Yes. I hate to break it to you (no not really, I love it) but all the current excitement over Wonder Woman is feminist and media nonsense. Let me count the ways.
1. "Female Representation in Movies."
So one reason, which you will find a few flavors of, is Wonder Woman is a movie for women, by women. https://www.theshorthorn.com/opinion/column-wonder-woman-makes-waves/article_c10e3ea4-4b19-11e7-8398-97cf5e07a885.html I will assume you all are intelligent and realize that "chick flicks" AKA movies made for women, are a thing. So let's move to action movies.
Because clearly, this is the first modern female lead action movie in our time. Never before have women been able to watch an action movie or TV show with a female lead in the spotlight, doing all the daring things the plot has in store for her, the total star of the movie. They've been deprived of the life inspiration of seeing female movie/TV stars doing such amazing things. We men have been getting all the action movie stars, and hence we are inspired to life greatness.
Do I really need to say more on that point? Wonder Woman isn't some groundbreaking, female action movie. It's not even number 5. It missed that title by decades. And all these movies are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head because I have copies of them.
2. "Female Empowerment..." Really?
https://nypost.com/2017/06/08/wonder-woman-wins-by-being-feminist-without-bashing-men/
https://nerdist.com/wonder-woman-brings-female-empowerment-to-the-united-nations/
It's all over the news. Wonder Woman was about female empowerment. It's amazing. It made life better. And WTF?
I get that cool action movies are cool. Not going to lie, I thought Tom Cruise in Collateral played a bad ass character. (I also loved how realistic they kept it.)
Leon S Kennedy in Resident Evil 4 and 6 was also favorite character of mine. Fact remains. If you need to grasp at fictional characters to feel good about yourself, enough to shout it in public how some characters changed your life and empowered you to face the world... this guy pictured here is your spiritual family member.
Fictional characters don't empower you, or me. Superman was powerful enough to trash Metropolis in "Man of Steel" but did any men walk out of a showing sobbing, "I feel so empowered, it was so cathartic to watch this!" No. You know things that have actually made my life better, "empowered" me? Having the discipline to become debt free. Focusing and studying and earning certificates which improved my resume. Getting my ass in the gym and working out to the point I can send that heavy bag swinging into the wall via my punches. You know... real life stuff.
If you needed a comic book movie to "empower" you by watching a fictional woman who has powers from Greek Gods... well, you might not have much of a life yourself, if you have to look to comic books for "empowerment."
3. You do know who wrote Wonder Woman, right?
"Arriving home one day after work, William Moulton Marston, a doctor of psychology at Tufts, one of America’s most prestigious universities, had some dramatic news for his wife, Betty. There would soon, he told her, be another member of the household. One of his students, a pretty young woman named Olive Byrne, would be coming to live with them. Not as a lodger, but a lover. And if Betty did not like it, he would leave her.
One can only imagine what Wonder Woman – the comic-book superhero that Marston went on to create – might have done to a man who brought home a younger mistress and demanded either a divorce or a menage a trois. But in real life, Marston’s wife complied."
Sooo... yeah. The media is idolizing a character made by a man who loved his wife, his mistresses, bondage, threesomes... not exactly empowering for the ladies.
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In short. No, Wonder Woman isn't some groundbreaking character. Besides having been around for decades herself, there's tons of action movies with female leads for you. If you need a comic book movie about a character with superhuman powers to feel "empowered" you might need to reexamine your own life and achievements, or lack thereof. And do you really want to idolize a character made by the real life Christian Grey?
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