Disappointment and Anger: The Case of Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman Script

First off, I want to say that the Wonder Woman script going around online from Joss Whedon’s treatment of the character is awful. There are plenty of cringeworthy moments that do make you wonder how a man who has done written such strong and nuanced female characters could suddenly get it all wrong. I can admit that my feminist rage began to swell reading the passages, but then I stopped to take stock a moment. I wondered if it was fair to discount Whedon’s past feminist history over one bad script. Was this reaction a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

There is no one who is above criticism. Calling out sexism when we see it is absolutely necessary. The script that was leaked definitely has sexist overtones and objectifies and belittles Wonder Woman in comparison to her male counterparts. From what we see on the page, it is a poor treatment of such an iconic character, particularly from someone who reveres her as much as Whedon purports. That being said, there is so much we don’t know about this leaked script.

The first thing to consider is what draft the script is. If this is a first draft, then we can definitely lay more blame on Whedon for the sexism encased in the script. This would be his vision from the start for the character. Even if it were the first draft, one might be able to argue that Whedon was writing for a specific target audience to try and get the film made. It could have been strategic use of objectification and misogynistic overtones to pull in the male Hollywood executives who tend to see women in this way or at least that’s what we can surmise given the roles of women in film. On the flip side, if this was a later draft, it is more likely that the issues with the script were based on feedback from those very same Hollywood execs who tend to want to show women in stereotypical ways.

Next, we need to look at the cinematic landscape of the time. This draft was supposed to have been written around 2006. When we look at the depiction of female heroines at the time, we are looking at films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Sin City (2005), Elektra (2005), Blood Rayne (2006), Underworld: Evolution (2006), X-Men: Last Stand (2006), just to name a few. These are all films with over-sexualized female leads. This wasn’t exactly the environment to get a forward-thinking feminist Wonder Woman made without some possible deception and use of the sexist tropes in order to undercut them. This was 11 years ago. There has been some movement forward in the representation of women on screen. 

Which brings me to my next point, all we have are words on a page. Yes, there are some descriptions of Wonder Woman that make me quite uncomfortable because it highlights the attractiveness of the character rather than her strength. But this is a script, which means ultimately, it is meant to be seen rather than read. How things are written in the script might not actually be how they would play out when filmed. There’s a long process that takes the page and turns it into something visual. 

Is it disappointing that the Whedon script we saw for his Wonder Woman isn’t the forward-thinking feminist film we expected it to be? Absolutely. Because of his feminist leanings and previous work, we had high expectations. Is it fair to criticize the work of being sub-par? Yep. Should we condemn Whedon as being anti-feminist based on this leaked script and suddenly believe that the Batgirl film he is developing will somehow be a pile of chauvinistic bullshit? Probably not. Yes, Whedon has had missteps in the past, but he seems to learn from them. People grow and adapt. The Joss Whedon who wrote the terribly sexist Wonder Woman script 11 years ago is not the same one working on the Batgirl script. He’s not even the same one who wrote that poorly thought-out Black Widow storyline involving her sterilization in Avengers: Age of UItron. He’s shown that he can write strong, empowered female characters. Basically, we should criticize the script, but maybe it’s too early to criticize the man.