Analysis of the First Female Superhero: Wonder Woman Essay

(Steinem, 456). She, and many other women in this day in age believe that women shouldn’t always be the damsel in distress. Men are always taught to be the tough guy who saves the day and gets the girl, but what are women being taught? The claim that she is trying to get her reader to see is that women can be more independent in comic books and other entertainment sources. Steinem uses this claim to make her audience see comic books from a female perspective.

The old feminine mystique, before the wars end was a woman would have “strength in her hands, pride in her carriage and nobility in the lift of her chin.” This change was caused because the old Rosie figure changed. Her attitude and fashion sense changed to accommodate the more ideal woman for a man of the time period. Not only did this figure change, but the figures of TV shows changed as well. In the shows like ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’, ‘Our Miss Brooks‘, ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’ the women being portrayed are stay at home moms that support the family or women that are independent but need and want a man in their lives. All these women at first reflected the ideal woman, but after a while it became the majority because when people saw it influenced their decisions greatly. In the end of the time period however, and in the later shows like ‘I Love Lucy‘, and ‘The Honeymooners’, the women roles started to show more dominant traits. This idea helped to change the feminine mystique again, changing for the good.

As you begin Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body your read of author Susan Bordo spilling her morning coffee over a shockingly sexual advisement of a nude man. Initially, I rolled my eyes and settled in assuming, I was going to read about the tragedy of how men are now being objectified and exposed in adverting like women. As I flip through the pages looking at the scantily clad images I’m not really shocked; this essay was written fifteen years ago; I see these kinds of images going to the mall. What was shocking, however, was how Bordo a published, woman philosopher born in 1947 wrote about these images. I felt myself blush as I read “it seems slightly erect, or perhaps that’s his nonerect size, either way, there’s a substantial presence

The Wonder Woman character went through different changes from different authors who kept creating her journey. In the beginning Wonder Woman was written by William Marston but after his death in 1947, the Wonder Woman went through a change due to a different writer taking over. As Steinem states, “She became sexier-looking and more submissive, violent episodes increased, more of her adversaries were female, and Wonder Woman herself required more help from men in order to triumph.” (271) This change made Wonder Woman a different character than what readers fell in love with in the beginning. As

This transformation exhibits how society changed in its perspective on physical appearance. This marked the beginning of men’s desire for what women had been calling the “perfect” body. Before World War II, money was not lavishly spent on the perfection of the body (Luciano 11). After the return of the soldiers, men had more money as women retained their postwar jobs. With women making substantially larger paychecks, men had the ability to spend more time and money to make themselves look like the models displayed in the media. With the new advertisements by Calvin Klein, such as the Mark Wahlberg, also known as Marky Mark, steamy ads for men’s briefs, the appearance of male bodies has intensified (Luciano 112). More and more men, now with the monetary means of looking good, are trying to achieve perfection with their bodies. They want to have the same bodies as those shown in the advertisements and, at times, will not stop until they have reached that goal (Grogan 95).

It should be noted that Marston had been considered as a feminist. He found that world would be been more peaceful if female values were cherished and if men were willing to accept women as equals . The creation of Wonder Woman was to counter what Marston perceived as an overly masculine-dominated world . She served as a role model for not only little girls but for adults as well. According to DiPaolo’s book, War, Politics and Superheroes:

Who doesn’t love a good superhero? The perfect figure, the spandex suit, the flowing cape, flawless looks, and the powers we can only dream of having. Superheroes have been around for ages now, leaving an everlasting imprint on our hearts. It is no secret that males dominate the superhero industry; both the heroes themselves and those who create them. Superman, Batman, Ironman, and Spiderman have become the top heroes of all time; there is nothing wrong with them holding the spotlight, but female heroes are underrepresented. There are notable female heroes, but they tend to be drawn with a busty figure that few women are naturally blessed with, and show little emotional rational in fights. Take Black Widow (Marvel) for example, anyone would love for her figure and kick-ass moves. Wonder Woman is our hero of the hour, she has made her way onto the big screen; casting her into the spotlight more than ever. She screams fights for love, promotes peace, is a beacon of hope, and screams feminism. What’s not to love? The new movie released on June 2, 2017, has called more attention to the American-spirited, Amazonian woman than ever before. The movie is the first fully female directed movie, Patty Jenkins brings a great female to the big screen. Although the movie is great and supports feminism, is the movie the depiction of Wonder Woman that should be idealized?

