I think a reason this overt portrayal of femininity is double-take worthy is because the comic was written by a dude. There is a fine line between awareness of the mistreatment of women and misrepresenting them in comics by caricature, which Moulton balances on sometimes without success. Wonder Woman was revolutionary for its time, and critiquing it for representing women unfairly would seem head-scratching in the 40's, but as we hurdle through the third wave of feminism, its important to inspect the past footholds for structural integrity.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Bullets and Bracelets
Wonder Woman and her distant relation to Earthly femininity is strange and underdeveloped in the early WW comics we were exposed to. There are continual assertions that WW is a girl, and it clouds her identity of Super hero, and turns it into 'girl who is a super hero'. But it's not even a girl who is a Super hero, it's an Amazonian, a breed of exalted women created by gods. She is not the same as the Earthly women she claims sisterhood with. And the moments she exhibits feminine qualities, they're lines like "Always the woman, Wonder Woman must check the store front windows" or that she is "like any girl in new clothes" or that she has a woman's curiosity, or in the TV show how insistent she is on Sisterhood. And its sisterhood with women that are more similar with modern men than they are with this ancient race of God-sculpted superwomen.
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I agree with Paul in that the varying depictions of Wonder Woman's femininity are very different and sometimes contradictory. Sometimes they seem forced as well, trying to depict a strong woman who is not too masculine and still a "woman" in the 1940s understanding of womanhood and femininity. When reading early Wonder Woman comics, we must take into account the surrounding culture and first wave of feminism while critiquing how she is portrayed.
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