A Film of Her Own (Part 1)

In the beginning – well, 1941, actually – Wonder Woman was unleashed on the world of men. Although her original adventures were set during the time of World War II, her movie debut was shifted to World War I, but this is beside the point I want to make first. Her initial presentation during the Golden Age of Comics was a nuanced contradiction between feminism…

… sexist stereotypes…

… and worse.

The approaches and themes used in her portrayal made at least the pretense of an effort at being mature…

… or lapsed into the juvenile.

This variety and disparity of treatments has continued through various incarnations. What I’m trying to say is that from this beginning concept and simple artwork  grew an iconic image that grew larger and more nuanced than even her creators, William Moulton Marston (writer) and H. G. Peter (artist), envisioned. Once in print, she escaped their mental bounds and entered into the synergistic collective of her readership. Individuals interacted with this character until, today, she has come to represent different things to different people.

For this reason, any adaptation of the comic to the silver screen would be likely to generate both praise and criticism. Gal Godot looks the part. She doesn’t. The movie is an original breath of fresh air for the superhero genre. It isn’t. The CGI is appropriate for the plot. It’s over the top. It’s kind of hard to blame us for our conflicting expectations of the first movie about Wonder Woman. After all, so many of us think of her as ours.

Whether you approve or not, this cinematic effort is considered socially significant because it is the first major movie of this genre where the main character is female (I’m not going to count previous efforts such as Elektra). The DCEU of Warner Brothers beat Disney Marvel to the punch on that one, and I suppose it’s only right from an historical perspective.

The “battle” over this representation will continue next week…

Wonder Woman (2017) Gal Gadot

The Pressure Of Being Wonder Woman

One of my daughters once played the part of Wonder Woman in a humorous skit put on by our church youth group. This same daughter got on well with the popular girls in her middle school, and she relayed to me a revealing conversation she had with a couple of them. The word they used was “horrible” when they described the pressure of keeping up the right appearance – pressure to have their hair just right, their clothes just right, their conversation just right, their facial expressions, their skin… I think you get the idea.

Artist: Adam Hughes

You might wonder why I would choose this as a way to begin a post about the depiction of Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes. I think this will become evident later. Let me first say that I in no way mean to denigrate the work of this very talented illustrator. Here, for example, is his rendition of the first Wonder Woman cover ever done:

This is obviously clever and well executed, as are the following:

Here is a self portrait of the man himself.

In regard to my first paragraph, some of his images somehow strike me as glossier and perhaps more sexually overt than the work of Alex Ross. I won’t go so far as to call them objectionable because I respect the skill and imagination of the artist, and I like his work. But they do remind me more of the cultural stereotypes to which women are often pressured to conform in modern society.

By the way, and for those of you who were not aware, adherence to modern standards of appearance places a considerable amount of pressure on men to measure up as well. Stereotypes of attractiveness for men and women often distort the expectations of both sexes. This can have the effect of erecting barriers to healthier relationships, and I describe our current situation as isolation within association. We as individuals can choose to adopt more natural social standards that leave us and others feeling less threatened.

Without walking into the minefield of what is or is not appropriate when it comes to clothing, let me say that I do not criticize women who choose to conform to modern standards of appearance as long as this is what they genuinely like to do. Nothing else should be read into them at first glance. Rather, people should make the effort to get to know one another and to be more accepting. Reputations, good or bad, should be earned rather than conferred on the basis of surface impressions.

As a type of footnote to what I have said this week, consider the Venus de Milo:

For millenia, this was a standard for feminine beauty in western culture. I think a good many women resemble this sculpture in one way or another while feeling negatively self-conscious about how they look. I think we need to expand our definitions of beauty.

