During my
college years I took a class on the history of film- and it was during this
time that my bedroom was covered with black and white portraits of the “Golden
Age of film” actors. Right in the
center, between Clark Gable and Pedro Infante I had a picture of Linda Carter
in her Wonder Woman outfit. She was the only modern (1975) film actress on my
wall because I loved the black and white image of her I found at a flea
market. It made me think of my sister
who had grown up watching Wonder Woman and who held a strong affection for the
actress. It’s been many seasons since my
walls were covered with made belief heroes, but I still wanted to watch the 2017
remake of “Wonder Woman.” I had no problem recruiting my sister and a couple
other friends to watch it with me. Yet,
I didn’t think that I would like it as much as I did.
It didn’t try to be feminist. I was expecting it to be about girl power and
even about the erroneous definition of feminism that celebrities are so
candidly voicing. Surprisingly it was a
story of a woman superhero who has beauty, brains and a big heart. Though she can probably tackle any battle
alone, she allows others to help her. It
reminds me of that phrase, “I need you because I love you.” When you care about another person they start
becoming a healthy need because God created us for community and together is
where we find our super powers. Wonder Woman accepting help from others, doesn’t
take away from her awesomeness I think it actually adds depth to her
character. There’s strength in allowing
and accepting another’s help – even when we know that she can probably do all
on her own.
It told a story about love. Sure there’s a beautiful romantic story
taking place, but there’s a bigger one about love for your neighbor. There’s this question about why Zeus would
allow humankind to continue existing even when society is corrupted and man is
fighting against each other. After all
the film is set during World War I and we get a vivid sense of the nastiness of
war in many scenes especially when it takes us to No Man’s Land. That’s a fair question that the villain uses
to confound Wonder Woman and sends her in a huge inner struggle trying to find
the answer. Then she remembers all the
moments that the people she has met have shown a denial of self for the greater
good of society. She understands that love
is why Zeus decides to keep his creation alive.
No truer Christian message.
In a time
when celebrities tell us that feminism is strutting in little to no clothes,
using obscene language, and being more powerful than men; Wonder Woman takes us
back to the roots and authenticity of what it means to be truly feminist. She’s a superhero who is a
woman and keeping those traits that make the female sex beautiful made this
movie an anthem for femininity and girl power- but it also made it much more. Now go watch it if you haven’t!
No comments:
Post a Comment