- Female heroine.
- No damsel in distress (or at least one that wasn't going to save her own day).
- Brave women,kicking butt
and I even heard the word "empowering".
I was kinda expecting a new take on this:
And then I saw the movie.
And before I say anything more I need to point out
Yes. I know. It's just a movie. It's fiction. It's D.C. I also know this:
It's not like it used to be better.
But here is the deal. This time I thought it was going to be better. This time I thought it might be fresh. I actually believed the empowerment hype. And then I saw the movie.
And some people left that movie thinking "wow! It's so awesome to have a powerful female heroine!" or "how great to have a brave, strong female lead" or "what a great new role model for girls!"
And I left that movie thinking...
That was a really fun movie! That was entertaining! But I was also thinking Wow, I really need to do more leg work. And ab work. And change my diet. And consider intensive botox or facial something or other that fixes faces that don't look 19. And I definitely should put down this popcorn bucket. I need to fix myself!!! Stat!
Because at the end of all the movies we all just really want a kickass superhero but we really, REALLY want a beautiful kickass superhero. And we want her to fall in love. Or make people fall in love with her. And we want to wear her sexy costumes. And we want to look like her in her sexy costumes. And well, that's not so empowering. And when I thought back to the movie I thought well, they did have a female strong villain, that's something, right? But I'm still not even sure I want to think about what it means that the villain is made to look ugly by disfiguring her face. I mean, they made this woman:
look like this:
And she was terrifying. But what am I supposed to do with the fact that what made her so terrifying (other than the fact she was creating a horrific gas that melts gas masks on people's faces) was that her face was disfigured?
Yeah, yeah, I get it! It's a comic. It is part of the story line. It's a movie. Wonderwoman is the daughter of Zeus! It's a movie! Yes, it is a movie. And it's one more reminder that if we all really want to be wonderwoman, we better look pretty perfect. Strong and Beautiful. Soft surface, hard core. Big breasts, no waist. Independent, not threatening. Sexy, not sexual. The real enemy isn't Ares, it's cellulite and aging.
And really, that just kind of sucks. I prefer my wonderwomen to be real super heroes. My life is surrounded by them: I helped make one:
And Hollywood, it's not like you can't give us real life super heroes. After all, you did:
I know plenty of them: chemists, teachers, runners ( I actually know one woman who is all three of these things), attorneys, business owners, school bus drivers, social workers, activists, musicians, athletes, school lunch ladies, accountants, mothers, friends, fighters-of-what-really-matters. Being Zeus's beautiful badass daughter is pretty spectacular but being a sixth grade math teacher who makes kids love math and stays after school so the nerdy ones can have a pokemon club? That is some serious wonderwoman stuff.
So please Hollywood, show us more of these WonderWomen--the kind that don't make me want to buy makeup, do more squats or figure out how to get rid of wrinkles and not eat movie popcorn.
Showing those kind of women? Now THAT would be all kinds of wonderful.
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