Feminism and the Female Superhero: Gender in Wonder Woman
By Hope Abel
In the summer of 2017, Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins) was released and immediately became a cultural phenomenon. Comic book franchises from Marvel and DC are extremely popular among worldwide audiences, and the films are profitable for the studios. However, Wonder Woman features a key difference from the current comic movie canon in that its titular superhero is a woman—a first for the modern cinematic universes of either DC or Marvel. While the character of Wonder Woman was introduced in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zac Snyder, 2016), her 2017 origin story film marked the first time a female superhero headlined a solo film and proved a female led film can be successful at the box office. Wonder Woman made huge breakthroughs for female empowerment within the entertainment industry; however, feminism within the content of the film itself is markedly more complex. In this paper, I will be using the term feminism to refer to the advocacy of women’s rights centered on the belief of the equality of the sexes. In Wonder Woman, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is a strong fighter, yet her costume is impractical and revealing, and she is often sexualized by the male characters. Her love interest Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) wields a large amount of heroism himself, and he guides Diana through the rules of society once the two leave the island and enter World War I England. Despite the faults in Diana’s oversexualization, Steve’s prominance, and the setting of Edwardian Britain, Wonder Woman is ultimately a feminist film because of its industry breakthrough as a woman led superhero movie and how Diana’s strength materializes from a place of distinctly female power and experience.
The physical look of Diana—her costume, hair & makeup, and the attributes of her body— both sexualizes her in the eyes of the male characters and gives her strength through her distinctly feminine power. When Diana and Steve first arrive in London, they must find new clothes for her to wear as her warrior attire does not blend in. The film launches into a comical dress-up sequence in which Diana complains about the restriction of women’s clothing. However, she ultimately decides on an androgynous look that covers her figure, and her hair is pulled back under a hat. While Steve and his secretary still point out Diana’s intense beauty, she covers up and thereby hides her true self. In her next fight scene, she is stifled by the clothes and only succeeds when using bits of her old look–i.e. deflecting bullets using her wrist guards under her jacket. The film’s most iconic moment comes when Diana decides to cross “No Man’s Land” (very intentionally named) to rescue a town on the other side despite Steve’s refusal. At this point, Diana sheds her overcoat, lets down her hair, and emerges from the trenches in full Wonder Woman movie poster glory. In this way, her true power is realized when she accepts and dresses to show her distinctly feminine features in the more revealing look. While the look toes the line between confidence in her body or exploitation and sexualization of the female figure as “she is sort of naked a lot of the time, … this isn’t objectification so much as a cultural reset: having thighs, actual thighs you can kick things with, not thighs that look like arms, is a feminist act” (Williams). Diana is not powerful despite being a woman, but rather she is powerful because she is a woman, and her physical look reflects that concept.
When Gadot was announced to play the role, some fans of the comic books felt that her casting as Diana was wrong as she lacked “body volume and breast size” while others worried she would set unattainable body image goals for young girls as she was thought to be too model-like for the part (Schubart 161). However, Gadot managed to dispel these doubts by training vigorously for the role as well as utilizing her training from her time in the Israeli military and stunt work from the Fast and Furious franchise (Schubart 167). This entire off-screen discourse emphasized the impossible double standards of female beauty ideals, and the casting of Wonder Woman was no different as people considered whether she was too skinny or too fat, too curvy or too bony, too muscular or too weak, etc. Ultimately in the film, Diana has a beautiful physique yet one that is attainable and real as well as suited for her warrior lifestyle. Regardless of her physical appearance, Diana upholds feminist values as she takes power in the female form and, though many of the male characters are enamored with her beauty, she maintains that her strength comes from herself and has confidence in her body.
The most prominent of the men who fall in love with Diana is Steve Trevor, who plays a significant role in the film. The film uses Steve as a love interest in a gender-swap from conventional superhero films starring a female love interest (both still notably depicting hetero-normative relationships). Steve is instantly stunned by Diana’s beauty when she saves him by pulling him out of a sinking plane. Their meeting challenges conventional gender roles as Diana saves Steve at the moment they meet, though Steve quickly saves Diana right back in the same battle scene. Unlike most love interests, Steve has a storyline that is key to the overall plot, and he functions as more of a partner on equal footing when compared to the smaller roles of female love interests. Steve even wields decision-making power over Diana for a considerable amount of the film as he understands the customs of a society that is new to her. As Neal Curtis points out, “One of the stumbling blocks for the film in terms of representations of women’s agency…is Diana’s acceptance of Steve Trevor’s authority once she arrives in Man’s World [London]” (Curtis 935). His authority over her adds another satisfying layer to the scene in which she emerges from the trenches as Diana defies Steve by declaring, “It is what I am going to do” (1:14:18). Diana takes charge and Steve, as a supportive love interest, follows her lead into battle which ultimately results in a stronger relationship and partnership between the two.
