Wonder Woman (2017) Movie Photo

A Critical Examination of the Wonder Woman Movie. She’s seen from the knees up, in Wonder Woman armor, wielding the magic lasso which is twirled around her.

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Wonder Woman in other media. Proposed since July 2017. Watch Wonder Woman Full Movie (2017) Online Now! Latest Action of Beloved Wonder Woman is Free Ready To Be Streamed Right Now!

I suggested that she and I engage in a dialogue about it, much like Lawrence Ware and I did with the Get Out film. Complex was down and so she and I went to work on the very sensitive matter of looking critically at a film and a character that means so very much to the both of us. This dialogue contains spoilers.

Proceed at your own risk. Valerie Complex: And the conversation starts — NOW. I knew better than to be shocked at what I saw in Wonder Woman.

I prepared myself and yet here I am, still surprised. I have been reading a lot of think pieces and I have noticed that the opinions of white folks vs. I shouldn’t expect them to be woke to intersectionality issues. But again, here I am wondering what they saw that I did not. Robert Jones, Jr.: LISTEN.

I have been a fan of Wonder Woman for more than 4. She is the very second superhero that I ever loved. The first was Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats. Yeah, I know Valerie’s not a superhero in the traditional sense, but she, with her enormous intellect and musical talent, was always a superhero to me. But I digress. I have been waiting for a Wonder Woman film for my entire life. I was pumped. I had read all the reviews: cheered at the good ones and side- eyed the few bad ones.

I wasn’t going to let random critics that knew nothing about Wonder Woman ruin my mood. I bought tickets weeks in advance. I dragged my partner to the theater. I sat comfortably in my seat, behind some wonderful black women with Wonder Woman t- shirts on, and in front of a little white boy who seemed incredibly excited to see Wonder Woman.

You do have to wait for Gadot’s Wonder Woman to appear in costume. After a humdrum training montage against settings that look like rear projections, the movie. Directed by Patty Jenkins. With Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Lucy Davis. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. Gal Gadot stars as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins (“Monster,” AMC’s “The Killing”), “Wonder Woman”. Amazon.com: Wonder Woman (2017) (BD)

Then the movie started and one of the first things I saw pissed me the fuck off: One of the Amazons of color was Diana’s caretaker/instructor, chasing precocious little Diana around an island as Diana tries to escape her so that she can watch her Aunt Antiope train other Amazons in the ways of the warrior. I thought to myself: “Shit.

They have Mammies on Paradise Island, too? Who’s paradise is this exactly?”VC: Oh shit! Divx Movies Dvd Thor 3 (2017).

I just screamed out loud in the 6 train! RJJ: LOL! VC: I saw that as well and gave it the side eye. I thought to myself, “When we said representation, this wasn’t what we were referring to.”RJJ: Preach!

But we have to be very specific with white people. When we say “diversity,” we mean it. We mean on equal footing with white people. We mean in equal numbers as white people. We mean in equal positions as white people. But when white people say “diversity,” they mean “tokenism.” They mean “Sure, just as long as you don’t outnumber and outshine the white people.

Just as long as we can present you in the ways in which we feel comfortable presenting you,” which usually means relying on some type of black stereotype. VC: I had my reservations with speaking out out my issues. I have written about representation so much I felt like a broken record.

But I think it’s important to exam this. Even as Hollywood slowly gets better in representing black folks, it is still an uphill battle with other marginalized communities. Unfortunately, many may say I am nitpicking, but if that is what it takes for studios, writers, producers, whomever to get this shit right, then I have to keep speaking up. These muthafuckas are remedial and they need guidance on what visibility means versus what representation means.? So I was like, “Okay, you gave us a Mammy and weren’t even low- key about it. But you can fix this. You can now give us a dimensional black Amazon. The New Like Crazy (2017) Movie.

Instead, of the two other black Amazons I remember seeing, one was portrayed as though she were a “brute.” Another Amazon strikes her on her back very hard with a stick and this Amazon, who I think was named Artemis, is unfazed, bringing us back to the white supremacist stereotypes about black women’s lack of femininity and womanhood, the hypermasculinization of black women, the inability of black women (or black people in general) to feel pain or be considered dainty, demure, or vulnerable, and, therefore, worthwhile targets of abuse. This pathology was used to justify all sorts of horrors committed against black bodies, including chattel slavery. To add insult to injury, in the comic books, Artemis is an Amazon from a “savage,” treacherous, darker- skinned, Middle Eastern/North African tribe of Amazons who are portrayed as needing to be “civilized” by the decidedly whiter Amazons of Themyscira. Ugh.(EDIT: And let me clarify for those individuals who, out of outrage that I dared criticize something they enjoyed, have begun to conflate Ann Wolfe, the athlete and actor who played Artemis, with the character of Artemis: The “brute” critique has nothing to do with who Wolfe is or what her stature happens to be, and everything to do with how she’s portrayed as having a white Amazon beat her across the back with a staff and not be fazed by it, which falls directly in line with hundreds of years of white supremacist stereotypes about black people’s inability to feel pain, justifying the abuse of black people. And that would apply whether the black person is 6'7. During the promotional run, black women where like “Where are the Po. C?!” And then they announced that Ann Wolfe and Florence Kumbyasha were cast.

Then to hear Philippus was going to be in it — I just knew this was gonna be the superhero film we’ve been waiting for. Then, I had to take a step back. I know better and knew better not to fall for that PR stunt. Then, when reviews rolled around with all this glowing praise from white female critics, I knew something was off. RJJ: After witnessing what they did with those Amazons of color, all I kept thinking about was black women’s complaints about white feminism and how white feminism lacks an adequate lens through which to dismantle white supremacy, among other things.

What do you make of the suggestion that Gal Gadot is not actually “white” in the classic sense — that because she is Jewish, she may be inherently other, and more a person of color than a white person? Because, of course, they don’t see it like I do and I am hesitant to bring up the issues because I don’t want to seem like I’m being defensive or antagonistic. As for Gal Gadot being a person of color, well I knew that was nonsense.

But I was so glad to see people of the Jewish faith step up and make clear that the actress is not a person of color: She is white a white woman. Do you think that Gal Gadot would have gotten the approval of white people if they thought she was Middle Eastern? Come on, son. Part of Whiteness is being regarded as white whether you identify as such or not, being afforded the benefits of white supremacy whether you identify as white or not.

Part of it is aesthetic and phenotypical, and if you look like you can pass for a white person, with or without a slight tan, then you are, at least in the racial landscape of the United States, for the most part, white. Otherwise, Lupita Nyong’o would have had just as much as a chance to play Wonder Woman as Gadot. Sometimes, in some social contexts, “not black” is all the qualification one needs to be considered white or white adjacent. VC: The way women of color were marketed really bugged me. There were no Asians that I saw, did you see them?

RJJ: None that I noticed. In the comics, an Asian woman, Euboea, is Diana’s best friend on Themyscira. IMDB indicates that Euboea was, indeed, cast, and played by a Chinese- Canadian actor named Samantha Jo. But I don’t remember seeing her in the film. I’m pretty sure she didn’t have any lines.

VC: Do you feel like we’re being nitpicky for expressing our concerns here? I don’t know why there’s a part of me that actually feels bad about discussing this. Shouldn’t we be satisfied that this is finally happening, that women everywhere can rejoice and I finally have a superhero to look up to?

The movie is good (until the third act), but the representation is really bugging me.