YUXUAN LI
Read the Faculty Introduction here.
Wonder Woman, a 2017 American film, became the highest grossing female superhero movie in history. Certain moviegoers regard Wonder Woman as a feminist movie which promotes female independence and power. As the director Patty Jenkins said to Variety, Wonder Woman is “the success of feminism.” However, the movie also triggered criticism of Wonder Woman’s identity as a feminist. For example, in an interview with The Guardian, director James Cameron views Jenkins’s vision of Wonder Woman as “an objectified icon” and “a step backward.” In “How Wonder Woman Is, and Is Not, a Feminist Superheroine Movie,” Kyle D. Killian also points out other aspects of Wonder Woman’s deficiency. Taking these arguments into consideration, I would like to ask, in what way is the film Wonder Woman representative, or not, of contemporary American feminism? In this research paper, I identify the answer by analyzing how the camera captures Wonder Woman’s physical appearance, how she obtains her superpower in contrast to the original comic version, and how her identity compares with recent female superhero characters. Contrary to the popular perception of Wonder Woman as a model feminist movie, I argue that the film does not meet the ideals of contemporary American feminism. Specifically, the film objectifies Wonder Woman under the male gaze, panders to patriarchy, and lacks intersectionality.
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