If you watch the news you may have seen a “problem” that the UN had to deal with. Some of us had a problem with it, while most just didn’t care. But at the end of the day, a small group of people decided that it wasn’t a good idea to have Wonder Woman, a symbol of feminist pride in pop culture for decades, as an honorary ambassador representing the UN. While for a small group of people this mattered highly, for most it didn’t, and many people didn’t have a problem with it at all. If anything, many people that love pop culture thought it appropriate, and most of the people that love the character from comics and movies were in full support for it.
When a minority group has a problem with something, governments seem to bend over backwards for some reason, validating whimsical concerns with little to no reliance on facts. This group went so far as to say that Wonder woman was just a very underdressed woman with no intellect and unrealistic body. But the problem is that the UN decided to listen, while the majority of people fully accepted this motion. They refused to see her origins and her story for what they actually were. Wonder woman has, for years, had her origin rooted in war, politics, and morality. In her origin, she showed her Amazonian sisters that the acceptance of the outside world was something that needed to be done. And that the world of Men wasn’t, by nature, just evil and corrupt. While those things existed, she could enter into this world and be a symbol of justice, expunging from the world of men the corruption that could so easily set in. She did this on a democratic and political level as well, making sure people kept correspondence and respect for the common man, even when she, a superhero, was far stronger and superior to them. She stood as a symbol, yet again, for women and young girls to aspire to graciousness and love, something that the world could really use at this time. Not only did she exemplify those traits but so many more. Courage, pride, strength, beauty, and intellect; in politics, super villain fights, and more. When we look at the ability of the UN to appease a small faction based off of an uneducated assault, that isn’t justice. In that one moment, they became much less justifiable than Wonder Woman herself.
While this seems like a superficial thing to address, the real problem is that things like this happen all the time. And when the minority wins, then everyone loses. Because then only one party can enjoy their own agenda being satisfied. This discourages and maims good, fair discourse, something that Wonder Woman, throughout her entire comic book tenure, has sought to maintain. When we look at her being deposed, can we honestly sit here and say that she, as a comic book character, is doing more harm than good? Is not her outfit reminiscent of common bathing suits that many women wear around the world? Has she ever been the kind of person in comics and TV to be hypersexualized in her inherent character? Has she ever been seen as a bimbo or a damsel in distress that needed saving, or was she, more times than not, able to save herself and her romantic interest Steve Trevor? She, as a character, exemplifies to girls, women, boys and men, that the customary gender roles that women have for so long been defined by, don’t have to be the only things that they identify with. They can do the things men have done for centuries. A few, like Wonder Woman, show that they can even do some roles better than men. That isn’t to say that they should supersede men in quality and capability. It just means that men and women should be equal in opportunity to find their calling, no matter the stereotype. And let’s be honest here as well, it was an honorary ambassadorship. It wasn’t even something that is a real, physical position for an ambassador at the greatest conglomerate of countries in the world. The fact that it was an honorary position was to show to all that the character’s qualities are something that we can all adhere to, to become the very best of ourselves, and to advocate for social equity between men and women.
