Over the past two weeks, as Wonder Woman the movie has done well -- it's made $205 million worldwide so far -- feminist chickies have started turning out articles proclaiming that FINALLY, a movie staring (and directed by) a woman has proven that women can be successful action stars!! Oh blessed day. Women can finally achieve something. The age of men is over.
Give me a break.
Let's start with this. Wonder Woman has been a hit since she came out in comic form... she was a founding member of the Justice League This is not some new female character that they invented which the public accepted. She has been a hit with the public since 1941... waaaaaaay back when men wore skins and clubbing women over the head to rape them was accepted (in feminist lore at least). So her being popular is nothing new, so claiming that she represents some sort of sea change is stupid.
Secondly, not to burst anyone's bubble, but Wonder Woman was created by a man. A pervert. So feminists claiming her as a symbol of their success is rather ironic and silly.
Third, before anyone claims that this was the first successful movie directed by a woman, let me point out that this director chickie (Patty Jenkins) didn't exactly pull Wonder Woman out of her *ss. She was hired by male-run D.C. Comics to bring a well-loved, male-created character to the screen as part of the male-created idea of turning comic book characters into big screen franchises. That's hardly taking a risk or testing new ground. Now, let's compare that to... oh, I don't know... Kathryn Bigelow, who directed the unknown story Point Break and had a huge hit. Or how about Penny Marshall directing Big? Then there's Martha Coolidge's Real Genius, Penelope Spheeris' Wayne's World, and Vicky Jenson's Shrek. I guess feminists couldn't be bothered to look those up before declaring Wonder Woman some unheard of triumph for womankind.
And what's this crap about Wonder Woman being the first successful female action hero? Did they not see Resident Evil and it's franchise? Didn't Uma Thurman star in Kill Bill? Didn't Jennifer Lawrence head the Hanger Games. I swear there was a woman in Alien... Sigourney something or other. Women have been action heroes a long time... if feminists paid attention.
Next, why are feminists drawn to women dressed in slinky costumes as role models? Seriously, what gives?
Finally, let me say this again for all the little feminists who just don't seem to get it. You make your own success. If you can't be a success until other people "empower" you, then you are useless. And if you find inspiration from fictinal character, then you're an even bigger idiot.
Crazy.
Oh, where do I begin? Oh, yeah, I agree 100%. Though not being a "super hero" devotee, I must say this movie had the great yet not so unique marketing campaign - IT'S WOMAN AND THAT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE YOU HATERS! Cue: people on social media that you can call "haters".
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that it's hysterical that Wonder Woman was created by a male S&M "pervert" ans this one is costumed by women (no doubt) as a Dominatrix. Why are female super heroes almost always dressed like Dominatrices or Vegas showgirls?
Bev; "Why are female superheroes almost always dressed like dominatrixes or Vegas showgirls?"
ReplyDeleteBecause they were created by men. ;
And Andrew, great list, but don't ever forget that Linda Hamilton killed Arnold Schwarzenegger after Arnold terminated her male protector.
GypsyTyger
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteWonder Woman is by most accounts a good DC movie, something that hasn't happened since The Dark Knight.
Also, it's made 435 million globally (205 is just the domestic number).
Last of all success was by no means guaranteed for Wonder Woman. It could have easily been a Catwoman or Green Lantern type flop.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=wonderwoman.htm
Bev, I don't get it either.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting related story though. In the live action, Beauty and the Beast, feminist Emma Watson decides to be a heroine near the end. So what does she do? She strips off her dress, down to her underwear and races off on a horse.
My daughter has pointed this out to a protofeminist at her school and the girl absolutely refused to accept that those were her underwear. It's the most illogical bit of denial imaginable, yet she refuses to accept it. This strikes me as exactly what is wrong with feminists and why they are such suckers -- because they will deny reality for dogmatic reasons.