Portraits of a Lady

I  did more than my average amount of writing in last week’s post. This week, I’ve decided to be lazy and rely on eye candy. I will simply say that I don’t think anyone has portrayed Wonder Woman with as much dignity and respect as Alex Ross. Consider some of the evidence:

Wonder Woman by Alex Ross

Artist: Alex Ross

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

At the door to the invisible plane…

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

You may have some other favorite artist(s) and therefore beg to differ, but I think these images are the most eloquent statement of my case. I find the artistic representations of Wonder Woman by Alex Ross to be the most commendable from a standpoint of feminism and stimulating our imaginations for expanding the roles of women in society.

The Goddess Mentality – Part 3

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

Let me start by saying that I do not respect powerful people simply for being powerful.  I respect people for being humble, conscientious, empathetic, and compassionate and for doing what they can with what they have. I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard the following argument:

“They resent her because she’s aggressive, abrasive, egotistical, etc. (fill in the blank), but it’s okay for a man to be that way.”

When it comes to these types of attitudes and (alliteration warning) pugnacious, pugilistic behavior, it is not okay for a man to be this way. It is not okay for anyone to be this way. I respect powerful people when they wield power ethically, responsibly, and with humility for the benefit of others.  I know that not all of my readers share my Christian beliefs, but a saying of Jesus Christ taken from the Parable of the Talents seems appropriate to this week’s topic. It says, in essence, that much is expected of those to whom much is given.

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

Please consider the above statements while considering what I have to say next. I think it is responsible to ask the following: If women are encouraged to cast off traditional societal protections and to draw a sense of empowerment from “bad ass” female characters (please refer to Part 2 before getting mad at me), is this a potential recipe for disaster? Are they isolated in a game which requires them to compete using tools which favor men?

Credit: DC Comics

Credit: DC Comics

Credit: DC Comics

I am alarmed and dismayed by the promotion of competition rather than cooperation between the sexes, and this applies to our entertainment as well. I’m not talking about competing for the same job or political office or demanding fair and equal treatment (e.g. wages). I’m talking about a more general animosity based on gender. This can feed wrong attitudes in which men regard women as physical competitors, and it can be a potent driver of pornographic fan art, sexual assault, and domestic violence. To strengthen my argument, let me mention a comment about the above panel in which the writer gloried in the fact that this proved that Wonder Woman can “take a punch.” I am alarmed by anything that encourages men to look at women this way. I say this as a husband, as a father of three daughters, as a grandfather of two granddaughters, and as a professor who has worked for the last quarter of a century at a women’s college. One of my former students runs a women’s shelter in the town where I live, and another used to work there full-time. Yet another was a victim of domestic violence, which I discovered when I noticed she had a black eye in class. When I asked her privately how it had happened (as faculty at our institution are instructed to do), she confirmed my suspicions and was referred to a counselor.

I don’t object to the existence or development of “bad ass” female characters per se. Superheroes (members of our more modern, albeit fictional, pantheon) such as Wonder Woman of DC Comics, the Scarlet Witch of Marvel Comics, and Winged Victory and Cleopatra of the Astro City series are portrayed as women who can take care of the themselves and handle adversaries, including those of the male variety.

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

The Scarlet Witch by Frank Cho (Credit: Marvel Comics)

Winged Victory

Cleopatra

The responsibility is on us as readers, viewers, and consumers to evaluate how such characters are represented and how they should be regarded. I have said in previous posts (Graphic Mythology: black strip on the left) that I especially like the Winged Victory and Cleopatra characters. For the most part, I believe their portrayal to be socially responsible. Those of us who are adults can encourage our children (male and female) and each other to require higher standards in our role models, real and imagined.

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics

The Goddess Mentality – Part 2

For those whose ire might have been raised by last week’s post, please keep in mind that I am posing questions to stimulate thought and that I have settled on few, if any, answers to which I would care to commit. The questions I am raising have occurred to me in the course of observing the society and culture in which I live. I was noting an apparent increase in the acceptance of the goddess mentality since the 1960s. I am not referring to the appropriation of “goddess” as a term to deal with contemporary women’s issues. That is a matter of artistic and literary taste, and it can be quite clever. It also affords opportunity for the redefinition of the term.

