Wonder Woman : superhero(ine), god(dess)..... and feminist ?

At the outset, I’m just going to declare that I really liked the movie. It was witty, fun and the bad guy was vanquished.

The direction and the casting were on point



Interestingly, I have observed some articles on the internet projecting feminist aspirations upon the protagonist of this movie., i.e, Wonder Woman, and, in some instances, on the person who played Wonder Woman on screen i.e., Gal Gadot.

Side note: For those who may like to do their homework there was an article regarding the personal life of the man who created the character of Wonder Woman. The link to that article is provided below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4569438/sex-cult-Wonder-Woman-William-Moulton-Marston-mistress.html


Instead of analyzing the movie, I will analyze a sample of articles on the internet. I believe that these articles represent the schisms within the feminist discourse. I will conclude with the observation that Wonder Woman ought to be viewed for what it is i.e., a fun movie, without feminist projections on what is an entirely commercial enterprise.

Some of these articles are given below:

Articles such as The Guardian’s “Why Wonder Woman is a masterpiece of Subversive feminism”, Mary Sue's, "How wonder woman succeeds as a feminist film" and  The Vox’s “Wonder Woman isn’t just the superhero Hollywood needs. Shes the one exhausted feminists deserve” , amongst others, believe that the portrayal of Wonder Woman by Patty Jenkins, represents cinema’s cultural progress qua the feminist movement

On the other hand articles such as Al Jazeera’s “the Wonder of Imperial Feminism”  and I Wish Wonder Woman Were as Feminist as it Thinks It Is", "Wonder Woman's Feminism is Strong as Hell but It is Not Intersectional" appear to find Wonder Woman to be antithetical to feminism.


What I find interesting about these articles is that none of these articles try to explain what their idea of feminism really is. Feminism has blossomed into so many different ideologies, beliefs and approaches that it is now a bit of a web. It is a subjective yet monolithic belief that is both private and public.

Regarding the articles that consider Wonder Woman to be a huge leap forward for womankind: most them appear to originate from the school of Liberal Feminists (who are different from other feminists, such as, for example, the Radical feminists). Liberal feminists are, to explain this as briefly as possible, those feminists that believe that men and women are equal and the same in every way. Those are the articles hailing the ability of Wonder Woman to outdo her compatriots in areas where men pride themselves, i.e., battle, planning & strategy (remember Wonder Woman got into the Party?), strength and bravery. This stance of the liberal feminists is also addressed by Kadeen Griffiths in her article titled, "Wonder Woman's Feminism is Strong as Hell but It is Not Intersectional".

Yet, during their applause, one article or the other either wholly or flippantly dismisses certain, deeper contradictions. One such contradiction may be the hyper sexualization of the protagonist and its stark contrast to the secretary. The secretary is portrayed as compliant, obedient and ungainly as compared the protagonist. Perhaps such a device was employed to further highlight the traits of the protagonist. None the less the existence of such a binary is itself in poor form because secretaries can probably be compliant, obedient, very beautiful and witty as well.

The article by Mary Sue, had stated that there was a ‘rejecting (of the) the classic patriarchal constructs’. That may not be completely true. That is because a hyper sexualized projection of a woman who wishes for peace above all and appears relatively naïve, idealistic and sentimental around the more cynical men, is the stuff that binaries are made of. Such binaries are also the basis of constructs in a patriarchy. There is clearly an essence of the heteronormative: that a woman should be the one who is empathetic and emotional and the men are always ‘sensible and logical'. This hypersexualisation and heteronormativity has been succinctly touched upon by Christina Cauterucci in her article titled "I Wish Wonder Woman Were as Feminist as it Thinks It Is", for Slate.

