Forget Spice Girls, we need a Wonder Woman
JUST to be clear: Wonder Woman is amazing. She has a lasso of truth that we all could have used during the campaign for the Brexit vote. She fights for her rights, in her satin tights. And she can run in high heels. I don’t have a problem with Wonder Woman: the problem lies with the Un, a global body that does very little to inspire young girls and women. In the recent past, it rejected seven female candidates for secretary general. Its most prominent women representatives are Angelina Jolie, Katy Perry, Emma Watson and the mad one from the Spice Girls. When challenged to find an inspirational ambassador to talk about female empowerment to girls around the world, it couldn’t even find a real one. Instead someone dived into their stack of old DC comics and picked out a fictional Amazonian warrior, created by a man, with a wardrobe based on Beyoncé’s tour costumes. Was Donald Trump advising on this one?
Famously played on TV by Lynda Carter, left, Wonder Woman, aged 75, is about to get her own movie, starring Gal Gadot. Presumably the Un could talk this up as a victory for older women.
Yet she’s not even the most interesting empowered woman in fiction compared to resourceful ripley from the Alien movies, smart Dana Scully from The X-Files, or even crime-busting Miss Marple from the Agatha Christie books and afternoon telly.
It’s maddening to see the Un waste yet another opportunity to act positively. An ambassador for the global empowerment of women and girls requires a real person with opinions, who can travel and campaign against a tide of endemic institutionalised discrimination. And that’s why I will be writing about