The latest incarnation of Wonder Woman headed to TV raises plenty of issues about the portrayal of superheroines in media, not to mention the comics. Notes one critic, in her excellent commentary “Sucker Punch and the decline of Strong Women Action Heroines“:
By my count, there are at least five attempted rapes in Sucker Punch. When its female characters aren’t fending off rapists, theyʼre being lobotomized, stabbed, imprisoned, sold, shot in the head, forced to strip, or blown up on trains in outer space. Sucker Punch has been pitched as a girl-power epic, but it feels like watching a little boy tear the heads off his sister’s Barbies. After dressing them up in their sexiest outfits and making them fight GI Joe, of course.
This “Supergirls Gone Wild” approach doesn’t inspire much confidence in Kelly’s TV script for the Amazon Princess, but feminists note there is plenty to critique in many media commentaries about this latest iteration. As usual, there is concern over “fetishizing the feminine” as sexualized objects rather than empowered subjects. Still, that the show’s producers made changes after fan outcry gives some hope they are indeed listening.
…Well, looks like the pilot didn’t get picked up after all but here’s what might have been.
Others breathe a sigh of relief that it never was, while some observers remind us that Wonder Woman has had it much worse.
By: Doc T on May 23, 2011
at 8:43 am
Scott Tipton has seen the WW pilot, and explains its total fail.
By: Doc T on August 31, 2011
at 8:39 am
Joss Whedon explains *his* vision for Wonder Woman that never was…
By: Doc T on November 8, 2011
at 5:51 pm