Artemis by Michael C. Hayes

I am referring to more overt examples from the world of fantasy. I have read that strong female characters in literature, comics, and movies can be empowering to girls and young women (not to mention their elders), so please allow me to repeat some questions and pose some more. Are women being let down by a version of feminism that isolates them from older societal protections, thus making them more vulnerable to male exploitation? Is the offering of such protections in itself demeaning or degrading? Is the adoption of exaggerated role models from fantasy also degrading in that it could represent weakness in real life? Since some protections can be used to restrict the freedom of women, and since I have advocated the use of fantasy as a perspective from which to address reality more effectively, I have no definitive answers to these questions. As with so many things, the efficacy of fantasy depends on how it is used.

Photo credit: Yaro Jane Photography

 

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

One trend that has caused me some concern is the extolling of a feminine superhero ( in essence, a type of goddess or demigoddess) as “bad ass.” After all, what’s wrong with a female character who can kick a substantial amount of masculine derriere? Strictly for purposes of entertainment, I see nothing inherently wrong with this if it is done tastefully. When such imagery is employed as a sense of empowerment, however, things can get a bit more dicey.  Perhaps whether or not this is healthy is a matter of degree.

Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter, Sensation Comics (credit: DC Comics)

Credit: DC Comics

Artist: Alex Ross (Credit: DC Comics)

Oh, well. I’ve basically exhausted my self-imposed quota for words this week. I think I can wrap this up with one more post. Typical male attitude, huh?

The Goddess Mentality – Part 1

 

Painting by Jan Styka in which Athen inspires Odysseus to take vengeance

The Call of Perseus by Edward Burne-Jones

I remember being a somewhat insensitive adolescent male – well, insensitive and confused, actually. I mean, why did some women object to traditional roles, and why did they reject pursuing what I had been taught they had always pursued? Why wouldn’t they want men to regard them as beautiful and attractive? Of course, who gets to decide what is beautiful or attractive and the purpose that this serves? Although this was and is a complex, nuanced area of debate, I see now that many of the objections were against being defined by the expectations and desires of men. Let me say as a man that these are not always bad, but I know also that they are certainly not always good.

Zeus and Thetis on Mount Olympus (1811) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

 I’m afraid the title of this post might promise more than it can possibly deliver. Let me concentrate on an irony. In the 1960s and 1970s, I heard arguments that women should not be placed on pedestals and treated as goddesses because this created impossible expectations and societal pressures which they could not hope to satisfy. Oddly enough, such unrealistic standards also have a tendency to sell real women short by ignoring  many other facets of their skills and personalities.

Detail from Pearls of Aphrodite by Herbert James Draper

Perhaps due to my age, I am struck by the contrast between then and now. While it is true that many women felt empowered by strong female characters from various works of fantasy during the time in question, it seems to me that this approval is much more prominent at present. I’ve even read at least one allegedly feminist post on the virtue of the goddess mentality. Why might this be? Perhaps it reflects the fact that the need to improve the ways in which women are regarded and treated is ongoing and that people who feel disadvantaged or mistreated may be prone to seeking exaggerated examples of equality or even superiority.

Pallas Athena by Jan Styka

With all the emphasis that feminism receives in current society, this raises some interesting questions.  Does feminism meet the needs of women, or does it leave them isolated and even more vulnerable to male exploitation by stripping away conventional protections? Then again, what does “feminism” actually mean? There are a number of definitions out there, and the version to which one subscribes is of importance when considering the previous question.

Okay, now I’ve done it. I was originally going to make this one post, but I have the distinct impression of choking on more than I can swallow. Before I bring down on my head the wrath of over 50 percent of the human race, please allow me to defer continuing this discussion until next week. Don’t excoriate me yet. Trust me – I’m a man.