 What that I have not really seen discussed in these articles, is the projection of Dr. Maru in the movie. Dr. Maru falls into the trope of the typical ‘evil’ woman and ‘witch’(as one of the generals calls her). This is reminiscent of the essentialist idea that women, by and large, are not capable of bad deeds. Therefore, a woman, who is sponsoring a bad deed is not just bad, but she is beyond human. This excessive recoil against situations where women may be the aggressors, is quite discriminatory. Many feminists are not exempt from this brand of essentialism. Humans can be good or bad, and that includes women. The reaction to recoil and consider the person ‘evil’ is excessive and there needs to be a non discriminatory sense of equanimity, rather than swinging to extremes (Murphy, T., and Whitty, N, 2006). It has been rightly stated by Ratna Kapur(2002), in her paper titled, 'The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the "Native" Subject in International/Post Colonial Feminist Legal Politics',  that it is important that feminists themselves should stop considering that all women are oppressed and are victims because this is essentialist. Women are not only victims, they can also be brave and they can also be capable of inflicting pain. Such essentialism takes away from an acceptance of the more holistic experiences of women.



 The article titled "Wonder Woman's Feminism is Strong as Hell but It is Not Intersectional" touches upon intersectionalist issues and it emphasises the marked absence of the experiences of the african american woman, from the movie. The term intersectionality was coined by the legal scholar Kimberlie Crenshaw in 1989. It 'underscores the multidimensionality of marginalised subjects' lived experiences (Crenshaw, 1989: 139). Intersectionalism believes that feminism should not be viewed as the monolithic experience of certain women, and it calls into question sites such a race, gender, sexuality and the experiences of womanhood therein (Nash, 2008:90). The experience of women is not circumscribed only within the domain of the western world and/or the domain of the urbanized woman. Nash (2008:8) has highlighted the use of the experiences of black women as the quintessential intersectional subjects. She has also critiqued the inability of many to go beyond the categorisations of race and gender to analyse more intersectional sites (Nash, 2008:5). Within intersectionality there appears to be indecision regarding whether intersectionality looks all the experiences of all women or merely of the multiply marginalised (Nash, 2008: 9-10). 

 Some scholars have argued that intersectionality comprises of sites that highlight the experiences of non-white women in general (Zack, 2005) and not just the experience of black women. Ideally feminism should encompass the experiences of all women bereft of colour, geography and economic strata. In keeping with this line of thought Al Jazeera’s “the Wonder of Imperial Feminism” is interesting because it echoes the more progressive intersectionalist approach to feminism that seeks to go beyond the vectors of gender and class and the centralisation on experiences of the black woman. The article is premised on sites such as imperlialism, race, gender and class.

Such differences that are projected in the views depicted in these articles may be evidence  of the marked differences that exist within the feminist discourse. On a more serious note they also echo the ominous forebodings of  gender essentialism wherein the differences between women are effaced by overwhelming commonality (Kapur, 2002). The experiences of westernised women and their ideas of feminism exclude, even eschew, the experiences of women who may not be westernised.


As for the movie: At best, it is a female inclined movie that a commercial Hollywood enterprise could make and release. I do not think that feminist discourse contributed in deciding the direction of this movie; thus, the imputation of a feminist narrative is a bit unilateral. Lets be honest, most of the guys sitting around me, while not a significant data set, were basically present to watch Wonder Woman ‘run’ across the battlefield in the her battle gear and gasp ‘omg she’s so hot’. 

Furthermore, at the cost of being a bit harsh: overall, this is not a big step for woman kind. It was an enjoyable film. That is all. Until women stop being raped, attacked and/or being body shamed, these kinds of films do not really count as milestones. A symbolic female figurehead does nothing to quell the traumas on the ground. 

Bibliography:

Academic Articles:
  • Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139. 
  • Kapur, R. (2002),  "The Tragedy of Victimisation Rhetoric: Resurrecting the Native Subject" (15) Harvard Human Rights Journal 
  • Murphy, T., and Whitty, N. (2006) 'The Question of Evil and Feminist Legal Scholarship' (14) Feminist Legal Studies 1
  • Nash, J. (2009) ‘Rethinking Intersectionality’, (89) Feminist Review
  • Zack, N (2005) Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave of Women's Commonlity.Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Articles:








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