Wonder Woman: the evolution and inspiration of her tale

“Wonder Women: The Untold Story of Superheroines” tells the tale of Wonder Woman from her inception to present day, showing the changes in her character based on significant events in American history. Included in her story is the idea that there aren’t very many heroines or strong female role models in the media. Wonder Woman gave and gives hope to girls. She is also comparable to a folkloric icon.

In Zipes’ Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk & Fairy Tales, he defines folk tales as oral, but they all become fairy tales because of the change of medium to a literary text. Wonder Woman is no exception. In the film they describe how she originates from the Greek myths of the Amazonian women.

With her evolution through American history, though, “all forms of talk and storytelling are subject to the exchange conditions of the market-place.”(p. 6) For example, when women were encouraged to leave their homes to enter the workplace during World War II, Wonder Woman represented that women could go out and do some good outside of the home. But when men returned home from war, Wonder Woman was used by the market-place to represent women leaving the man’s world. She left the superhero world and opened up a clothing store while women were encourage by the media to leave the factories and return to taking care of their children. Where men have the means to production, they decided “women should be downplayed” and this occurred across the board with Cat woman, Lois Lane, Bat woman, etc.

Zipes states that “Thus, the emancipatory potential aesthetically conceived in the folk and fairy tales is rarely translated into social action, nor can the tales nurture sufficient discontent to make their effects reasonably certain.” Here, I disagree with his statement because although Wonder woman was commercialized and was used as a tool of the patriarchal media. she still stands as a symbol of hope. And the change in her character did prompt action. Fans and feminists were able to convince DC comic creators to change her back to the strong character she was. Her superhero powers were restored. She went back out and did good.

Profit does, however, “mar [her] stories and [her] cultural heritage.” Because of her commercialization through the culture industry she is objectified. As one of the men in the film says, “She helps teenage boys through puberty.” But she does more good than harm despite the way she is portrayed. She fulfills one of the folk takes original purposes “to express the manner in which they perceived and perceive nature and their social order and their wish to satisfy their needs and wants.” Women need to be more respected than they are and with so few women role models in the media, Wonder Woman provides that. “As August Nitschke has demonstrated, the tales are reflections of the social order in a given historical epoch, and, as such, they symbolize the aspirations, needs, dreams, and wishes of common people in  a tribe, community, or society, either affirming the dominant social values and norms or revealing the necessity to change them.” Wonder Woman reveals the necessity to change them. And she is a symbol to those who are changing them. One example includes the “Wonder Woman day” held to benefit domestic violence shelters. The other is the little girl featured in the documentary that finds comfort and inspiration in Wonder Woman.

"Not only did the tales serve to unite the people of a community and help bridge a gap in their understanding of social problems in a language and narrative mode familiar to the listeners' experiences, but their aura illuminated the possible fulfillment of utopian longings and wishes which did not preclude social integration."(p. 6)  In spite of the commercial quality of wonder woman, it does unite females and illuminate a possible fulfillment that women can be powerful even though other media tells us otherwise.

Complicating Feminism: Media and Representation (Annotated Bibliography)

1. Aufderheide, Pat, and Debra Zimmerman. “From A to Z: A conversation on women's filmmaking.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 30 no. 1 (2004): 1455-72.

This is an interview between a media critic and a feminist film distributor who discuss the importance of women’s perspective being represented in film. They focus on the organization Women Make Movies and how they bring attention to the importance of films about women by women for feminists and non-feminists alike. It touches on the complicated nature of feminism and how the hope of the organization is to reflect the multiplicity because feminism is still being defined; their goal is infiltration and empowerment, not definition.

2. Braderman, Joan. “Feminism and video: A view from the village.” Camera Obscura 22 no. 64 (2007): 197-208.

Braderman discusses her experience being a foremother of women in film and the strides they made with feminist film groups, magazines, and movies. She expresses the current concerns of misconceptions about feminism and people being under the impression that equality has already been won and second wave feminists are beating a dead horse. But she confirms that there is still inequality, including in the arts, and that something still needs to be done about it.

3. Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Times Books, 1994.

In  “Chapter 12: I’m not a feminist, but…” Douglas describes the contradictory messages from media about womanhood, especially in relation to motherhood. Media has created the stereotype that feminists hate motherhood at the same time creating a fantasy portrayal of motherhood, and using feminism as a scapegoat to the point where women don’t want to be called by the ‘f” word. The idea she concludes with is that the media is a feminist’s worst enemy, but also best ally because it provides motivation.

4. Johnson, Brian D. “ Hollywood's new heroine: The skank.” Maclean's 123, no. 37 (2010): 76.

This review introduces the complicated idea of supposedly feminist films directed by men. It mentions a new archetype: the “honourable slut,” where the female’s use of sexuality is portrayed as a moral concept. Three films are cited as examples where women are forced into a role based on the pressures of their society, but use their agency to make it their own.

