The picture to the right is from the latest issue (Feb. 2008) of Playboy Magazine. The cover depicts 2005 playmate of the year, Tiffany Fallon, as Wonder Woman...sans costume (except for the boots)...its body paint. The cover stirred up some controversy...especially among feminists...for depicting one of their cultural icons in such a sleazy fashion. (Of note...there is not a Wonder Woman pictorial in the magazine...Playboy is using her image to promote their "Sex in America" cover story.)
I for one was not overly offended mainly because it takes something quite seismic in nature to offend me. To be honest Wonder Woman is generally portrayed by contemporary artists in a sexy manner....exhibit 1 and exhibit 2....which shouldn't be too surprising considering the male dominance of the comic book world. But on the other hand I can perfectly see why some people were up in arms over the cover.
Wonder Woman is a strong feminist symbol. Her intention from the beginning (1940's) was to be a role model to girls. It shouldn't be too surprising that the 1970's Wonder Woman TV show coincided with the feminist movement. Thereby casting Wonder Woman as well as Lynda Carter as heroes to both little girls and woman alike.
Part of being an icon is having sensibilities that people relate to in different ways. While Wonder Woman is a feminist hero/role model to some people she is also a sex symbol (and possible even a fetish) to others. While those ideas seem to have a parallel projectory (thus leading to the reality of a Playboy cover)...the essence of Wonder Woman character is an intersection of those notions. She embodies both of those traits of being strong and sexy. She rises above the generic stereotypes of pop culture in that a female character is either pretty and dumb or smart and unattractive. The true strength of her character is that she is both powerful and beautiful and that those ideas do not have to be in conflict with one another.
Ultimately Playboy Magazine is not going to portray a balanced take on the Wonder Woman myth. Their desire and motivation is obvious. I just thought it was interesting to see how relevant Wonder Woman still is in that she can stir so much passion in the media (or blogosphere). Really...she is more than a feminist symbol...she is an American symbol. It is intriguing to see how that symbol gets played out from time to time. Also of note...DC Comics has just hired Gail Simone to be the regular writer of the Wonder Woman comic book...the first time that a woman will be an "on-going" writer in the series history.
2 comments:
hey, is that the first time any woman is the regular writer of a mainstream (DC/Marvel) super-hero comic?
i can't think of one off the top of my head.
on another note, one of wonder woman's lasting strengths is her appeal to both sexes. aquaman, on the otherhand, has appeal to only a very small segment of the population....
I was thinking that Simone wrote "Bird of Prey" for awhile. But I would say that no female writer has been an on-going writer on a "major" title...until now.
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