5 wonderful expressions of power in ‘Wonder Woman’
Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for Wonder Woman. This isn’t your average superhero movie. Wonder Woman is taking over the box office with great reviews and a message of hope and goodness. As the first female superhero film in more than a d
1 THE INTRODUCTION TO THEMYSCIRA One of the interesting things about the film is the island where Wonder Woman/Diana (Gal Gadot) comes from, an all-female paradise where the Amazon warriors train. It’s pretty incredible to see the diverse, strong group of Amazonians training for battle, many of whom are real-life athletes. As a result, Diana grows up believing she can do anything.
2 IT POKES FUN AT OTHER FILM PORTRAYALS OF WOMEN Perhaps the funniest sequence is when Diana, trying to go incognito in World War I-era London, tries on a variety of outfits. Steve Trevor (Diana’s love interest) adds glasses to the ensemble they finally pick (after Diana laments the inability to kick in a pencil skirt). “Specs,” his secretary Etta (Lucy Davis) says, sarcastically. “Suddenly she’s not the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?”
3 IT IGNORES THE PATRIARCHY ... Diana bursts into meetings full of men, ignores when men tell her she can’t do something, likens a secretary job to slavery and continually saves her male companions. There are societal expectations about how women are supposed to behave, both during the turn of the century time frame of the movie and in present day. Because she grew up on a secluded island among wom- en, Wonder Woman doesn’t know what those expectations are and doesn’t care when she finds out. She also won’t apologize for being a woman. The movie champions her femininity: Her power isn’t diminished by caring too much or experiencing her emotions. Instead, her love and kindness strengthen her.
4 ... AND THE MALE GAZE When Diana meets the ragtag group of men who form her team, Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui) ogles her and tries to hug her. It’s a small moment, but Diana resists this quietly by pushing him away, and later is defined not by her beauty but by the bar fight she wins. It’s not just that Diana refuses to be objectified. The film refuses to objectify her. The director, Patty Jenkins, doesn’t focus her camera on Gadot’s body in a skimpy outfit. When Jenkins focuses in on Diana, it’s on her expressive face or the various weapons she uses to fight.
5 DIANA’S BIG BATTLE
This is the moment in the film everyone will be talking about. Unable to stand aside while civilians are suffering during the war, Diana climbs up into “no man’s land” in the middle of a trench battle and charges, despite an onslaught of various ammunition. The metaphor is striking — a woman moving forward alone in a field while a battalion of men tries to push her back. And she refuses to give up. Before she storms onto the battlefield, Steve tells Diana that there’s nothing to be done, that she can’t help every person affected by the war. But Diana doesn’t listen— she didn’t grow up in a world that told her she couldn’t do things because she was a woman. She simply does what she thinks is right. She saves people. And it’s so uplifting to see her do it.