When Wonder Woman was first announced a lot of people where concerned. Not just because the DC Cinematic Universe took a lot of L's in the past few years- don't fight me, nerds, Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad was trash- but because it was a superhero movie starring a woman, directed by a woman made for women.
Women nervously checked Rotten Tomatoes to see if it was going to be good because we knew there was a lot riding on this. For decades old white male studio execs thought that a woman lead action franchise wouldn't bring in money even though women make up 52% of the movie-going population.
They thought that women would rather see movies like The Notebook or 50 Shades of Gray than to see a superhero movie. Boy, they were so wrong.
As of writing this article, Wonder Woman was the highest grossing superhero origin stories and made over 400 million dollars at the box office on a 150 million budget. More than the success though, it empowered a section of the population that was not recognized before.
Women were saying that they openly cried in the theater, not because of some love story, but instead at the fight scenes. We had never seen a woman take charge like that in a film. It was euphoric, it was therapeutic and it was because a woman directed it.
See, marginalized people need representation. Not just seeing ourselves on screen, but seeing ourselves behind the scenes, making moves and calling the shots. We need overall representation.
As of this moment, February 14th, I have yet to see Black Panther. If I have to guess based off of the box office predictions, reviews, and the soundtrack, it's going to be LIT! That is because finally, black people will get to see themselves represented like women did in the summer of 2017.
Not only do they get to see an all-black cast set in Africa, they also get to have their story told by an incredibly talented black director, Ryan Coogler. This representation is unprecedented in a major franchise film and it is just the beginning.
See, this type of momentum toward representation cannot be slowed down. Little girls got to see Patty Jenkins crush it with Wonder Women, beautiful black children will get to see Ryan Coogler wonderfully craft Black Panther, a gorgeous Egyptian man Rami Malek broke the 18-year white streak in the Best Actor in a Drama category.
Audiences witnessed the art that Oscar nominees Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) put out for us, Latina friends got to see their culture come to life in Coco. Yet, representation does not begin and end in media. It begins and ends with you.
So quick story, clearly I am a film nerd and a Jorden Peele lecture at UCLA popped up, I immediately clicked on it. In this lecture, Jordan talks about how the evil in his movie was not white people, but the system we are all under.
He stated that not just black people are in the "sunken place"- a place where they are not heard or are paralyzed- women are there, Latina's are there. The idea is that for a long time marginalized people sat back while people in power told them their worth.
Now, this is beginning to change and it's because of people like you. The "Me Too" movement was a grassroots movement started by an average woman who was not high powered, the changes in thought processes toward LGBTQ friends started with a generation saying this is not ok.
Body positivity is starting to become a topic of discussion starting with people saying that they will no longer stand for unhealthy beauty standards, the Winter Olympics is displaying some wonderfully diverse athletes who chose to do what they love instead of idling by.
It starts with you. Do what you love, say what you mean and represent yourself in a broken system, because you may help represent your section of society.
