Davroth said:
I believe your concept of the Amazons in the DC universe is wrong. She was brought up in an all female society that values fighting prowess very highly, it's a sign of status in her society.
I know all about the Amazons, though admittedly I'm not sure how much of the mythology got translated to the movie. Time was, the Amazonians were all the reincarnated spirits of women who died at the hands of male violence, and were brought into a society free of man's wars to grow and prosper among her sisters (who, yes, do value a warrior philosophy despite their home being a peaceful utopia called Paradise Island; the Amazons are kind of paradoxical like that), which is why Diana's "birth" is so unique and special to them, since the Amazons don't have babies. This somewhat convoluted arrangement allowed the women of Themiscyra to define themselves not according to their relationships with men but according to their relationships with themselves and with one another. I think the movie badly misses the point of all that if it thinks introducing a penis to the arrangement means all that work had been for nothing and the Amazons, particularly
Wonder fucking Woman herself, will suddenly adopt an identity of opposition to those eeeeevil testicles and the life support system they dangle from.
Now, while I admit that feminism wouldn't be an idea Wonder Woman would hold with prior to her arrival in man's world because there's no need for it, from a narrative standpoint and from a pop culture awareness perspective, Wonder Woman is supposed to be a feminist icon. She's the ideal for girls to aspire to (never mind the dodgy message of her wearing a teddy and high heels everywhere), strong and confident and self-defined and completely devoid of a need for a man to define her, whether the relationship with that man is romantic, antagonistic, platonic, or anything else on that spectrum. Feminism is part and parcel of her package, and that's why I hate to see it fucked up so bad by such shallow understandings of what feminism is.
Davroth said:
I should also mention that the head writer for the movie actually is a woman, Gail Simone, who incidentally is one of the founders of 'Women in Refrigerators," a website collecting examples of the trope of the same name (the website coined the term).
Yeah, yeah, I know Gail Simone. All hail the immaculate Simone. Thing is, I don't see how her presence deflects any criticism, unless your argument is, "A feminist wrote this, so all of the feminist viewpoints in it are correct." If that's the case, then allow me to introduce you to the works of Valerie Solanas, a self-described feminist who couldn't have missed the point any harder.
Similarly, she's the
head writer. That means there are writers under her, and that also means she is neither the director nor the producers, all of whom have a much greater say on what goes into the movie than a writer does...or at least that's how it works in live action; as I write these words, I confess I can see how the process would be different when in the realm of animation. Still, though. Just because she was the highest-paid of all the movie's writers doesn't mean she's in control of what scenes occurred and how.
Davroth said:
So problems with the portrayal of feminism in the movie would have to be brought up to her, not that nonexistent think tank of male writers who supposedly yank poor Wonder Woman in different directions with the way 'they' wrote her.
I know it's nonexistent. It was a simile. But if we're counting these things (and I don't see why we should be, because my comparisons notwithstanding, a writer's sex is neither an instant base hit nor an instant strike-out, but let's play along), IMDB credits two writers. One of them is Gail Simone, who co-wrote the story; the other is Michael Jelenic, who wrote the screenplay.
oJ is good if not better than the Avengers which I doubt the will do it as long as that Hack Snyder is the director.