5. Krasnow, Iris. “Panel discussion: Have the media killed feminism? depends on whom you ask…” Media Report to Women 29 no. 2 (2001): 3-11.

Several feminists discuss the definition of feminism and whether it's relevant or not. They include what media's role has been in defining women's roles and feminism, and part of their defining process is pitting "anti-feminists" against feminists and sensationalizing and caricaturing. They come to a complicated conclusion where progress has been made, but reverse sexism is emerging.

6. Lorber, Judith. Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

The chapter I used from this book introduces feminism and its waves: the first being focused on equal legal rights. The second was the start of scattering and varied focus with some working on breaking the “glass ceiling” or limitations on advancement for women in politics, business, etc. while others focused on violence and gender, sexuality, abortion, and female perspectives of history. The third wave consists of those who assume gender equality is the norm and view their agency and sexuality as “forms of power,” but work outside the mainstream.

7. Miss Representation. Directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. 2011.

Los Angeles, CA: Virgil Films & Entertainment, 2012. DVD.

Miss Representation juxtaposes statistics of how prevalent women are in media and politics and images of objectified women. The film suggests correlation that women are not in positions of power because those in power are degraded by media’s representation of them, and causation that girls grow up challenging their self-worth because of messages from the media. Women in the media industry and politics offer solutions after commentating on their own experiences.

8. Sibielski, Rosalind. “Nothing hurts the cause more than that.” Feminist Media Studies 10 no. 3 (2010): 321-34.

This article is an analysis of the television series Veronica Mars and its shift from a positive portrayal of feminism in the show to a part of the backlash dialogue. It recognizes the commercial motives that undermine ideological concerns with the threat of cancellation correlating with the turn against feminism. The show is representative of the complicated nature of female empowerment, where denial of feminism origins is more popular culturally acceptable.

9. Winch, Alison. “We can have it all.” Feminist Media Studies 12 no. 1 (2012): 69-82.

Instead of talking about the narcissistic male gaze, this article focuses on the solipsistic female gaze, where women are focused on themselves and their world. It shares several film examples where women have it all—the body, the baby, and the career—at the expense of each other. Girl friends take a post-feminist stance and objectify themselves and each other, and find simple solutions to complex problems in In Her Shoes, Baby’s Mama, The Devil Wears Prada, and others.

10. Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. Directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan. 2012. Vaquera Films. DVD.

The film spans the history of Wonder Woman, from her creation, her evolution through World War II and the women’s movement up to present day. The underrepresentation of powerful women in the media is discussed as well as the blatant idea that “women should be downplayed.” Wonder Woman’s feminine qualities are valorized and celebrated instead of disrespected as her powers and adventures involve “teach[ing] man the merits of peace and love;” a rare occurrence in an industry where men have 97% of the means to production.

For Better or For Worse: Post-feminism and perpetuation of exploitation in Mean Girls

Inescapable Chauvinist Code
Mean Girls is complicated because a woman wrote the screenplay, and the main characters are female, but it was created in a patriarchal system and the screenwriter, actors, and audience have been influenced and produced by this same system. Mulvey describes this in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema:” “Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” (p. 713) The language of this patriarchal order is coded by the male gaze and the scopophilic themes in a multitude of mainstream movie scenes. As Tina Fey takes off her sweater, her spilt coffee causes her shirt to come off as well, revealing her bare skin and bra. The male principal enters the room at this moment and allows for narcissistic identification for the male audience.

Pseudo Agency

“But Tina Fey wrote this in! She’s choosing to sexually exploit herself so that makes it okay,” come the cries of the post-feminists. McRobbie explains this post-feminist idea as she describes a “self-consciously ‘sexist ad’” in her essay “Post-Feminism and Popular Culture.” “There is no exploitation here [because] there is nothing remotely naïve about this striptease. She seems to be doing it out of choice and for her own enjoyment; the advert works on the basis of its audience knowing Claudia to be one of the world’s most famous and highly paid supermodels.” (McRobbie, p. 259) But it goes back to the patriarchal order that controls the system. The system has trained women to believe that they will only be respected by disrespecting themselves, and to believe that they're not being disrespectful to themselves because they're choosing it. The media is covering up that we don't actually have agency because we've been brainwashed by them to be objects, and to think that that's what we want. Feminists are losing the fight because women are choosing to uphold the patriarchal media by choosing to portray themselves the same way media has viewed them. Now it's with their consent. Women are becoming submissive by thinking they're in control. A prime example outside of Mean Girls is Miley Cyrus. She thinks she's proving herself by overthrowing her Disney persona, but she's going from one system to another. And Tina Fey is like the supermodel Claudia. She has the perspective, the position and the power to start social commentary, but instead becomes part of it. "The new female subject is, despite her freedom, called upon to be silent, to withhold critique, to count as a modern sophisticated girl, or indeed this withholding of critique is a condition of her freedom." (McRobbie, p. 260)