Later in that same scene, Diana nearly single-handedly fights off the Germans, but she needs assistance from the men as Steve helps lift her up to conclude the battle. As Curtis writes, “From the perspective of a male viewer, this is a particularly meaningful part of the film as it brilliantly encapsulates men overcoming barriers to become allies in the empowerment of women, as well as the idea that women’s advancement is the advancement of everyone” (Curtis 936). In this way, Steve Trevor’s role encourages feminism through his support of Diana and through the representation of gender equality and allyship. Steve’s role is larger than traditional female love interests (likely due to the casting of prominent actor Chris Pine), and the film demonstrates this character strength notably through his support of Diana. In the climactic final battle with Ares (David Thewlis), Steve sacrifices himself in a suicide plane trip to get the bombs away from everyone else. While this is an individual heroic act, he does this so that Diana will be able to truly defeat the villain: as Steve tells Diana, “I can save today. You can save the world” (2:03:45). Steve is a heroic, strong character in his own right but he also works to support Diana because he recognizes her strength and ability.
The movie also includes a comedic scene early on as Steve emerges from a bathtub almost completely nude and has a full conversation with Diana. This scene recalls the oversexualization of female love interests, reversing the genders to draw attention to the objectification of women but in this instance, it is the male form. Here, Wonder Woman purposefully draws attention to exploitative gender standards with a bit of humor. For Steve, it is a very awkward moment as “maybe it’s a little unnerving to have a woman stare you down as you emerge, naked, from a luminescent hot spring on a seemingly magical island and ask you ‘Would you say you’re a typical example of your sex?’ It can be liberating, too, if you can’t possibly give a wrong answer” (Rosenberg). In this way, while not the focus of the film, Diana’s naivete frees Steve from any male gender rules and shows the movie to be feminist by challenging gender norms and restrictions on both fronts.
The interaction between the film’s feminist message and its setting is also complicated in the way it uses Diana’s rebellions against WWI-era gender norms to show empowerment in a manner that implies gender discrimination is a thing of the past. In the original 1940s comics, Diana emerged during World War II. Director Patty Jenkins decided to switch the setting to the first World War as the “‘Great War’ accentuated Wonder Woman’s opposition to war itself and therefore became the perfect backdrop for the exposition of Wonder Woman’s mission. In addition, it placed Wonder Woman in a time when women’s rights were central” (Curtis 934). While the war plotline justifies the switch, the film only alludes to the women’s suffrage movement through one of Steve’s secretary’s lines, so the movie did not take the opportunity to engage in any profound way with the contemporaneous issues of women’s rights. Rather, Diana’s small remarks commenting on the restriction of clothes or the lack of autonomy in the position of secretary feel dated as she critiques women’s restrictions from about a century prior to the film’s release. This in turn categorizes gender discrimination on the whole as an outdated norm and implies a great amount of growth by the time of the movie’s release. In actuality, gender inequality remains a contemporary issue. By setting the film in the past, it similarly sets struggles for women’s rights in the past–which makes it easier for modern male viewers as they do not feel their current patriarchal privilege is being targeted. Instead of taking any real stand against gender inequality in the modern era, the film’s historical setting makes it more palatable for male viewers without making the character of Wonder Woman seem less revolutionary.
The movie’s other primary location is Diana’s homeland, the island of Themyscira, an idyllic world filled with female warrior-intellectuals. While this seems like paradise, and in the original comics it was even called Paradise Island, the film characterizes fully realized feminine power as existing only within a mysterious isolated island (Curtis 939). Diana is powerful on the island, yet when she reaches London, her innocence is comical rather than strong as her lack of awareness towards gender ideas others her. While the film illustrates Diana’s optimistic ideas towards gender, complete equality like the one she believes in seems as unrealistic as the island of Themyscira. Ultimately, the settings of both Themyscira and World War I hinder the film’s feminist message the most out of all its formal aspects.
