Spoilers Ahead!!!!
INTRODUCTION
Coming out of the Wonder Woman screening I was conflicted. I had opposing thoughts,
as I tried to process my feelings about the film. I felt let down by the film, that it promised
one thing, and did not even deliver on that promise. Choosing, instead to give
me a watered down version of what I had expected. However, I knew how much the
success of Wonder Woman would mean
for female lead superhero films in general. So, on some level, I wanted it to
succeed, if only to have more female lead heroes on screen. Additionally, I was
working with a handicap, I am a white Heterosexual Male, so I was unclear, at
least at the outset, if I did not like the film because the film wasn’t for me.
I was cautious because I did not want to hate on a film just for not being its
target audience/demographic. Therefore,
I struggled with even writing this review because I did not want to come off as
a “Mansplaining Asshole” (which I still might) given that many of the other negative
reviews of the film (also written by men) have been peppered with thinly veiled
sexism producing pieces of misogynistic crap. In an attempt to
temper this feeling, I relied on a few negative
reviews from a feminist perspective (one author I greatly respect) whom are in the obvious minority; I was also motivated
by my wife’s unbridled hatred of this
film to complete this review even if it is a dissenting opinion.
A “REQUIRED” SUCCESS
With our current socio-political reality
that has seen a small hand genital grabbing narcissistic man-baby become
president, and his actions criminalizing
being a woman;
it seemed the success of Diana of Thymyscira’s first major film was in
question. Would this be a continuation of most recent anti-female rhetoric and
sexist political policies, or would it be a breath of fresh air? This was
further complicated by the fact that the character of Wonder Woman, the literal
poster child for second wave feminism, had to be incorporated into Zack
Snyder’s sexist “Douche-Canoe” Universe. Yet, these red-flags, such as Zack Snyder’s
involvement (he was given a story credit on this film that was also written by all men) were ignored due to the near
dehydration felt by the lack of Wonder Woman content over the last 75 years. We
are so thirsty for Wonder Woman content that we see the mediocre as
extraordinary; as the saying goes, “Hunger is the best spice.” We are willing
to feast on this second rate Wonder Woman because unlike her peers in the
Trinity (Batman and Superman), her story has seen limited adaptations and
expansions. Yet, as Wonder Woman rides
on the cultural novelty of treating a woman as a person, it was the focal point
of socio-cultural pressure that made the success of Wonder Woman inevitable or bust.
From its inception (and many false
starts, hang ups and various delays) the new Wonder Woman film was put upon by
unfair pressure. Because we live in a patriarchal society that values men over
women in a false egalitarian democratic meritocracy, the future of women in
leading roles in a film genre dominated by men, was biasedly riding on the
success of this one film. Whereas many films directed, written, and staring men
have allowed to be sub-par to “god awful” in terms of quality with only
marginal financial success in order to get a sequel. This is the quiniessential
example of a gendered double standard. This is an industry (like other larger
social institutions) that see men as complex and different, with different
attitudes and tastes and women as a single solitary group and a “niche” market.
Thus, by seeing all women the same way, and that formula of previous female
lead superhero films having been less than successful, resulted in the stalled
overall production of female led superhero films because they “failed” in the
eyes of a male driven studio (EX: Electra,
Catwoman etc.) thus setting back the development of such films for a decade
or so. Therefore, when Wonder Woman went into production it needed to be a success because if it
wasn’t, as history has shown us, it would have been an excuse to, yet again,
shelve any attempt to have women break the glass ceiling of successful
superhero films. With so much riding on it, all
of a sudden, Wonder Woman became too big to fail and on that road
to inevitable success the character becomes sanitized in her own story,
manipulated into being a shell of herself (as she is written in the comics). 2017’s
Wonder Woman’s Diana is a facsimile
of feminism; a representation of mainstream “Marketplace feminism” used as a
tool to sell a product rather than what she could be: A beacon of egalitarian
female empowerment that challenges the very sadistic misogyny of our culture.