Man Motivated
Another idea that shows women are actually reliquishing their agency and supporting the stereotypical "passive female" role is their motivation behind what they're doing. The Mean Girls may be choosing what they wear on Halloween, but why are they dressing scantily clad? Men are “still the active one… forwarding the story making things happen” (Mulvey, p. 716) because the reason Cady is put into motion is because of the competition with Regina for Aaron. This goes along with McRobbie’s essay as she poses Bridget Jones as an example of one who is also sexually “liberated.” “She has benefited from those institutions (education) which have loosened the ties of tradition and community for women, making it possible for them to be disembedded and re-located to the city to earn an independent living without shame or danger. However, this also gives rise to new anxieties. There is the fear of loneliness, for example, the stigma of remaining single, and the risks and uncertainties of not finding the right partner to be a father to children as well as a husband.” (McRobbie, p. 261) Or, as summarized on Wikipedia's entry on post-feminism, “[They] claim to be liberated and clearly enjoy their sexuality, but what they are constantly searching for is the one man who will make everything worthwhile.”

Self-Imposed Sexist Set Backs
Post-feminists is used to refer to women "who are though to benefit from the women's movement through expanded access to employment and education and new family arrangements, but at the same time do not push for further political change." (Pamela Aronson, "Feminists or Postfeminists? Gender & Society, 2003) Tina Fey, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, the Spice Girls have all been able to succeed because of  what our feminist foremothers have done, and then they throw those freedoms right in our foremothers' faces by perpetuating the male gaze by choosing to be exploited and being driven by the "to-be-looked-at-ness," (Mulvey) basing success on being cared for by man. "For years feminists campaigned for sexual liberation. But here, one of their leaders admits all they have created is a new generation of women for whom sex is utterly joyless and hollow." (Fay Weldon, "Look what we've done," Daily Mail, pp. 12-13, 2003)

Really? Is that really what you want? Or is it what a male controlled media has told you what you "really, really want" (and, ironically, what feminist movements made possible for you to demand)?

The Hypocrisy of Hollywood and its Viewers: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games depicts a dystopian society. What is haunting to realize is that we are that dystopia. In their world they watch people fight for their lives under a corrupted system. In our world we are watching people watch people fight for their lives under a corrupted system while living in a corrupted system of our own. This corrupted system (ours and theirs) includes, but is not limited to, the government, the media, and big business, which all work together to produce the same thing with the same agenda and motives and are essentially the same thing themselves.

In Adorno and Horkheimer’s “The Culture of Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” it describes the media as self-perpetuating. Society has made media an industry for it’s culture. It produces what it wants and is reinforced by what it produces. There are several points from their essay that are supported and paralleled by examples from The Hunger Games.

“Like its adversary, avant-garde art, the culture industry defines its own language positively, by mean of prohibitions applied to its syntax and vocabulary. The permanent compulsion to produce new effects which yet remain bound to the old schema, becoming additional rules, merely increases the power of the tradition which the individual effect seeks to escape.” (Culture of Industry, p. 101) New things in popular culture only further define it and make it more rigid. When it’s added to, it gives the culture scope to squelch change and difference.  In The Hunger Games the rules are revised to broaden the terms and enforce the system. They announce that two people can win because they know this will keep viewership and avoid a rebellion of an idea where Katniss, the lead of the movie, will not follow the rule anyway so they turn her ideals into part of the rules. This happens twice as her and Peeta try to commit a double suicide to stick it to the man, but instead the system turns it on them to keep them under control of the system.

Adorno and Horkheimer write, “The subject matter itself, down to its smallest elements, springs from the same apparatus as the jargon into which it is absorbed… Deals struck between the art specialists and the sponsor and censor.” (p. 102) The apparatuses of media and government make popular culture and prime the audience to receive it the way they want to because what it has already fed us, and the support we feed back by buying in. Katniss is a prime example of this because she is against the system, but makes deals with the system for her own purposes. She fakes love to please the sponsors in order to save her self and her family, and perpetuates the drama that will keep the show going just as we get roped in and get upset about the injustice of the events in the movie while and perpetuate the system that makes it by using it as our entertainment.

We inadvertently view The Hunger Games thinking that we are experiencing the knowledge effect (and learning the corruption of the system), when in fact The Hunger Games is part of the system it purports to expose and is actually part of the reality effect, or the system hiding itself by producing ideas about itself.

As I watched The Hunger Games with my roommates and made exclamations on the ridiculousness of the game maker’s staff being captivated by and believing in Peeta and Katniss’s romance—a romance that is their own creation—one of them commented, “That’s the point.” The point is that we believe in the creation, too.

To be continued... (Just like the trilogy! :P)