I had other complaints with the movie, but I really loved Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot & directed by Patty Jenkins. It was nice to see a female character who was allowed to be a strong fighter without downplaying her femininity or relegating her to being ‘the hot one’. I also liked that it portrayed her commitment to truth and kindness as positives (a punchline sometimes, but not one at her expense). And I felt very seen by her excited gasp of ‘a BABY!’
Yes! That's what made the final confrontation of the film so frustrating to me. Until that moment in the movie, she seemed like someone moved by wonder and care—that scene in No Man's Land isn't her destroying, but walking fearlessly into danger and not being destroyed.
But then, the end of the film was "You have to punch War *so hard*!" when I expected it to be a rejection of fighting on his terms! I'm pretty curious about WW1984.
Yes! That was what bothered me so much about it. I expected her to either reject it on his terms, or if she did fight that it would be framed as a sad thing she did only because there were no other options to stop him & protect innocents. What we got was a mindless punching and explosions montage without any emotional resonance. You could have swapped out practically any character with superpowers in that sequence and it wouldn’t have changed.
I know people don't usually think of Tolkien when they think of "representations of women," but I am absolutely fascinated with the backstories of Galadriel and her relationship with Arwen, and with the Melian and Luthien relationship. Tolkien says so little, but there is so much in those stories about comfort and loss between mothers and daughters, and about the courage of love, that rings true to me, both as a mother of three daughters and the wife of a cancer patient.
When Melian sees her daughter's doom, as a mother it both breaks my heart, but also helps me find the courage to let my daughters go someday to fulfill their own purpose.
And the Beren and Luthien / Arwen and Aragorn stories - choosing a brief but true love and the possibility of a long grief - gave me a lot of courage to walk down the aisle with a man who was six weeks off a liver resection and who had been given "maybe a year or two" to live. (Happy ending - he was a Sloan Kettering immunotherapy miracle. He's still here :) )
So those representations of women will always have a special place in my heart.
I'm looking forward to returning to these when I read them with my daughter. When I read (and reread) LotR, I was most interested in the hobbits, and I feel like the loves of the elves went over my head a little.
Somehow when the original question was asked, I didn't think of one of my favorite books, an older Newbery Honor winner called "The Perilous Gard" (I think it would be classed as YA at this point, though it's much better written than most YA). It was the first book where I can remember really identifying with the heroine--a young Tudor-era woman who is strong and doesn't fit into most feminine stereotypes, but who isn't treated as superior for that reason and is not trying to use her "different-ness" to prove anything.
The Christian vs. pagan themes are great, too (and the fairly unusual romance), but the characterization is my favorite part. I guess it's a coming-of-age story in a way, with Kate figuring out how to fit into the world of other women without sacrificing the good parts of who she is. It comes across as painfully authentic, and I suspect that the author, Elizabeth Marie Pope, might have shared a lot of Kate's struggles.
I had other complaints with the movie, but I really loved Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot & directed by Patty Jenkins. It was nice to see a female character who was allowed to be a strong fighter without downplaying her femininity or relegating her to being ‘the hot one’. I also liked that it portrayed her commitment to truth and kindness as positives (a punchline sometimes, but not one at her expense). And I felt very seen by her excited gasp of ‘a BABY!’
Yes! That's what made the final confrontation of the film so frustrating to me. Until that moment in the movie, she seemed like someone moved by wonder and care—that scene in No Man's Land isn't her destroying, but walking fearlessly into danger and not being destroyed.
But then, the end of the film was "You have to punch War *so hard*!" when I expected it to be a rejection of fighting on his terms! I'm pretty curious about WW1984.
Yes! That was what bothered me so much about it. I expected her to either reject it on his terms, or if she did fight that it would be framed as a sad thing she did only because there were no other options to stop him & protect innocents. What we got was a mindless punching and explosions montage without any emotional resonance. You could have swapped out practically any character with superpowers in that sequence and it wouldn’t have changed.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts might be a good source for you:
https://nmwa.org/art/collection/
Thank you!
I know people don't usually think of Tolkien when they think of "representations of women," but I am absolutely fascinated with the backstories of Galadriel and her relationship with Arwen, and with the Melian and Luthien relationship. Tolkien says so little, but there is so much in those stories about comfort and loss between mothers and daughters, and about the courage of love, that rings true to me, both as a mother of three daughters and the wife of a cancer patient.
When Melian sees her daughter's doom, as a mother it both breaks my heart, but also helps me find the courage to let my daughters go someday to fulfill their own purpose.
And the Beren and Luthien / Arwen and Aragorn stories - choosing a brief but true love and the possibility of a long grief - gave me a lot of courage to walk down the aisle with a man who was six weeks off a liver resection and who had been given "maybe a year or two" to live. (Happy ending - he was a Sloan Kettering immunotherapy miracle. He's still here :) )
So those representations of women will always have a special place in my heart.
I'm looking forward to returning to these when I read them with my daughter. When I read (and reread) LotR, I was most interested in the hobbits, and I feel like the loves of the elves went over my head a little.
Somehow when the original question was asked, I didn't think of one of my favorite books, an older Newbery Honor winner called "The Perilous Gard" (I think it would be classed as YA at this point, though it's much better written than most YA). It was the first book where I can remember really identifying with the heroine--a young Tudor-era woman who is strong and doesn't fit into most feminine stereotypes, but who isn't treated as superior for that reason and is not trying to use her "different-ness" to prove anything.
Ok, this is the second time I've had this recommenced to me, so now I'm going to get it.
The Christian vs. pagan themes are great, too (and the fairly unusual romance), but the characterization is my favorite part. I guess it's a coming-of-age story in a way, with Kate figuring out how to fit into the world of other women without sacrificing the good parts of who she is. It comes across as painfully authentic, and I suspect that the author, Elizabeth Marie Pope, might have shared a lot of Kate's struggles.