Graphic Mythology: Wonder Woman Revisited

It has been over six months since I have discussed this character from comics/graphic novels, and I have had sufficient time to reflect on comments made by my readers back then. A mainstay of DC Comics, Wonder Woman is truly iconic and immediately recognizable. In trying to come to grips with her true significance, I have found the task more difficult than I originally imagined.

Wonder Woman by Alex Ross

Her history is nuanced in that she has been given very admirable qualities along with what I consider some serious flaws. All of this, of course, indicates the mindsets of her original and subsequent creators. First conceived by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist with fetishes for bondage and spanking, she was often used to portray and legitimize his obsessions. Since then, I would have to say that her various representations have covered the range from heroic dignity to sexual exploitation. All image credits go to DC Comics.

Were she, in all her manifestations, a real woman, I would say that she has a history of repeated abuse. She has been spanked and debased, allegedly playfully.

She has been bound repeatedly. The following image particularly concerns me because it represents a real danger of asphyxiation for anyone foolish enough to participate in imitating it.

She has been physically assaulted as a matter of routine, although one could argue that this is an expected consequence of being a superhero who combats villains. Some of the more recent imagery, however, makes me wince despite the fact that the associated story lines attempt to justify it in context, especially in the case of superheroes fighting one another. By the way, I have noticed some disturbing comments on-line which indicate unquestioning approval of the violence portrayed in some of the following  pictures. I know, I know… there are plenty of frames which show her dishing it out as well as taking it, but these  images collectively show an underlying motive which I will address a little later in this post.

To date, she has not been sexually assaulted in any DC issues (although a story involving this very topic was once in the planning stages by one of their writers), but what do  illustrations such as the following suggest nonetheless? Visuals can easily overpower accompanying words.

It is in no way inaccurate to say that all of the imagery to which I have objected was designed to arouse male readers. So, in a sense, those entrusted with the representation of this female character have repeatedly pimped her out for several decades. The use of feminist rhetoric to prop up this kind of imagery strikes me as rather flimsy.

Artist: Alex Ross

A woman’s body is not a piece of candy. It sweats, bleeds, and eliminates. It suffers through sickness and injury. It gets pregnant and gives birth. But much of the imagery I have included in this post is the candy, a sugar-coated version of violence and exploitation which lessens the severity of such treatment in the minds of less discriminating readers by not adequately showing its consequences. We live in a society which has a widespread problem with the negative acculturation of boys and young men, and I see this as a driving factor in the rape culture which plagues college campuses and other settings as well.

Artist: Alex Ross

I know I have said much of this before, but I don’t think that repetition of criticisms and warnings in this area is unjustified. In summary, I regard Wonder Woman as a character with a nuanced history of publication. As such, she has served as a lightning rod for discussions about feminism. Due to her importance in popular culture, I think she deserves better treatment than she often has received. I have included the panels by Alex Ross as evidence of how this can be done without mitigating the impact of this character. If anything, these examples have just the opposite effect.

Artist: Alex Ross

 

Mythology On Canvas: Mythological Model (5)

Since this post is something of an epitaph for Maria Zambaco, I think it  more appropriate to leave her clothed and to make some attempt at examining her as a real woman rather than any of the mythological figures (save one) for which she was posed. With one exception, I believe that the images of her that I am using this week are study sketches (and one painting) executed by Edward Burne-Jones, the artist  for whose paintings she gathered the most attention and controversy.

I see her life as something of a multiple choice question. Was she:

a) a victim of exploitation?

b) an accomplice in her own exploitation?

c) both of the above?

d) none of the above?

I cannot assign a correct answer to this question with any confidence. In matters of artistic taste, nude portraits are often considered acceptable, but not all people would agree on this. Maria was herself an artist and a fairly accomplished one. She was also headstrong and wealthy, so it is difficult to imagine her being forced into much of anything against her will.  However,  being willing need not be exclusive of being exploited. I would hope that her true personality would be closer to the impressions I gather from the following portrait: intelligence, pensiveness, dignity.