A WATERED DOWN
HEROINE
Forgive the cliché, but Wonder Woman and the character of Diana
of Themyscira could have been the perfect heroine for our time. A strong, queer
identified, feminist badass that is ruled by her compassion and love for all
people. This is what I was hoping for as I sat in the theater and the lights
dimmed. As the film began, I was instantly brought to tears as I gazed upon
Themyscira and watched as a society that showcased (albeit briefly) women in
all social and societal roles beyond any kind of gender stratified socialization.
I was overcome with joy as I watched young Diana mimic fighting techniques and
desired to be as powerful as her “sisters”. Yet, that joy was slowly eroded
away as the story continued and I realized, to my grave disappointment that by story’s
end it did not understand the character of Diana at all. At least the one I
have come to know and love through the work of writers such as Gail Simone and Greg Rucka.
The most egregious of these errors
is the film’s misinterpretation of Diana’s core motivation.. In the comics, each
of DC’s holy trinity has a single driving force. Superman is driven by Truth
(he is an honest, good moral person) Batman is motivated by Will (he will
sacrifice and overcome any obstacle) Wonder Woman is motivated by Compassion,
for everyone…especially her enemies. One
of the reasons the above quote (that introduces this section) is so salient is
because as Diana fosters love and compassion in other people, it leaches out
the very masculine desire for war and violence.
While the film flirts with the importance
of Diana’s compassion though passing glances and flippant facial expressions by
star Gal Gadot, this notion is completely undermined by films end when, being
motivated by the love and loss of Steve Trevor, Diana declares (in a direct
heavy handed way) that she is motivated by love and compassion and will not
kill Dr. Poison. However, this declaration does not stop her from violently
killing Ares that results in the
ending of the war. The overall message of this action is: That violence can be solved by violence: This is not
only historically inaccurate, but it undermines the character of Wonder Woman
herself, and her core motivation from the comics. Instead, this Wonder Woman
expresses her emotional complexity through violence; a typically masculine
trait.
In our society, women are often chastised
for being aggressive and angry while being allowed to have more emotional
flexibility than men, who conversely are socialized to embrace only the
aggressive emotions of hate and anger. Therefore, men are often taught to
filter all of their complex emotions of love, and fear through acts of
violence. Thus, the core problem of Wonder
Woman as a film is that it resolves itself through a masculine
interpretation of Love and Compassion instead of a feminine one.
What would have a more novel
approach[1]
was to have Diana use her love and compassion for people to motivate an end to
the war through diplomacy. The armistice
that she would have brokered would have weakened Ares (who is fueled by war and
discord) to the point where he could be subdued and locked away in Tartarus…
because Wonder Woman only kills as a last resort, with great reservation and
guilt. But I guess in a Zack Snyder Universe where both Batman and Superman are
uncompassionate murderers, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Wonder Woman of
this universe is less than ideal. This
is not the feminist Wonder Woman I wanted, it is the male interpretation of
Wonder Woman, feminism through the male gaze, feigning progressiveness while
reinforcing regressive ideals.
A Frustrating
Facsimile
In the comics, as
in the film, Diana of Themyscira is depicted as a beautiful woman; said to be
blessed with the beauty of Aphrodite herself. This beauty in the comics, which
is also mirrored in the film, is consistent with the typical male gaze. A woman
who is thin, conventionally attractive symmetry of face and depicted as
constantly wearing make-up. Thus the film does its part, like so many film
before it, to reinforce problematic beauty and body norms that have plagued
women since forever.
This is again another missed
opportunity for the film to subvert convention. Wonder Woman on screen could have
been a chance to increase the visibility of women with different body shapes
and sizes; promoting their diversity and normalizing their existence. Given
that Wonder Woman is an Amazon she could have been portrayed as a towering
giant with a certain level of muscle definition. Unfortunately, the film coward
away from such a prospect[2],
and instead, doubled down on Diana’s adherence to western beauty standards. While
I will concede that it is nice to see Wonder Woman depicted as a woman of color
(Gal Gadot is from Israel); she is still depicted as a white woman (with white
parents), when in the comics, she is of Greek heritage with Olive colored skin.
