As I eagerly anticipate seeing the new Wonder Woman film myself, I am feeling encouraged by the praise the
film is already getting. Of course, I’m still cautiously optimistic. The
pessimist in me definitely wonders if the movie is really as good as people are
saying or if it’s a case that DC lowered the bar so much in recent years that a
decent Wonder Woman film seems like a
masterpiece. I know that sounds terrible of me to say, but these are the
thoughts in my head. The thing is that I want the first option to be the truth.
I really want Wonder Woman to be an
amazing film and not just to prove that female-led superhero films can be just
as good and make money.
Ultimately, I want Wonder Woman to be good because she means
so much to me. When I was a little girl, I remember watching the Wonder Woman series with Lynda Carter on
reruns. I wanted so much to be Wonder Woman. I grew up in a neighborhood where
my sister and I were pretty much the only girls. When playing pretend with the
boys, I was usually relegated to the female characters. I wasn’t allowed to be Dr.
Egon Spengler when we played Ghostbusters but instead had to be Janine. (Not
that I mind being Annie Potts, but playing the receptionist was boring.) However,
when we played superheroes, I could be Wonder Woman. This wasn’t boring, and I
was no longer just a support role. I could fight crime and battle the villains
with my Lasso of Truth and Sword of Athena alongside Superman and Batman. I
didn’t have to stay behind to manage the fort. There were numerous Halloweens
where I wanted to be Wonder Woman, even when we could no longer find the
costume in a store and the one that my grandmother had made no longer fit me.
When in kindergarten, after first declaring that I wanted to
be a rocket when I grew up (I was a weird kid), I would eventually acquiesce to
not being able to become an inanimate object so I switched focus to becoming
Wonder Woman. I wanted to kick ass and make the world a safer place. Before I
knew what a feminist was, I was espousing feminist ideals. It wasn’t just her
male counterparts of the Justice League that could stop the villains of the
world. Wonder Woman had her part to play as well. She was equal to Superman in
every way as far as I was concerned. And any boy who tried to argue about the
value of Wonder Woman was likely to get a taste of my own Wonder Woman-like
fury.
As I was figuring out what it meant to be female in this
world, I had a role model who was strong, smart, and beautiful. She didn’t need
a man to rescue her. This was a stark contrast to the view of women I was being
fed from my video games. Diana Prince could be a warrior and a successful
woman. She didn’t have to give up her femininity to be powerful. It was her femininity
that defined her power. It was the first time that being feminine and strong
weren’t mutually exclusive traits in my mind. She could also be smart and
beautiful: two things women aren’t often allowed to be.
I love Wonder Woman, and I am glad that legions of young
girls can experience the joy of seeing a woman lead her own superhero film,
especially a hero as iconic as she is. I’m encouraged that the film was
directed by a woman. I’m excited for the growing representation of women in
superhero film franchises. I want Wonder Woman to be successful, not just because
she’s a woman, but because she has been a source of strength for me alongside
Captain America (yeah, I know I’m mixing Marvel and DC, but a good character is
a good character). While Cap showed me what it meant to be a good citizen in
the world, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman showed me how to be a good woman who fights
for what she believes in, including gender equality. Wonder Woman taught me how
to be a feminist.
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