Why The World Needs Wonder Woman
Recently it has become more and more apparent that the representation of strong women is at a significant low. There are a lot of great women out there, but the ones getting all or at least most of the attention, are not the ones that are great, rather the ones that just ‘look like someone’s idea of great’.
We live in a world where men seem to be allowed to be men, and though one would argue that women are treated as equals, there’s a certain sense of oddness about our culture as a people especially in ‘advanced civilization’. I have seen and read many articles about sexism and feminism and all these different people and writers and feminist activists and I tend to end up coming away with the idea that they have somewhat of an extreme view of the world. Where either the feminists are always wrong or the men are always wrong and don’t get it. Where there is no middle ground, no general respect.
Now, a long time ago, the very idea of a woman’s voice counting for something was not even entertained, nowadays you get the general idea that things have changed, but have they changed enough? To that I say, yes and no. Allow me to explain. You see, what bothers me about this age and what it means for women is not that women are outright oppressed or victimized or anything of that nature, I’ve always maintained my stance on the state of the world as that I believe there always have been and always will be good people and bad people and bad people will always take advantage of honest people wherever they can, if people let them.
But on the subject of the treatment of women, I’m more concerned with the more subtle underlying patterns that thrive through the ages. See if you look at other cultures the world over, over time, there are times in different parts of the world where women were required to dress and look a certain way, and had no say in it. Nowadays, the beast has changed. It has evolved to fight the smarter more educated and free woman.
Nowadays, you can look at MTV, look at the generational shift, remember the difference between life as kids a decade ago, and now. It’s so odd to me that Kim Kardashian is considered a role model by some. It’s odd and sad that a show like ‘Sixteen and Pregnant’ is something we allow or condone. It’s odd to me that we let entertainment raise kids and then we are surprised when they try to be the things they see in whatever entertainment they are exposed to. This is the exact problem with today’s youth but no, society is cool with it as long as drug control, gun control and politicians mistakes are hot topics. Cause then the people who run things, the people who sell the products and make the money can keep doing it.
Ask yourself how often you see or hear women saying they need something they don’t need, they need their hair a certain way, they need to look a certain way or need a certain type of job or whatever. Need, need, need… because the world in its infinite wisdom has seen fit to let the beast roam free. Marketing products, self-help books, all those magazines telling you what you don’t have and need to get. All those TV shows and movies showing you their idea of the ideal woman, making you insecure and you don’t even know it. You look at yourselves and see imperfections where there are none, how do you expect the world to accept you when it has convinced you to not accept yourself? Now, yes the marketing machine does not only do this to women but men too, but men are not bombarded about our image and or led to believe that we are less because we aren’t a certain way, not nearly as much as women anyway. Men get bombarded with imagery to make us want things we don’t need but are led to think make us somehow cooler or fun… it doesn’t really affect our psyche because it’s not a direct attack on our being, it’s more poking fun at what we don’t have.
Ladies, my friends, my sisters, mothers and daughters, so many of you are so amazing and you don’t even know it. I can’t tell you how much it bothers me every time I see or hear you doubt yourselves based on what the world says you should be. It’s horrifying to me that it’s so effectively affected so many of you, you smart, funny, cool, awesome, adventurous and overall wonderful people. This is why I feel so odd writing this, it’s like I know we all know it, we all see it, all around us all the time, but few are upset enough to say it out loud. No one sees it slowly but steadily decaying our society.
You should not feel like a second class citizen because some magazine said you’re not the ideal woman. You should not doubt yourself because all the actresses and models with personal trainers, time and money look like they work out all the time and make money based on their looks, it is part of their jobs and it’s something they live. They have to live with the consequences of the choices they made. Nothing about life is easy, but being happy with yourself, being confident, being strong and content with who you are comes from knowing yourself enough to know that the world can go fuck itself. There’s way too much for me to even begin to cover in this train of thought.
The world needs Wonder Woman because as a character, Diana of Themyscira, to put it bluntly, does not give a fuck. Diana is a character built as an example of strength and honor. Yeah she’s drawn to look like a specific idea of beautiful too but that’s beside the point. She’s a hero because she stands among some of the toughest male characters in the DC Universe as a complete equal. Because she knows what she is capable of and because she does what she has to do for the things she believes in. And some may think this is weird but a lot of people have no idea what the power of fantasy does for people, especially young people. When given a character of this caliber to look up to, one can fashion an entire code by it, a way of life that epitomizes the strengths and the lessons learned from that character’s way of life.
The world needs Wonder Woman because somewhere along the way, the people selling the products lost the plot. They want your money, they want you to have as little confidence as possible in who you are so they can keep selling you things that you don’t need and telling you you’ll feel better and or more complete because of their products.
The world needs Wonder Woman because Diana would say “Who are you to question me or ask me to question myself?”… And if not for nothing else, the world needs Wonder Woman because God knows there are more than enough ‘Supermen’ hogging the spotlight.