When thinking and reading and talking about female empowerment being shown on the big screen and in media, my mind immediately goes to Wonder Woman. I am not a fan of DC comics and had no idea the story of Wonder Woman, but my husband being a fan of all super hero movies got me to watch Wonder Woman with him and ever since she has been my super hero idol. She is the absolute portrayal of female strength. When watching her movies I can see a role model that I can relate to and aspire to share characteristics with. While watching Iron Man and Spider Man are great too, there's something different about being a woman and watching a woman be the most powerful and smartest one in the room.
Now that you know my love of Wonder Woman, you'll understand why this image makes me angry.
Wonder Woman the movie was directed by Patty Jenkins, but in the movie Justice League, the whole group of superheroes in the DC comics, the director was a man, Zack Snyder. Notice the difference in how the 'Amazons' (the woman from Wonder Woman's homeland) are dressed with a man vs woman director. This is a clear example of the feminist perspective mentioned in the readings that is so important to have in media. I loved Wonder Woman not because she was hot, or had an amazing body, or a killer six pack, but because she was smart, fierce, strong and brave. With Snyder as the director all of those traits get lost with the Amazon's for me because they instead choose to focus on the physical beauty of the Amazons by showing more skin and making their wardrobes more 'sexy'.
Having women in media and entertainment is so important for this reason. To show girls and woman alike that it is not their physical appearance that gives them worth and strength, but rather it's their strength that gives them strength. Their worth gives them worth. Without women's perspectives we are not going to be able to break out of the men's perspective that has ruled society for so long.
My question for the class, do you feel that something as simple as a wardrobe choice like above makes as big of a difference as I think? Do you think having a woman vs man director is what causes these types of differences in movies?
Wow that is really interesting! I also mentioned Wonder Woman in my post because I think she is awesome!
ReplyDeleteFor the first question I do think that it can make a change and I think that it did as seen in the picture you shared above. I still feel like there is a lot of skin showing with Gal Gadot being Wonder Woman but not as much as in times past. It is also hard to totally change a wardrobe of a superhero but I think they did a good job because they added some extra fabric below her waist which helped a lot I think so yes it can make a difference!
For the second question I think that it really can make a difference especially now! In the past I fear that even with a woman director she might feel pressured to do what they've done in the past but now more than ever women directors can make a change! I'm sure they will continue to do so which is awesome and will be awesome to continue to see.