Feminism In Wonder Women

A more in-depth study may look at video games from a Marxist point of view, characterizing the games as a modern day “opiate of the masses” with multi-billion dollar corporations publishing the games to keep the proletariat occupied and oblivious to their plights. A feminist may cite the standard role of female video game characters as being the “damsel in distress” and even strong female characters usually being relegated to sex symbol status.

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

When Wonder Women was first popular she started to join the DC Comics in 1941.The reveal of Wonder Women brought about a change to the DC Comics world.Wonder Women is representing feminist icon and Women’s Movement.She is a role reflecting the changing time in the world and reflects passion for change.Wonder Women is also a role model for all young girls and women that want to persuade their dreams or do anything that they believe they can do.

The text “Wonder Women and Her Disciplinary Powers” by Molly Rhodes talks about how women are depicted in the world of comic books. Historians like Elaine Tyler May and Susan Faludi used the idea of Wonder Woman’s amazon power as part of the “Rosie the Riveter" phenomenon in the U.S. The “Rosie the Riveter” term was commonly used during World War II, and was used as a symbol of feminism and women's economic power. As Rhodes discussed in the text, this kind of cultural power, embodied by Wonder Woman, was not femininity created only for World War II, but was also propelled by powerful discourses of science, reform, and sexuality.

According to several sources around 42% of the American population plays video games, and around 1.2 billion people worldwide play video games today. Gaming has become an increasingly more popular hobby since its creation. As such the medium has obviously attracted a multitude of different people and groups, all consisting of diverse backgrounds, body types, sexes, races, nationalities and the like. However, contrary to the numerous demographics video games have come to attract, it is very evident the vast majority of them do not seem to be marketed toward many of them via game characters, and their importance, if any, in a game. Video games show an overwhelming amount of white male characters, despite the many demographics they reach. Of the characters that are not white, or male, that are represented, are often represented poorly. For example, many black characters represented in video games are often characterized as vulgar, and violent. Women represented in games are often characterized as support characters, or objects of sexual desire. Considering forms of sexism, racism, and other such types of prejudices are still prominent in modern society, and these representations obviously do not help how people see these marginalized groups. Ultimately, these representations, or lack thereof, affect people in society in a number of ways, by perpetuating prejudice and harmful stereotypes.

In Steinem’s essay Wonder Woman, she talks about growing up during the 1940’s and how many of the female characters in literature and film during this time were portrayed as weak and dependent on men (266). However, Wonder Woman did not follow this trend. In Steinem’s essay, she discusses the absence of a strong and independent female role models. This was the result of superheroes primarily being men and females were shown as only the supporting characters to the male protagonist. Additionally, Steinem discusses how Wonder Woman showed girls the value of standing up for themselves and their beliefs.

Most video games have women characters to fit the role of “long hair, enormous breast, a trim waist, and is always wearing the skimpiest of outfits” (Kendra Horsman). Having that unachievable women figure used in the video game sets an unrealistic image for women in today’s world. Not only are women stereotyped in appearance but also in the way they are used in video game as rewards. Players are rewarded in the video game by getting to have sex with women for achieving goals. Women are also used to play out sexual fantasies and as prostitutes during the video game.

The video game industry thrives on its consumers, and creators are always trying to please their targeted audience. Because of this, audiences for many games are established and categorized by gender. Game creators then do whatever it takes to please their intended audience. This can lead to gender stereotyping, and often results in the sexual objectification of women. Many games portray female characters as highly sexualized objects, most likely to attract the attention of their intended male consumers. In order to decrease the ways women are objectified through such video games, the gaming industry needs to stop perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Golden Age Wonder Woman began in 1941 with the Amazon Princess Diana nursing American intelligence officer Steve Trevor back to health after he crashed on Themyscira Island. The Amazons decided that someone should go back to America with Steve to help with the battle in the outside world that was WWII. Wonder Woman won a contest which permitted her to leave Themyscira Island and head off to America with Steve Trevor. In America, Diana adopted the name "Diana Prince" and joined the army to help fight the Nazi's. Steve Trevor never knew that Diana Prince was also Princess Diana of Themyscira (kind of how Lois Lane never knew that Clark Kent was Superman). Soon after, she became secretary of the Justice Society of America reporting to Colonel

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.

