Gal Gadot, the big screen Wonder Woman, was on hand in October when the United Nations held a ceremony to honor the female empowerment symbol as an honorary ambassador for gender equality. But less than two months later, the U.N. has ended this partnership following protests that the character is too provocative. Gadot, who is headlining a solo ‘Wonder Woman’ movie in 2017 says the protests are unfair and issued the following statement:
“There are so many horrible things that are going on in the world, and this is what you’re protesting, seriously? When people argue that Wonder Woman should ‘cover up,’ I don’t quite get it…They say, ‘If she’s smart and strong, she can’t also be sexy.’ That’s not fair. Why can’t she be all of the above?”
Wonder Woman isn’t the first fictional character to bear the title of honorary ambassador. Former recipients include Winnie the Pooh and the Angry Birds, but both only bore the title for limited runs. (The Angry Birds ambassadorship only lasted for one day.) It seemed at the time that Wonder Woman was set to headline a campaign for roughly a year, but after protests, that tenure was cut short.
Nearly 45,000 protesters signed a petition which was submitted to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, stating:
“Although the original creators may have intended Wonder Woman to represent a strong and independent ‘warrior’ woman with a feminist message, the reality is that the character’s current iteration is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions.”
The creator of Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marsten wrote in a 1943 article:
“Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, power. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weak ones. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”
At any rate, skimpy costume or not, next year, Wonder Woman will headline her own movie and will also appear in the ‘Justice League’ movie. Will audiences embrace her?
Gadot knows the character is a fine balancing act, stating:
“We knew it was tricky. We wanted to find the balance between portraying her as confident and strong and feminine and warm. I didn’t want her to be a ball buster. I didn’t want her to be bossy. You can be powerful and also loving.”
‘Wonder Woman’ directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Ewen Bremner, Saïd Taghmaoui, Elena Anaya, and Lucy Davis will be released on June 23, 2017.
Directed by Zack Snyder, ‘Justice League’ stars Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, and J.K. Simmons, with a rumored cameo from Jared Leto. ‘Justice League’ will assemble the masses in theaters on November 17, 2017.
Source: Time