Portrait of a Lady by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

On the one hand, her decisions and strong will would indicate that she was not a victim of exploitation. On the other, certain behaviors and events in her life might be considered symptomatic of someone who was. Her attempt to involve Burne-Jones in a suicide pact after he backed out of a decision to leave his wife does not strike me as the expression of a self-assured and independent spirit. Representations of her body were also displayed very publicly.

I question the assumption that women truly empower themselves within a male-dominated system by taking ownership of sexualized stereotypes and roles assigned to them by that system.

Sabra tied to the pole as the maidens depart

In looking at various aspects of her personality as described by other commentators, I cannot say that I understand who this striking woman truly was. She remains, for me, an enigma. Maria, may you rest in peace.

Mythology On Canvas: Mythological Model (2)

The early Pre-Raphaelites allegedly had a fancy for using working class women as models and taking them on as their mistresses. I find myself asking “why this socio-economic group?” Perhaps it had to do with economic vulnerability and the likelihood of compliance. Edward Burne-Jones came along a bit later and continued this dubious tradition with one notable exception. Maria Zambaco was wealthy as well as artistically trained. Although she is featured in numerous paintings, I have been unable to find an actual photograph of her which shows her with any clarity. I’m always interested in seeing the reality behind fanciful imagery when actual people are involved.

The above photograph was claimed by one source on the internet to be of Maria, but the name at the bottom doesn’t look right. I believe it is actually that of one of her cousins.

Burne-Jones is said to have been in a loveless (at least physically) marriage with his wife, Georgia Burne-Jones. She had experienced difficulty in the birth of their most recent child, and they had ceased having physical relations. When Edward was commissioned by Zambaco’s mother to paint her daughter, he very well could have been susceptible to having the affair which lasted at least until 1869. He has been described as both indecisive as well as oddly possessive of the women (including relatives) in his life.

He idealized his mistress (some of his descriptive quotes of their relationship in mythological terms struck me as inanely disturbing), and he made plans to leave his wife. The affair was discovered, causing a scandal, and he backed out. Maria attempted to get him to agree to a joint suicide pact by taking laudanum. When this was unsuccessful, she threatened to jump into Regents Canal, and his efforts to restrain her resulted in such an hysterical scene that the police were called.

There is speculation that the affair did not end there, that Zambaco futilely tried to start up a relationship with Auguste Rodin in Paris, and/or that Burne-Jones made some pointless attempts at resuming the affair. At any rate, he continued to use her as a model, but the nature of the characters she portrayed changed. In the following painting, she appears as the temptress, Nimue. On closer observation, what look like snakes can be seen in her hair.

The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne-Jones

Now contrast that role with her character in the next painting from the Perseus series (done earlier). Here, she is gazing on a reflection of the head of Medusa which is held by Perseus. Oddly enough, the profiles of the two figures are similar, which makes me think that she might have been a model for both of them.

The Baleful Head by Edward Burne-Jones

So she seems to have morphed from rescued innocent in the above painting (which was completed before the affair ended) to the semblance of a treacherously attractive Gorgon in the previous painting, which is one of the last in which she modeled for this artist. Similarly psychological underpinnings have been attributed to the next painting, also one of the last in which Maria Zambaco sat for Edward Burne-Jones.

The Tree of Forgiveness by Edward Burne-Jones

In this visual re-telling of Phyllis and Demophoon from The Metamorphoses by Ovid, the man appears to be recoiling from the aggressively amorous woman as she emerges from a tree. That particular element of revulsion is not part of the account I read of this story, and significance has been attached to it by some observers.

All of this brings me to these photographs of the grave of Maria Zambaco in London’s West Norwood Cemetery, where she was buried under her original family name. For me, these pictures serve as a grim reminder of where all carnal passion ultimately ends.

In future posts, I will re-cap some of the paintings in which she is cast as various characters from mythology.