While the film does not make Diana’s beauty a defining characteristic, it also
seems to go out of its way to comment on Diana’s attractiveness and
desirability to other men; in almost every scene that she is in. This reinforces
the tired gender stereotype that girls learn early on: that their value is
in their body. A stereotype that asserts that girls and women can be
strong, and empowered, courageous and violent…as long as they maintain societal
beauty standards and be sexual attractiveness to heterosexual men. This
stereotype also warps the perception of a woman’s access to power. Girls and
women are taught though such stereotypes that power is obtained through their
bodies. But that power, and to some
extent their body, is not theirs. Their body is a mechanism, a form of currency
women are trained to use to glean power from men; instead of having power
themselves. While these specific
messages aren’t directly found in Wonder
Woman, the film’s unwillingness to challenge the status quo indirectly
supports it.
A perfect example of this capitulation is Diana’s
Naiveté a product of her proverbial “fish out of water” story. While some reviews incorrectly identify her
ignorance for stupidity, the lack of understanding social cues and cultural
mores does hamstrings Diana’s righteousness and outrage against the sexist
Patriarchy that she should have dismantled in. every. scene. A typical response
as to why this didn’t happen would be the origin story excuse. A producer might
say “Oh, our Diana isn’t fully formed yet, she hasn’t “become Wonder Woman
until the end of the film.” Given your
level of origin story fatigue is the litmus test on whether not this comment
would incite violent rage or a mild annoyance. To me, as in the comics, Diana
is a fully formed Wonder Woman when she leaves home. She just requires a brief
adjustment period to get used to “man’s world” Yet in this film, and the 2009 animated
film of the same name, Diana’s experiences change her, away from the
feminist icon and closer to a woman that could blend in; which is code for a woman that is non-threaten to men and their fragile
masculinity. This is not what we need.
In fact, 2017’s Wonder Woman takes this even further by making Steve Trevor Diana’s
motivational, mansplaining guru of the rest of “man’s world”. He is the one that explains the evils of
humanity and human nature (but don’t worry, #notallmen). Yet, in these scenes
especially, she is there to react to him. His desires, and his mission are
driving the story. His needs, and his accomplishments are important; she is
just the secret weapon along for the ride.
Unlike his female counterparts in other films, Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor
has his own completed story arc. Yes, his death is used as a form of motivation
for the Titular heroine that her love and loss of Him propels her to greater
insight at the end of the film. However,
the important difference is that he
is not violently “fridged”
like so many women are whom are in the same position. Steve has a “glorious
moment of masculine triumph” though violent self-sacrifice.
Another opportunity the film
squandered was the possibility of a queer narrative. From the first pages of
Wonder Woman’s origin stemming from an all-female island that comes from the
Greek myth of the Amazon warriors of Lesbos (root of the word lesbian), the
Wonder Woman story is steeped in queerness. Even with the fight and general
acceptance of multifaceted queer identities today, especially among millennials,
Hollywood still depicts Dina as being heterosexual; when nothing about her
existence even remotely suggests that she would be strictly heterosexual; considering
that she has already reached sexual maturity by the time she meets her first
man. At the very least, I would have like to see her at least identify as
bisexual or some other form of fluid sexual identity that is afforded by
Diana’s backstory. All we get is a line
about the lack of importance of men to female sexual pleasure; which is played
more for laughs and as an emasculating “mic drop” moment, than as a salient
plot point or character beat.
Additionally, here again the film, failed
to meet my expectation of possibly showing an intimate
relationship between a man and a woman that did not rely on romance. They had
every opportunity to have Steve and Diana love and care for one another without
it ending in sex. Furthermore, the scene that sets up the implied sexual
intercourse off screen between Steve and Diana did not have any inclusion of active sexual consent by either party. She looks at him, and he steps inside her room
and shuts the door. Considering the staggering
statistics of female survivors of rape and sexual violence, and that Wonder
Woman is an icon of Feminism, I expected at the very least a verbal “Yes” from
each of them. Instead, all we got were looks and assumptions of implied consent
that are more likely to continue the problematic practices of non-consent that
leads to the reproduction of the Rape Culture.
