Wonder Woman, and why we actually should all be feminists

I have not been to see the new Wonder Woman movie - of course not, silly! I live in Cuba! though there may be dodgy filmed-on-a-phone copies out there soon! - but I have been closely following the press hooha about just how feminist the movie actually is. The positives: the first successful superhero movie driven by a female character (hey people, what about Elektra?); the first successful female-character superhero movie directed by a woman; both of those things, in a movie breaking all sorts of box office whatever; she kicks ass the whole way through (so I'm told. I haven't seen it, remember?). The negatives: does she really need to be wearing what is essentially a leather bustier for half the movie? isn't the fact that her main weapon is a lasso basically one massive metaphor for her being ready for kinky sex? in fact, isn't she generally every grown (Western) man's picture of the ideal sex bomb and if so, doesn't that essentially cancel out the feminist credentials? 

Image via Warner Brothers
Wonder Woman kicking ass
I watched a hilarious short of the movie's actors and directors responding to some of the internet trolling (which you can find here: Wonderman Cast Respond To Internet Trolls) and I think the best bit is where the comment "We already have Superman" is shared and both Gal Godot and Chris Pine look confused at the notion that the statement counts as valid criticism in any way. It occurred to me that no one said 'Wait, why are there more male Avengers than female ones?' or, 'Do we have to have more Batman movies? Aren't the Superman ones enough?' Most of all, I think people are just a bit bored that they're still having to justify a female superhero. 

Wonder Woman made huge waves when she was first published in October 1941. Her creator, William Marston, wrote this about her: "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman." I feel like in 1941, that was probably pretty revolutionary. My modern eyes recoil from the notion that a feminine archetype has to be a 'good and beautiful woman' - what's wrong with the ugly ones? Why can't a feminine archetype be a little pudgy and have a lopsided smile? - but it was, at the time, revolutionary. Gloria Steinem wrote that "... [Marston] had invented Wonder Woman as a heroine for little girls, and also as a conscious alternative to the violence of comic books for boys." There have been many interpretations of Wonder Woman since then, with different spins, but the original message of an alternative, both for little girls and for little boys, remains revolutionary. 

So, why the pondering at length on the feminist message of the Wonder Woman movie? Well, I've been at home sick for three days with an unidentified stomach bug, so have had time to ponder the bigger questions of life. Today I read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists, her essay based on a TedxEuston talk given in December 2012. It's a remarkable piece of work, a slim, orange volume that you should pick up if you possibly can. In it, Adichie explores ideas about women in relation to gender and in-built attitudes and culture and society, and she does so with her characteristic good humour, grace, fluid and fluent language. I urge you to buy it and read it; or to watch the video here: We Should All Be Feminists.

I find the complexities of the arguments around feminism fascinating and it frequently absorbs time that could have perhaps been used to (say) complete some work tasks, or finally sew that button back on my trousers, or finish the cross-stitch tapestry of a bear counting A-Z that I started for a friend's daughter 16 months ago (apologies, Naomi and Gaia - it is coming, I promise!). Two things have struck me most forcibly this week that I hadn't really considered before: firstly, the reason why some men don't perceive a need for feminism, or indeed understand what is wrong with the lot of women in general, is perhaps the same reason that some white people don't think racism is structural in certain institutions: when you've never been the subject of a particular form of prejudice, you find it hard to access or understand. Adichie writes that "that is part of the problem. That many men do not actively think about gender or notice gender." It doesn't mean you can't understand it, but it does mean that often it simply doesn't occur to someone that the prejudice is there. Hilariously, this is less of a problem in places like Cuba (and, for that matter, Israel), where the machismo is written on the street walls. There aware that there is sexism; they just don't always see a problem with it. 

The other thing that struck me is that whilst we've certainly come a long way in the last century, there's still a long way to go. This, I realise, is hardly the sort of realisation that is new or original.  However, it reminded me forcibly of a conversation I once had with a female student - bright, capable, ambitious, reflective - who told me that she thought that "we don't need feminism in the West any more. We've achieved equality for women in the West." I was appalled and spent a long time trying to argue the point with her, I think possibly unsuccessfully. Looking back on that conversation, I still wonder how it was that she had reached that perspective. Was it the perception that there was legal equality (to a degree, I pointed out) now, so the rest was just embroidery? Was it the fact that she had always been treated as an equal, therefore it didn't occur to her that other women in the West weren't treated as equals? Read the 'everyday sexism' website. There are some basic assumptions that still need challenging, for all of us. My favourite one, of course, being about single men vs single women of a certain age since, as Adichie points out, "Our society teaches a woman at a certain age who is unmarried to see it as a deep personal failure. While a man at a certain agin who is unmarried has not quite come around to making his pick."

I'm aware that as a white, Western woman I was dealt a pretty good hand of cards in the opening game. I've read Half the Sky, among other books and articles and blogs, and every now and again I give thanks for the blessedness of my life in terms of my wealth, safety from sexual assault and freedom to choose basically everything. But that doesn't disqualify me from doing my best to educate the girls - young women - in my care of the importance of the innate value and equality of women next to men. That includes helping them to question and challenge the notion that we don't need a Wonder Woman when we have a Superman; that it's OK for them to challenge the dress code by saying it targets what girls wear, then for me to throw that back to them and ask them to wrestle with the notion of how much skin is or isn't appropriate to display in school, in the same way that - unless you're a stripper - there is a certain amount of skin that isn't appropriate to display in a workplace; that the appropriation of the word 'bitch' by girls to use with their friends is loaded with the sub-text of centuries of men calling women 'bitch' with utter contempt and disdain, so maybe we should explore that before we call each other 'bitch' in class. 

There's a brilliant bit in an episode of Scrubs where Elliot and Turk are arguing about which is harder, being a female doctor or a black doctor, and a black female doctor walks by. Both pause and give her the 'respect' fist salute (or whatever that is). There are struggles being fought everywhere. But surely on one of the most basic ones is that there really should be equality - legal, political, economic, social, sexual - between the genders. We actually should all be feminists. I want every student in my school to read this book and the minute I get back to the UK, I'm heading straight to the cinema to see Wonder Woman.

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