The ‘F’ Word: Wonder Woman’s Feminism Shouldn’t Be Covered Up

[el_bryanto]

An article at Comics Alliance about the incoming team on Wonder Woman and their discomfort at describing her as a feminist. The article makes some good points; that said I do have some sympathy with the writer/artist as well. They are trying to sell comics and their version of Wonder Woman, so it's natural for them to avoid using language that they think might turn off some of their potential readers.

That said, the author, Janelle Asselin, makes a really good point about how female comic characters are described.

. . . then he says “beautiful, but strong” (twice even). These things are not mutually exclusive, and no one gets a cookie for stating that Wonder Woman is strong and beautiful. Look at the character! Of course she’s strong and beautiful. And a strong woman wants to be equal to the men around her.

. . . Is Batman ever described as, “handsome, but tough”? Is Superman ever described as, “sexy, but unyielding”? No? Then why is the adjective that comes so often to David Finch’s mind for Wonder Woman, “beautiful”?

Anyway, well worth reading.

Bryant

[ismnotwasm]

1. Thanks

Ill read it it I bit-- looks good

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. if only "and" not "but" =

because I am OK with handsome "and" tough or even sexy "and" unyielding. Man or Woman.

[TlalocW]

3. Wonder Woman needs to be taken back to her roots

A thinly-veiled graphical outlet for her creator's interest in bondage and discipline.

Just kidding... About needing to be taken back... Not about the bondage and stuff.

TlalocW

[el_bryanto]

4. Another article on the Wonder Woman Change

This article is from Kelly Thompson writing at Comics Should Be Good.

There are so many problems here it’s hard to know where to begin. But before we start, let’s have some clarity on the word Feminist. Here’s what it means:

fem·i·nist [fem-uh-nist] adjective Sometimes, fem·i·nis·tic.
1. advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men. noun
2. an advocate of such right

It’s not a bad word. In fact, it’s a wonderful word. It means great and positive things for all people.

Yes, there are outliers that believe something different than this, something more extreme, but there are always going to be outliers and extremists. And I’m sorry that a whole bunch of people in the world want to use the outliers and extremists of feminism to jettison a belief in equality, but it’s simply not acceptable for reasonable people. Not in 2014. Sure, there are nuances to feminism, but I assure you, when the average person calls themselves a feminist it simply means they believe in equality. So the question isn’t why are you a feminist, the question is why isn’t EVERYONE a feminist. We need to change this wrong-headed perception NOW so that instead of people scrambling away from the word feminist, they are ashamed to identify as anything BUT a feminist.

I hope I'm within the rules for quoting - it's quite a long article but very worth reading. It does seem like DC are making a mistake here.

Bryant

[ismnotwasm]

5. Posted this on FB

Thanks for posting it here!