Saturday, June 10, 2017

The Distilled and Sterilized Feminism of Wonder Woman



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.




[1] And one that I was expecting due to this film’s hype and high praised reviews I read before going into my screening
[2] marginally giving women of different color and shape tertiary background status among the other Amazons