Talking Points
A NationofChange Exclusive Column
Feminism hasn't exactly conquered Hollywood, or much less Wall Street, or Washington. But don't you think it surely is overdue?
Published: October 29, 2014 | Authors:
Thomas Magstadt
| NationofChange | Op-Ed
Superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are among the
most popular and commercially successful cartoon characters of all time.
Superman was introduced to young readers in 1938, Batman in 1939, and
Wonder Woman in 1941.
Perhaps the real wonder here is how Wonder Woman
managed to get a chance at comic book stardom seven years before the
United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizing “the equal rights of men and women” and decades before the
term “glass ceiling” – denoting the gender gap in work and pay – was
invented. How did it happen? Here’s how Jill Lepore, Harvard Professor
of American History and author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman (New York: Knopf, 2014), explains it:
Wonder Woman’s origin story comes straight out of feminist utopian
fiction. In the nineteenth century, suffragists, following the work of
anthropologists, believed that something like the Amazons of Greek myth
had once existed, a matriarchy that predated the rise of patriarchy.
“The period of woman’s supremacy lasted through many centuries,”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote in 1891. In the nineteen-tens, this idea
became a staple of feminist thought.*
And in case you’re thinking that the early feminists were not really
serious about challenging men for the right to run things, here’s what
Lepore has to say about that:
The word ‘feminism,’ hardly ever used in the United States before
1910, was everywhere by 1913. The suffrage movement had been founded on a
set of ideas about women’s supposed moral superiority. Feminism rested
on the principle of equality. Suffrage was a single, elusive political
goal. Feminism’s demand for equality was far broader. ‘All feminists are
suffragists, but not all suffragists are feminists,’ as one feminist
explained. They shared an obsession with Amazons.
Many popular Superman and Batman films have been made in the past
four decades, but not one starring Wonder Woman. Some things never
change, right? Wrong: Last December, Warner Bros. announced a deal to
produce three future Superman-Batman movies with a prominent role for –
you guessed it – Wonder Woman!
Feminism hasn’t exactly conquered Hollywood – much less Wall Street
or Washington – but putting a female superhero alongside Superman and
Batman is surely overdue. Like putting a woman in the White House…
*”The Last Amazon: Wonder Woman Returns,” Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, September 22, 2014.
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