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2017. The Year of Wonder Woman. She’s fierce, strong yet so beautiful and down to earth. We all have secrets. Wonder Woman has them too. I personally love Wonder Woman. She’s someone who I look up to a lot, but after reading about her, it completely changed the way I see Wonder Woman. She is a superhero that has  influenced the world in many ways. The controversies concerning Wonder Woman can be many, there are often discussed, and theres something that really fascinates me about her.

 

Being a woman myself, I relate to Wonder Woman in so many ways. However, the one characteristic that entices me is the feminist quality in her that she emanates. She’s not your typical women archetype. For decades, she has been the face of feminism, proving that women are more than what the society sees. A lot of stereotypes about women has sparked out throughout the century and it has brainwashed the peoples perspective of what they see in women, thus changing the social expectations of how a women is suppose to be behave. 

 

Super Strength is one her specialities, which is something women don’t normally have in their physique when compared to men. She has exceeded the social expectations of a women being weak like how the media has always portrayed them. With her coming into the light of the world, women became more confident and are willing to fight back for their own rights, which may influenced the Women’s Right Movement between in the past. 

 

She is one of the very few female action superheroes portrayed in American media, so a lot of people payed a lot of attention to her. The typical superheroes are mostly male dominated, as their masculine body is suitable for the images of superheroes. Young boys and girls are brought to a thinking that only males are capable of saving the world. The only way people could change their perspective was through a medium that is popular enough to transfer the message, and that was comics as young boys and girls tend to read a lot of it. So when Wonder Woman was first introduced, it may affect the way how young boys see girls in the society. They can be thought that, not only boys are able to dominate and rule the country, girls are capable of that too. 

 

Women are belittled in so many aspects, especially jobs. There is always a glass ceiling that is preventing them to move up the social ladder due to their sex, thus preventing them to get a higher social status. The society has believed that the males have a better working attitude than females, and that they work more efficiently, resulting in the business sector being male dominated. Nowadays, this has proven to be wrong. The person that directed the movie, Wonder Woman is Patty Jenkins and she is a women. The box office has surpassed their budget which proves that women can  lead well enough. Female directors are often downgraded as audiences may think that the movie produced by women are not interesting and will probably go downhill. Patty Jenkins has fully proved that statement wrong. Also, if a guy director were to  direct the Wonder Woman film, they would have followed the busty and over-exposed physique from the comic book. Camera angles would have purposefully show off her bust or legs rather than focusing on the whole purpose of the movie, making it look very sexual. Although the actress has been criticised for not fulfilling the original characters busty chest, Patty Jenkins didn’t care because when she casted Gal Gadot, she immediately thought that she was suitable for the role as thought her personality and overall look suited Wonder Woman perfectly. 

 

In the movie, there were little signs that Wonder Woman showed the feminist side of her. For example, when Diana asked Etta Candy whats a secretary. After her explanation, she responded that “where I’m from thats called slavery” . This is indirectly saying that women shouldn’t be have jobs where it involves one having to do errands for men. She also complained about the mainstream clothes that people wore in that century, by asking how a women can fight in the dresses and how its really tight and choking. This shows that women fashion in the past are very uncomfortable but despite that, due to the mainstream social expectations of being beautiful, women still wear it so that they can conform to the norms and values of society and also to attract men and have better future. 

 

Motherhood is something that Wonder Woman may not be able to experience, but she has shown a little side of her being interested to venture into the motherhood world. In the movie, before entering the building, she saw a woman holding a baby in her arms, she immediately  ran to the baby while squealing in joy because she saw the baby. That little scene gave me a thought that she has a love for children and also looked liked she wanted a baby herself. There was also a part where Diana and Steve were dancing in the snow when she asked about what do people do when they’re no wars to fight. Thats when Steve answered about having a family and growing old. Diana responded by asking what is it like, with a really deep meaning in her eyes that looked like they said that she wants to experience the normal human life. This has also proven that motherhood is something Wonder Woman would want in her life, but she may not be able to do it due to her warrior archetype, thus making it hard to live a normal life. 

 

The iconic armour that she wears is also what makes Wonder Woman unique. The gauntlets doesn’t only defect bullets. In every step of Amazon training, the first thing to do was to be bound with the Aphrodite’s bracelets, also known as the gauntlet. These bracelets are key to giving the women superhuman strength. If someone takes off the bracelets, they may start becoming to abuse their own strength unless they are bound by love. According to Marston, the bracelets symbolises the balance between love and strength, which is something crucial to Wonder Woman as she believes in love more than hatred in the world. 

 

The Lasso is an important weapon when it comes to Wonder Woman. Marston was the inventor of the lie detector, so he wanted to incorporate some of his work into the comics. Thus, he created the Lasso of Truth, which can compel people the truth under command of the owner. But have you ever thought that why does it have to be a rope? Professor Marston was in a polyamorous relationship and he influenced the comic with BDSM. The comics were very inappropriate there were also a lot of torture, violence and sadomasochism, which  sparked a lot of controversies as the comics were targeted to young children, which may highly affect the children’s innocent mind. But Marston has stated that he saw bondage as a “respectable and noble practice” and that women are at their happiest when the are submissive to someone. 

 

The armour that Wonder Woman wears has 3 striking colours red, blue and yellow, in which it represents the American flag. In the past, when Wonder Woman was first created, the armour looked like a bathing suit, which caused the comic to be in the blacklist of “Publications Disapproved for Youth”  because she wasn’t dressed sufficient enough, making it look more sexual than powerful. During the production of the movie, the costume designer, Lindy Hemming, wanted the armour to focus less on the sexuality but still keep the original idea of the the armour the same and functional. The overall design of armour was influenced by the Roman times. The skirt of the armour is shaped like the Roman armours. Its above the knee and just around the thighs, so that moving around and combating is easy. Wonder Woman’s boots cover her legs, from her knee to her feet, thus providing full protection for her legs, like the Roman greaves. The eagle on the armour may symbolise freedom or being able to fly, as she can do very powerful leaps. It might also symbolise her initials as a superhero, also known as Wonder Woman. The crown that she wears around her head symbolises royalty as she is the queen’s daughter, but at the same time, it can also be used as a weapon.

 

Wonder Woman is not just a superhero. She is more than who she is. She has truly defined what its takes to be a true hero. A hero that fights with a purpose. Wonder Woman is not only iconic because she’s the face of feminism, but she’s also a great example of how human beings should behave, to have the power to forgive. To have the power to be compassionate and also, to have the power to love. 

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Bibliography

1. Jill Lepore. 2014. The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/origin-story-wonder-woman-180952710/

2. Steven Underwood. 2016. Successful Symbols: Wonder Woman. [ONLINE] Available at: https://comicsverse.com/successful-symbol-wonder-womans-lasso-truth/

3. Brian Cronin. 2017. When Did Wonder Woman’s Lasso Become a Weapon of TRUTH?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cbr.com/wonder-woman-lasso-truth-origin/

4. Wikipedia. 2018. Wonder Woman. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman

5. Jill Lepore. 2014. The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/origin-story-wonder-woman-180952710/