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Just as I was surprised to hear that the United Nations had picked the fictional character Wonder Woman as their "Ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls". I was just as surprised to hear she had been removed. According to a report by Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times (no link £)
Diana was considered "too fit". by some bunch of "harridans" who prefer to be represented by "a grimacing hag with cropped hair in boiler suit".
A little extreme perhaps, but funny all the same. No sense of proportion some people as a group of feminists did object to Wonder Woman and managed to raise a petition of some 45,000 signature world wide to get her removed. Impressive given that there are over 6 Billion bloody people on this planet of ours. Not.
The petition whinged:
Wonder Woman was created 75 years ago. Although the original creators may have intended Wonder Woman to represent a strong and independent “warrior” woman with a feminist message, the reality is that the character’s current iteration is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif and knee high boots –the epitome of a “pin-up” girl. This is the character that the United Nations has decided to represent a globally important issue – that of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. It appears that this character will be promoted as the face of sustainable development goal 5 for the United Nations at large.
Wonder Woman writer Greg Ruka responded:
She is tireless, and she is undefeated. She’s never going to bow her head. I think that is so important. We need heroes like that. We spend a lot of time looking at our superheroes and trying to darken them up. That ain’t her.
Never going to bow her head. Just the role model women need to stand up to the terrible cultural and religious misogyny that dominates so much of our world.
Wonder Woman as a character has been around for 75 years now and is one of just three superheroes to have had their own comic books published continuously since the forties and the only female character to do so.
Other than comic book readers lots of people will remember Wonder Woman as portrayed by Linda Carter and a whole new generation have seen Gal Gadot pick up the role in the new Superman Batman movie and next year she gets her first solo movie.
Wonder Woman has changed over the years as have her male counterparts Superman & Batman. The characters have adjusted to the times in which they are published, but at heart Wonder Woman or the Princess Diana (her real name) is a strong warrior woman who sought to bring a message of peace to man's world.
Wonder Woman comes from a nation of Amazons who swore they would never wear chains placed on them by men ever again.
If such a message was ever needed it is now with so many women oppressed by backward thinking.
Perhaps the protestors should have instead aimed their ire at real oppressors like Saudi Arabia which sits on the laughably named UN Human Rights Commission whilst banning women from driving, travelling without a guardian and forcing them into near slavery under their Islamic fundamentalist system
The "feminists" who protested got this one so wrong. Still they are the privileged ones in the West who always know best for their oppressed sisters in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.....like never.
Wonder Woman is published twice monthly by DC Comics.
i worry for this world of ours
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