Graphic Mythology: A False Feminism

The panels I have selected for this post come from Wonder Woman stories written by William Moulton Marston and drawn by H. G. Peter, and they disturbed me for a number of reasons. These were (and some more contemporary cartoons are) drawn so as to make harmful or destructive practices seem innocuous. Take, for example, the following illustration:

This is from an issue in which Wonder Woman visits an imaginary place called Grown-Down Land. Here, you can see that she is bent over the knees of an over-sized child who is spanking her with a hairbrush. Her wrists are bound. A small crowd of infants smiles and applauds in approval (due to image quality, I have shown only a portion of the original page), thus adding public humiliation to the debasement. Perhaps worst of all, Wonder Woman winks at the reader to indicate that she is playing along with and possibly even enjoying the mistreatment. Her high-heeled boots are cocked playfully in the air. The implication is that women like this sort of thing. Admittedly, it’s a rather mild representation, but I wonder how imagery like this feeds into the “no means yes” mentality.

In this next panel, she is shown in a submissive posture while further acting out her part in the game to the delight of her infant audience. This is an all-too-common, pornographic device, and the accompanying words are in the clichéd language of a juvenile, male fantasy. Keep in mind that the author was a Harvard-educated, grown man (a psychologist with a Ph. D.). I find this panel demeaning not only to women  but to children as well (especially in light of society’s problems with childhood sexual abuse). The behavior pictured is explained in the context of the story as something that should be encouraged rather than grown out of. It also bothers me that such a relative few of those who have commented on these same images have had much of anything disapproving to say about them.

 This last series of excerpts is from a different story and is similarly disturbing despite being dressed up as an adapted re-telling of stories from Greek mythology (not that the ancient Greeks were exactly clean-minded in such matters). Nothing more need be said about these and the previous drawings except that they might be regarded as the product of an outwardly restrained society overly fascinated by sex.

So you might think this mild or even comical given today’s cultural climate. After all, the genie is out of the bottle, and there are far more graphic portrayals of sex and rape in current comics. But at least these are painfully, often grotesquely, obvious. They pose a danger of their own by mixing the raising of awareness with sensational entertainment. And there is worse material out there – MUCH worse – that lacks any semblance of social conscience. It might be helpful to remember what I said about outward restraint. Many of the former restraints of our culture are gone, and this feeds into a problem which I discuss in a later paragraph. But the subtle can be just as devastating because it does not self-identify. The line might not seem as appalling when crossed.

These themes of spanking, bondage, and discipline are pervasive in the early issues of Wonder Woman. The images are of women being forcefully controlled, and in some cases, they benefit from this and are ultimately grateful. Wonder Woman herself is often tied up either playfully or by criminals.

What do portrayals of women voluntarily participating in and enjoying games of abuse and disrespect say about the negative acculturation of boys when it comes to their attitudes about women? How has such thinking contributed to the so-called rape culture and the ongoing epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses? I should note here that different studies suggest that roughly 10% of college males have anonymously admitted to behaviors which satisfy the legal definition of sexual assault but that approximately four out of five of these offenders think they have done nothing illegal. Notice that the “games” depicted above are represented by the tone of the drawings as being safe, “character-building” fun – something along the lines of “teaching her a lesson.”

 Trying to redeem salacious imagery with contrived plot lines and  occasional and stereotypical feminist statements is weak and at least somewhat insincere. Should we believe that empowered playthings are truly empowered? What do you think? Was Marston a champion for women’s liberation (in accordance with what he claimed was his motivation for creating Wonder Woman), or was he yet another behavioral scientist with sexual fetishes?

p. s. The portrayal below by Alex Ross takes a much more dignified view of a character whom I think has been largely wasted in comparison to her mythic potential. Some still choose to claim her as a feminist icon, but most of the portrayals I have seen are over-sexualized as compared with Winged Victory in the Astro City series by Kurt Busiek.

Wonder Woman by Alex Ross