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October 28, 2016

Michelle Hauser: Wonder Woman is a hero, but no ambassador

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

Don’t get me wrong: I like Wonder Woman. She was one of my gal pals growing up. I never read the DC comic books, but of all the 1970s TV stars, Lynda Carter was my favourite. Today, at the ripe old age of 44, life feels curiously incomplete if I haven’t bought a pair of high-heeled boots for my fall wardrobe: Wonder Woman left her mark on my heart, and my feet, in equal measure.

In spite of the nostalgia, though, the recent announcement by the United Nations to make the superhero its honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls struck me as ironic to the extreme. I thought the headline was satire — there’s The Onion in my Facebook feed, again! But, no: this deal is for real.

And it is a pretty big deal, too, especially for Warner Brothers, which has a lot to gain, public relations-wise, from aligning itself with a high-visibility women’s rights initiative. Let us not forget that the film industry is being investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for systemic gender discrimination. Numerous insiders have suggested a blockbuster feature of a class-action lawsuit is on Hollywood’s storyboard in the not too distant future.

Film studios are scrambling to make amends, hiring women directors and looking for high-impact, feel-good gender relations initiatives. Call me a cynic, but dispatching Wonder Woman to the four corners of the globe as an honorary ambassador for gender equality smacks of Hollywood’s master facade builders at work: it only needs to look good for the cameras. And on the issue of gender equality, Tinsel Town and the UN are strange bedfellows indeed.

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In a statement on its website, Warner Bros. says Wonder Woman will “help promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #5, which focuses on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as a critical component of a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.”

In support of the campaign, the UN will develop “special messaging” and DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. will mobilize its full spectrum of “studio platforms” — which is another way of saying marketing and merchandising beyond the UN’s wildest dreams — including a special comic book, graphic novels, toys, and an A-list public service announcement featuring Gal Godot, the star of the Wonder Woman feature film scheduled to be released in 2017. It’s no wonder the UN couldn’t keep itself from succumbing to Hollywood’s seductive powers.

Last Friday, at a special ceremony to launch the Wonder Woman campaign, Cristina Gallach, UN under-secretary-general for communications and public information, called it “an example of how we are working with diverse partners and making new alliances to reach out to audiences everywhere.”

It may be a big alliance, but there’s nothing “new” about it, really: the UN has always been overly reliant on highly symbolic, questionably effective, celebrity campaigns for publicity and attention-seeking. Harnessing the dubious power of a fictional superhero almost seems like a logical next step, even though it’s really just taking the UN further down the road to irrelevance.

It’s hard to imagine parents in the developing world flipping through a UN-approved Wonder Woman comic book, even if it has been translated into their language, and seeing it as anything but American propaganda. In countries where gender equality is a slow, steady build, using the image of Wonder Woman will be more provocation than inspiration. The only thing people will warm to is the bonfire they’ll make out of the books and posters as they shake their fists at the busty, immodest white woman in a bathing suit with uncovered hair, trying to make the world America, one little “kick-ass” girl at a time.

In Western countries, where gender equality is more advanced and issues such as pay equity or gender parity in senior leadership positions take centre stage, we need a heroine who can rock a gap analysis and a spreadsheet, versus, say, a warrioress in a bustier.

Listen: Wonder Woman is, and always has been, entertainment. It may serve the UN to try to whip people into an emotional frenzy, trying to make us think of her as some kind of prophet or something. But I think even Wonder Woman, if she were a real person, would say that’s a stretch.

There are more authentic, more culturally appropriate ways to raise awareness about gender equality and the empowerment of women than exporting a divisive sexualized image. Unfortunately, the UN’s fetishistic preoccupation with star-gazing has prevented it from finding this.

A group calling itself Concerned United Nations staff members has launched a petition to ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to consider “a real-life female role model that women and girls the world would be able to look up to, irrespective of their cultural background.”

It’s time for the folks at the UN to get their heads out of the stars and go back to the boardroom. This time they need to stay there until they can come out with a good idea.

National Post

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