Why Wonder Woman Matters (To Me.)
So finally, finally! I went to the theater to see Wonder Woman. I’ve heard all the hype and was cautiously excited (let’s not forget this is DC film) but honestly, I was blown away. The movie itself is great, but what really took me back was my reaction to it. I realized halfway through that I was surprised that Diana or the writers weren’t trying to apologize or make up for her flaws – her innocence, recklessness, even selfishness– there wasn’t any trace of “oh we know she’s being a real GIRL about this haha but look she’s awesome so it makes for it, right?” at all. Diana truly felt like a three-dimensional character, and yeah, we only get to really see her fall for a brief moment, but it still felt like the character grew and earned her respect.
Diana isn’t loved because she was written to be a flawless package of all the things we are told to admire, she is loved because I truly believe every person in the audience was able to relate to her: as a child desperately wanting to play with the ‘older, cool kids,’ as a young adult taking the agency to defy her mother to make her own decisions, as an individual out in the world being faced with a problem that has no easy solution. We feel her pain, and it felt like an honest win when at the end she turns away from darkness. It is a true hero’s journey, and I did not foresee how powerful an impact it would have on me to see a female character go through it.
A little context – I was born in ’89. I missed Linda Carter as Wonder Woman and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman. I know those characters, those ‘wins’ for women in the superhero world exist, but I never felt like I could claim them. Growing up, the female heroes who got to be protagonists, specifically in movies, were 2005’s Elektra and 2004’s Catwoman. I loved both movies just because it was a woman in the role, but objectively I recognized how inferior they were to most other superhero movies. I went to school for Sequential Arts (comic books!) and deep-dived into the superhero world hard. I love it. And yet, even though at my school and major well over 60% of students were female, I really carried with me the fact that it was the male characters who got to be the hero most of the time. Women are 52% of the world population, every professional environment I’ve been in I’ve been surrounded by more women than men, and yet only 1 out of 7 founding justice league members are female. And out of 6 phase 1 Avengers, Black Window is only one of 2 to not have gotten her own movie. I want to point out that I never took these numbers seriously until now. I just accepted them: yeah, it’d be nice if they were different, but this is what it is and looking at them too hard might negatively impact my enjoyment of Doctor Strange, so I’d just back-burner the thought. Until now.
Watching Diana take to the battlefield and absolutely KICKING ASS was a revelation. I was actually expecting that moment in the movie to be a knock-down for her, some kind of lesson about how she’s only one person, and how can one individual – one woman – make the difference? It didn’t cross my mind that so many male heroes before Diana have beaten these odds and then some. Watching her tear through that battlefield was such an emotional experience for me. How unapologetic everything about this movie was has shown me strength within myself that I didn’t know I had. It was so freaking inspiring. I was in a half-full theater, over a month after the movie came out, and there was applause when the credits rolled. I think that’s a true testament to this movie and the impact it has.
The movie constantly reminds its characters that their world does not deserve Diana, and honestly, I don’t think we do either. But I’m so glad that we got her. I’m so thankful I get to experience this movie and everything that will come from here on out.
