Subscribe to the Tribe!
We will only use your email to send you a weekly digest of new stories posted on the site and occasionally to let you know about special events. But that’s it. Period. Cross our hearts.
Lifestyle
Why Wonder Woman Rocks
Fear not! Wonder Woman will not deprive you of the standard super-hero fare. You’ll get an extravagant lightshow as flames consume an explosives facility, and the elegant acrobatics of the sword-wielding hero saving the day. But these antics do not diminish the film’s relevant undertones. I drove home debating the merits of varying approaches to feminism.
A central conflict in feminism today is whether to host a bra-burning bonfire or admit to the empowerment of the right pair of heels. Ignorant of 20th Century gender roles, Diana neither conforms to them nor fights them; she makes her own rules. In determining her wardrobe, she doesn’t aspire to masculinity or “modesty,” but uses the roundhouse-kick test.
Wonder Woman has flaws. Diana does not noticeably age through the film (though I am not entirely clear on the aging process of gods). Plus, we see that the female ideal remains young and white. Still it manages to combine mass appeal with social relevance.
—By Elena Cox
Reader Interactions
More Lifestyle
When Seeing a Female Doctor Can Save Your Life
You’ve heard that heart disease is striking American women in growing numbers—and that our symptoms are different than those in men. For instance, men experience heart attacks as you see them in the movies—intense chest pain—while women get milder precursors such as indigestion and pain in the jaw, arms and back.
The Terminator Reboot: She’s Ba-ack!
It won’t arrive in your local movie theater till November 2019, but everyone’s favorite sci-fi screamfest, The Terminator, is reloading. Linda Hamilton – whose biceps inspired a million gym memberships back in the day – returns as Sarah Connor.
