply regime change in Burma.

I would've definitely gone with Malala.

Wonder Woman is usually a good symbol of empowerment, when DC's writers aren't trying to do this "lol she's empowered so she's obviously just damaged and hates men" thing. And as a symbol, she was very novel and amazingly progressive for her time. But Malala is someone who has dedicated her life to work pushing for real opportunity for millions of women. And all before the age of 20. I think she more than deserves it.

Last edited by Pravda on 22 Oct 2016, 2:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

I thought that was Marvel's thing.

Comic-wise, Marvel's actually mostly been free of it. I say mostly because Emma Frost's story has colossal shades of it.

Film-wise, the "she's not really strong, she was just damaged all along!" derailment of Black Widow was a thing for sure. She didn't have much personality to begin with, just the standard "I shoot stuff and look sexy" femme fatale archetype like pre-reboot Lara Croft, but going in that specific direction in a really botched attempt to give her development deserved the backlash it got. Also weird because Whedon has shown he's a much less hackneyed writer than that. Buffy never had this issue.

As far as Wonder Woman's concerned: she gets rebooted every 2-5 years because writers can never seem to figure out what to do with her. Some of those iterations are actually pretty cool and people cringe when a new writer with "bold new ideas" takes over the character, undoing the work that was done before. But, enter New 52, the latest in a long line of almost-full reboots of DC canon (everything but Green Lantern and Batman) altogether. This iteration of her had MCU Black Widow-ish problems, as Zeus' maybe-possibly-it's-not-clear-rape baby. Combined with oddly straw-"feminist" SCUM Manifesto-like beliefs for someone who grew up in a secluded island where men don't exist and hatred of them would be like hatred of unicorns. The plot arc was her growing out of it and adapting to a society where people don't weirdly hate the functional equivalent of unicorns. It was dumb, everyone hated it, it was halfway rebooted by just quietly dropping those elements of her new characterization.

New 52 butchered a lot of things though. Starfire became this emotionless sex-bot thing, producing more outcry than any of the other changes because for readers of a certain age, that is stomping on peoples' childhoods. And for the non-rebooted series, some of the changes were flat-out weird. Batman was de-aged to look late-20s for basically no reason. Barbara Gordon's wound in The Killing Joke was severely downplayed, so she could be Batgirl again even though most people loved her as Oracle. Hush was apparently retconned entirely, so Catwoman doesn't know Batman is Bruce Wayne anymore which is an "issue" nobody cared about. Oh well. The rebooted Animal Man was awesome, at least.

Last edited by Pravda on 22 Oct 2016, 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wonder Woman is whatever the writer puts in and whatever the reader/viewer takes out.

As with all fictional characters, she can potentially be a symbol for anyone. If you require a female role model because you can only relate to people with the same genitals as you, that's probably unhealthy.

What if I can I only relate to characters in realistic stories?

Its not the first time fictional characters were used as honorary ambassadors (Winnie the Poo and Tinkerbell); but many of the objections about this ambassador are based on her appearance, which is interesting. If Wonder Woman chooses to wear a swimsuit, why are people so outraged by some skin instead of focusing on her actual character?

Wonder Woman is inappropriate as a symbol for all women in the same way that Superman would be inappropriate as a symbol for all men. I don't see anything to identify with or to inspire me at all.

I prefer Catwoman.

For me the inspiring thing about Superman is not his super strength but the way he deals with the moral conflicts that result from it. To me those are the most interesting Superman stories. Superman's greatest power is his self-control. How easy would it be for him to just kill Lex Luthor. How hard must it be for Superman to spare Lex Luthor's life.

Interesting stuff yet I don't relate to it personally. Like most people I've never had the responsibility of wielding great power.