GypsyTyger, That's another thing I don't get about feminists. They ignore the genuine accomplishments of women just so they can claim half-assed accomplishments as something earth shattering.
ReplyDeleteRemember the debate about putting a woman on the currency and how all they come up with were half-assed leftists with no real accomplishments. They ignored hundreds of genuinely accomplished women to make that list too.
Anthony, Yes, I wrote the wrong number.
ReplyDeleteAs much fun as watching the standard pretzel logic from the rah-rah feminists: the backlash from the movement's identity politics anger division.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.essence.com/culture/wonder-woman-black-feminism-palestine-israel-views
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/06/05/will-wonder-woman-fat-femme-woman-color/
Good observations, especially the parts about brushing off real accomplishments and playing up the minor ones, and good for your daughter too! The biggest thing that's stuck with me about Wonder Woman's success so far ties into the quality part and has been noted by a few entertainment-minded conservatives as well: Jenkins focused on telling a good story that she wanted people to have fun watching and didn't let any kind of agenda get in the way. Not that it'll stop the overanalyzing crowd on both sides from spouting their nonsense, of course, but they never really impress anyone but their fellow travelers anyway. I've heard of articles along the lines of the ones you linked as well, Eric, though I haven't bothered to read them. Too burned out by everything having to be about angry identity politics. As for the movie itself, I might just catch it if I can find a good, cheap showing of it.
ReplyDelete- Daniel
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteYou don't get it. It's about the clicks.
Sorry I missed this yesterday. (Shame on you for posting late, Andrew!)
ReplyDeleteI caught something weird about the box office reporting for Wonder Woman that got my conspiracy theory wheels turning, though please take this as tongue in cheek. WW had a good opening weekend and low second weekend drop-off. That's actually something to brag about. But apparently that wasn't good enough for reporters.
It's to be expected that WW would be compared to Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, being from the same studio. But much of the reporting on how WW outpaced it's franchise predecessors spoke of the earlier movies as if they were well-received. They were not. To be sure, they made money, but that was—IMO—a marketing success. The trailers got butts in the seats but audiences went away dissatisfied.
So, my conspiracy brain gets to thinking, what if the studio hobbled the other two scripts just to make sure WW would shine? Like I said, it's the reporting that spun my conspiracy wheels. They're just treating WW weirdly. My logical brain says that Warner realized they couldn't stay in the superhero game if they launched yet another stinker. (And let's not forget Man of Steel.)
Oh, and one other thing. I also saw a very strange chart designed to put WW on top. It claimed that WW had the lowest 1st—2nd weekend drop off of any "modern" superhero movie, but the a list omitted 2008's Iron Man as well as others I can recall. I'm not saying WW didn't do best. I don't know, I didn't look. But it struck me that any definition of "modern" superhero film ought to include the film largely credited with launching the current craze.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I think that ascribes too much intelligence and strange planning DC.
ReplyDeleteI think the more likely answer is that (1) DC sucks at movies because they fundamentally misunderstand what entertains people, (2) Superman is particularly prone to being difficult to adapt because he's too powerful and too limited, (3) the quality of Wonder Woman is being overhyped and it benefits from comparison to the crap that came before it, and (4) they are describing the prior ones as a success for PR reasons.
I have a story that can tie Wonder Woman and things that piss off feminists together. Back in the day there was a local tv show in Cincinnati called the Bob Braun show. I was watching it one day when Lyle Wagoner came on to tout the new show he would be in called Wonder Woman. He was there because he was already well known from the Carol Burnett Show. Nobody knew who Lynda Carter was yet. So Braun asked Wagoner who would play the title character. I remember his answer to this day. "Her name's Lynda Carter." Wagoner said. "She's a lovely young woman" and he looked directly into the camera and smiled"and she has been blessed by the chest fairy." Apparently the Bob Braun Show didn't have a 3 second delay. I was so young I didn't even know what he meant. How 'bout that? ;)
ReplyDeleteGypsyTyger