Besides Diana and the Amazons, the film explores gender norms through its two other female characters — Etta Candy (Lucy Davis) and Dr. Maru a.k.a. Doctor Poison (Elena Anaya). While the bulk of the characters are male once Diana leaves Themyscira, there are two other significant female characters. Etta is Steve’s secretary and functions as much of the comic relief when Diana arrives in London. It is through Etta that any mentions of the women’s rights movement are raised as Diana compares her job as a secretary to that of “slavery,” which instantly bonds the two characters. Physically, Etta is also a bit of a foil character by presenting a so-called ‘average’ woman who emphasizes the natural beauty and grace of Diana. But while she is useful in terms of bringing Diana’s gear or providing a laugh, Etta does not affect the narrative or prove any feminist point during her scenes. The other female character, Dr. Maru is extremely influential in terms of plot and the film’s overall message. Maru is one of the villains in the film as she invents despicable gasses and weapons to use on Allied soldiers in the war. However, including her character as a “female German chemist trying to destroy humans (...a proto-Mengele before Nazism existed) might be the most feminist act of all” because it shows complexities in the depictions of women (Williams). Including Maru as a woman villain shows that each of these characters cannot be whittled down to simple identity groups or perspectives. They are unique and complex. Because the amount of complex female characters is so low, the burden of representation often falls on the female characters; in other words, stereotypes emerge due to a pattern in representations and while an outlier or two might try to break it, real changes in cultural perception only occur when enough movies begin to challenge norms. In this way, any role that is different, including that of Maru, works to show that women, good or bad, are not defined by their gender. And, rather than pitting the two women against each other, the film reveals that Maru is not the significant villain, and she is saved by Diana’s mercy. So, the film both depicts Maru as a smart and talented scientist—though for the wrong side—and manages to avoid pitting the two women completely against each other. In terms of feminism, Etta Candy seems to be the poster character for women’s suffrage, but it is Dr. Maru’s role that supports the film’s feminism through her character’s talent and complexity.
Finally, Wonder Woman is feminist outside of the screen due to its breakthroughs as a female-led superhero film and as a woman-helmed film with Jenkins as the director. The film smashed box office records and proved once and for all that female-led films can be profitable. In fact, “Wonder Woman earned more than $821.74 million, making it the highest grossing superhero origin film of all time” (Schubart 168). With an over $150 million budget, the film was also the highest-budgeted female directed movie. The sheer numbers of its success beg the question, why did they not make this movie earlier? Roxanne Gay examines the same questions when thinking about so-called “women’s fiction” in writing. She asks, “There are more similarities between the writing of men and women than there are differences. Aren’t we all just trying to tell stories? How do we keep losing sight of this fact? When did men become the measure?” (Gay 174). It is one thing for multiple movies to do poorly and then establish the trend; it is wholly another to decide based on stereotypes and biases who can create and lead films and who cannot. Wonder Woman proved that women-led films can be extraordinarily successful, and that female directors can handle large budgets. Female stories can be told by anyone, but it is important to tell our own stories and share our experiences with others. As Frida Kahlo said, “I am my own muse, I know myself the best” (Bramley). Like Kahlo, Diana’s confidence in herself and her style despite whatever obstacles or resistance she faces is what makes her an icon and a role model. Frida Kahlo and Wonder Woman are both great role models — it is time that we have more of them.
Overall, Wonder Woman is a feminist film because it explores gender roles and norms while asserting female empowerment and gender equality. The film shows the complications of feminism as Diana’s outfit is both empowering and sexualized, and Steve is both an ally and a male validator. The setting in World War I allows the film to reference how far women’s rights have come and yet show those struggles as an issue of the past rather than a current fight long from over. The box office shows that the film was a breakthrough, yet it carries the burden of representation as Wonder Woman was the only leading female superhero. Wonder Woman is great, but it is not perfect. Then again, if there were other female superhero movies, maybe it wouldn’t have to be.
Works Cited
Bramley, Ellie Violet. "Frida Kahlo: Feminist, Selfie Queen, Queer Icon and Style Muse of 2017." The Guardian, digital ed., 28 Oct. 2017.
Curtis, Neal. "Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel: The (Dis)Continuity of Gender Politics." Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 53, no. 4, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc, 2020, pp. 926–45, doi:10.1111/jpcu.12942.
Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. New York, Harper Perennial, 2014.
Rosenberg, Alyssa. “Opinion: ‘Wonder Woman’ Is a Beautiful Reminder of What Feminism Has to Offer Women — and Men.” The Washington Post, digital ed., 5 June 2017.
Schubart, Rikke. “Bulk, Breast, and Beauty: Negotiating the Superhero Body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman.” Continuum (Mount Lawley, W.A.), vol. 33, no. 2, Routledge, 2019, pp. 160-72, doi: 10.1080/10304312.2019.1569382.
Williams, Zoe. "Why Wonder Woman Is a Masterpiece of Subversive Feminism." The Guardian, digital ed., 5 June 2017.
Wonder Woman. Directed by Patty Jenkins, Warner Brothers, 2017.