Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Wonder Woman's Appearance
Clearly there are any number of issues with the way in which Wonder Woman is presented, ranging from what she wears to her relationship with Steve Trevor. However, it was mentioned in class today that some took issue with the fact that she was presented in a muscular almost masculine way and I am not sure that I would agree with this concern. I will first admit that I am not familiar with the Greek tradition of art that this portrayal comes out of, so it could be that I am simply missing some aspect of this critique. However, it makes sense to me that a non-divine woman with super strength would have a muscular/athletic body in the same way that it makes sense for Superman to have a similar physicality about him. I would argue that it may be more of an issue that we associate a physique like Wonder Woman's strictly with men rather than acknowledging that being brawny doesn't necessarily make a woman any less feminine. I can not help but think that if Wonder Women had been depicted as slender or in a way that we traditionally view as more "womanly" that we might have been having the opposite discussion today and questioning why a woman with super strength could not have been portrayed as athletic and muscular.
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I agree, Matt. I think more problems would arise if Wonder Woman were drawn as a petite woman. It would be interesting to look at timeline of the different ways Wonder Woman has been portrayed over the last 70+ years. This would offer a glimpse into the idea of femininity and sexuality in our culture during different waves. I’m not a Woman’s Studies expert, nor am I fluent in Greek Mythology, but I think the way Marston depicted Wonder Woman is appropriate. I took a classics class that looked at ancient comedies from Greek society. Often times an attractive woman was depicted as voluptuous and curvaceous – much different from today’s standard of attractive. Today’s standard of attractive, for that matter, would probably seem bizarre to members of ancient Greek society. Even in the 1940’s, someone’s idea of attractive was surely different. If Marston were to make Wonder Woman slender, I think he would have over-sexualized the character, to the point where she would appear too weak.
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