Her mission is to bring love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men. The heroine Princess Diana of Themyscira, more famously known as Wonder Woman, has gone through various reimagining and different retellings in both media and comic books. But all of these have the same basic origin. She was born and lived the majority of her life on the isolated paradise island of Themyscira, an island inhabited entirely of Amazonian women. Everything changed one day when pilot, Captain Steve Trevor crashed on the mysterious island. Soon after he crashed, as he was being held and treated on the island, Queen Hippilyta held a tournament to decide who would have the honor of escorting Captain Trevor back to the

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore is a thorough examination of the history of Wonder Woman, a comic book character and feminist/cultural icon from the 1940s to present. This history was purposefully hidden hence the fitting title the Secret History of Wonder Woman however Lepore does a great job getting us the whole story of William Moulton Marston the man who created wonder woman and fought for her publication from the first day till he no longer physically could. However, Marston’s unique family life both fueled his feminist ideals and yet it also contradicted them, sometimes at every turn. Marston identified as a strong feminist however his large family lifestyle contradicts with how feminism and the women's movement develop in the 20th century. The book does provide a in depth view into the window of women's lives of the 20th century. Women's suffrage, the women's civil rights movement, women’s control of their bodies, and feminism to break away from the patriarchy were all messages of wonder woman of the many decades as well as servitude obedience and housewifery. As you can see the eighty plus years of wonder woman have sent a multitude of messages to the woman of American based off of what the culture wanted of them. This mirrors

Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.

To some, wonder woman is regarded as a feminist icon. However, O’Reilly does not believe so because of the submissive themes that her creator included in the comics.

“Wonder Woman is a walking- and sometimes flying- paradox of attributions and images. She is, at once, a female sex symbol and feminist icon: physically vulnerable, morally virtuous, financially independent, self-determining, and, in tune with her womanly ways, self-sacrificing” (Wright 6). Wonder Woman was created by William Marston in order to show and achieve women empowerment. At the time that Wonder Woman was assembled, there were no women superheroes. The only superheroes that were created at the time were powerful, strong, fully-clothed, white, males. Even though Wonder Woman is just as powerful and important as other male superheroes, she is often easily centered out from other superheroes because of her physique, lack of clothes,

I commend the authors who stick their neck out on the line to express themselves in a creative way. A way in which attracts and pulls the reader in, possess them to enjoy the book. A book that’s not only a comic and is a good read, but as a deep meaning to it. The comic books talks about controversial topics that nobody else dears to talk about or express their own opinion on. The most common superhero that stars in many comic books, Wonder Woman has a secret; and a deeper mean than what is perceived. She’s the iconic image of women’s suffrage and rights. “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of women who, I believe, should rule the world” (Lepore pg 2) Wonder Woman conveys the strength, courage and bravery women had to

Anglo saxon literature is one of the many building blocks of what is called literature today. Over a thousand years ago during the anglo-saxon times, people would commonly write novels or poems that revolved around heroes and other ubiquitous subjects such as monsters. In the film wonder woman directed by Patty Jenkins heroic ideals are represented through the main character Diana Prince. The daughter of Queen Hippolyta is characterized with the typical heroic ideal: strong, selfless, and loyal. Throughout the film, the audience are presented with all kinds of characterization that is credible by anglo saxon roots. In modern day, our works of literature, films, and poems consist of similar ideals that the anglo saxons possessed; however, we also have shifted from some of the things that were portrayed in their works. Our contemporary ideals also consist of other ideals such as feminism, love, and intellectual power.

Can one person create or stop the war? Wonder woman, directed by Petty Jenkin is a superhero origin movie where the main character Diana, the princess of Themyscira (Gal Gadot) is conflicted with this question. She believed that killing the God of war, Ares would stop the war. She is naïve and is unaware of the way of the society. The movie is set in the time of World War I which is favorable as it was a changing time of the history. The movie has a clear and simple plot. The performances of the actors were solid, the action scenes are well-constructed and the special effects have shown the different situations in the movie with a beautiful soundtrack giving it a life. The film showed the development of Diana as a person and shedding of her childhood innocence as she witnessed the horror of wars and ultimately learns that evil is not manifested in one single person.