That praise is not
praise
One of Many points of praise I have
read in the plethora of glowing reviews for this film is the positive female
representation in the film. Yet, this is
another instance where, what seems progressive on the surface to mainstream audiences,
tumbles like a house of cards when up against any strict critical analysis. The
only true moments of the film that have such equal and consistently positive representations
of women is on Themyscira. There women are generals, politicians, artisans, laborers,
warriors, and clerics. Seeing this in the opening scenes gave me visions of Charlotte
Perkins Gillman’s Herland and it is truly
wonderful. Yet, this representation all falls to pieces the minute they leave
the island. Moreover, since the island scene are in the first 30-45min of a 2 hrs.
and 21 minute film, that means that the majority of film takes place off the
island…where there are only three named female characters Diana included. Given
Wonder Woman being a feminist icon, the writers of this film could have easily added
a lot more female characters throughout the rest of the film by doing a simple
internet search on women
in World War 1. They would have learned about the vast extent that women
participated and
even fought on the front lines during the war. Imagine a Wonder Woman film
where she meets and fights alongside other women in the trenches. The simple possibility
of that subplot is far better than the transparency of scenes like Diana stepping
out into the DMZ of WW1. There is a lack of subtlety in both the set up and
execution. Just after Steve Trevor says “No man’s land is where No man
survives.” we see Wonder Woman stride across “the No man’s land” and incite
victory. She was able to do it because she’s a woman. Get it? She is literally “No
man”. (*eye roll). While this was pretty
heavy handed, we were blissfully spared the cringe worthy dialogue of “I am no
man!!!”[3]
(I.e. Return of the King). But as she
steps out onto the battlefield that phrase is screaming in our heads. This
scene is the perfect example of what this film encapsulates, a prepackaged,
boiled down, mass market, faux feminism that does not challenge the patriarchal
system and is non-threatening to heterosexual men.
CONCLUSION
Wonder
Woman as advertising
This
Wonder Woman drapes herself in the trappings
of Feminism, but when it comes to the actual Feminist work she falls short. Wonder
Woman is an example of what Andi Zeisler calls “Marketplace Feminism” in
her recent book
We were Feminist Once. In the book she explains that in this
new era of brand identity and identity politics where young people are told to “rebrand
themselves”, or to “stay on brand” Feminism has just become another tool to
sell products, and it has opened up a whole new market. Advertisers and
corporations use feminist ideals and rhetoric to sell their products without
any emphasis on feminist work or the constant struggle that the fight for
gender equity requires. To them, feminism is something you can buy, achieved
through your capitalistic purchasing power, not something that you actively
have to work towards. The difference between
“marketplace feminism” and actual feminism
is the work involved. It is easy to put on a t-shirt and watch a movie and call
yourself a feminist, it is more difficult to work, sacrifice, circumvent and
sometimes usurp authority in order to keep the revolution of gender equality
ever moving forward.
Solidarity towards
(potential) greatness
However, the need for forward
momentum of a movement is a complex issue that comes with compromise. It is
easy for me to say, that real
feminism is in the work, when much of the inspiration to be an activist is
often found in examples of “Marketplace Feminism”. Millions of children and
adults across the gendered spectrum are motivated into activism because of the
empowerment that they feel from of a song, movie TV show or book. We can be surprised
by the things that end up motivating us to do great things, to better
ourselves, those around us, to help with our community, fight tranny and
challenge the authority. As Patty Jenkins’ Wonder
Woman rockets
past 300 million worldwide in its second weekend of release, its success needs to be praised and supported.
Because even though this film is not perfect, and this representation of Wonder
Woman is a hollow shell of what she could be; we are not sure how many girls
and women she, and this film will inspire to greatness. And finally, the more
merchandise the character sells creates corporate confidence in female lead
stories; so that eventually there will
be so much female lead pop culture that we won’t have to comment on it anymore;
it will just be the norm. And that would
be a true “Wonder” to behold.
