That’s right. Put her where she belongs.
While in the toy section of Target, I saw a boxed set of Avengers characters. Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye–even the silver villain dude. No Scarlet Widow. Final straw? Meet the camel’s back.
So of course, I went on Twitter to rant about it. Turns out Joss Whedon was divorcing Twitter, and people (including the Hulk himself) were already up in arms about it. So that made me feel better.
But this reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. I’ve been a fan of superheroes my whole life. My childhood spanned the late 70s and early 80s, so I almost had no choice but to love sci fi, fantasy, and comics. Hulk, Bionic Woman, 6 Million Dollar Man–I watched them all on TV.
And then there was Wonder Woman. To say she, and Lynda Carter, helped form my view of myself as a woman would not be an exaggeration. Role models are indelible, images are powerful, etc. etc. We all know this. The problem is that the powers that be–and apparently a percentage of the fanboy community–don’t care. Just do a Google search on Black Widow, Wonder Woman, or other comic book characters, and you’ll see what I mean. Their histories–both onscreen and in comic books–is rocky. Or check this out for a good synthesis. Even worse, those in control of these characters often aren’t honest enough to admit they don’t know how to do them justice, and hand it over to people who will.
I’ve heard the arguments and the name calling on both sides of this issue. (By the way, “feminist” is not a pejorative word–just sayin’.) While I appreciate the passion, we all need to settle ourselves, and get serious about bringing women into the 21st century in pop culture. Bottom line is, I’m a long time consumer of this content, and I have a right to want–and even demand–a better product. And dammit, I want Wonder Woman! More important, this generation of girls deserve her.
I will be eagerly awaiting Diana Prince’s cameo (sigh) in Dawn of Justice, and then a Wonder Woman film in 2017. And I am very encouraged that Warner Brothers wants a female director for it. But the film better be female-centered, and Wonder Woman better be strong, or my guess is, Joss Whedon won’t be the only one to be run off of Twitter with his tail between his legs.
While I agree with you that we need more female characters, I’m wondering if these movies are worth our energy. Where comic books dive into back story and character development, it seems all the characters in these movies are pretty one-dimensional. Yes it is ridiculous that the female superheroes are absent, but I wonder is it better to be absent than poorly represented.
I can’t help it–I love’s me the comic book heroines. But I think you’re right that the strongest heroines today aren’t coming out of comics–they’re coming out of Young Adult fiction and fantasy: Katniss in Hunger Games, Tris in Divergent, etc. Thank heavens for the female writers creating them!