Looking past the blatant sexism of how females are depicted, even more disturbing is the way that many of the more popular video games appear to parallel real-life standards of normative masculinity. In Western society in particular, standards for men dictate that they must constantly strive to be successful and must compete with other men in order to reach the “top,” the most powerful position, the best paying job, the most attractive wife and family, and so on. In examining the design of video games, Soukup is quick to point out how popular games have this same “entelechial motivational system,” with players constantly striving to master the game and gain power, often so that they can dominate other players or destroy NPCs in combat, or to otherwise gain complete control of the game, at which point they have finally “beaten” it (Soukup, 165-168). These

Frequently, most superheroes in cinema are portrayed by male characters rather than women, creating a distinction between gender roles. Indeed, through the passage, “These results may suggest to viewers that women are less important, knowledgeable, and capable than men – and less likely to be a hero” (Miller et. al) women are much less likely to be featured as the hero within the film, and more likely to be featured as the “damsel in distress” of the story. Furthermore, women are much more likely to be depicted in a sexualized fashion, even when displayed in the role of hero. This feature of women with a lack of dominance defies feminism, as they lack roles in superhero films and they are portrayed with the sole purpose of boasting

This paper tries to express how sexism/chauvinism ideas have infected the virtual-world of video games, and resulted in a male dominated video-gaming industry. Now, being that 49% of U.S. households own a dedicated gaming console (E.S.A. 2012), it is imperative that we address this issue. Gender disparity in the gaming business is exceedingly one-sided. Female employees constitute less than 10% of the gaming industry, and even though that shortcoming females have contributed to the video gaming franchise. A small number of females have indeed contributed to the gaming franchise as a result of the industries no-girls-allowed mentality which strongly suggest that old saying boys-only. In

Sarkeesian started a video campaign in 2009, which delineates female representation in video games and the ‘sexism’ that has been redundantly repeated throughout history to today. Her famously known videos, are focusing on the concept of a ‘damsel in distress’ which refers to a person, predominantly female, to be in a situation of distress and must rely on a hero (a male) to save her from her troubles. A ‘damsel in distress’ is a plot motivator in a story, essentially the whole motive for the story’s existence. The on-going story motivator is not as innocent as game developers may want you to think, they simply portray these women as dainty, and dependent on male assistance. Simply, of course storylines and stories in general are a figment of imagination and pure fantasy, but history has shown that the repetitive portrayal of a specific idea, or a situation (that is exaggerated to enough extent), will soon appear ‘reenacted’ in societal terms. Sarkeesian fears of the amount of sexual violence and abuse that occurs to women each year and seems suspicious of the games that consist of violent actions towards women. Aside from Sarkeesian’s main points, she represents a number of other issues that correlate to female violence and abuse that is depicted in video games such as the objectification of

Unfortunately women are treated unfairly. For example, birth control became a big issue with women not able to attain them. Many people have been “powerfully influenced by the suffrage, feminism and birth control movements. And each of those movements had used chains as a centerpiece of its iconography” (Lepore pg 6) Many suffragist threatened to chain themselves to the gates barricading the White House. In addition women that didn’t get the right to vote marched in chains. This all ties into to the makeup and creation of Wonder Woman. A woman that goes by the name Sanger created a book with a bunch of letters from different women asking for information about birth control. “When Marston created Wonder Woman, in 1941, he drew on Sanger’s legacy and inspiration” (Lepore pg 7) Wonder Woman represented all women in that time era. What they went through and how they fought and strived to get through it. They conquered all the obstacles set in their path like champions. Women are like superheroes just like Wonder