Our very own Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot has turned 35. Before becoming the face of Wonder Woman in the DC Comics franchise, Gal had served in the Israel Defense Forces. Perhaps much of the actions which she had to perform on screen, appeared natural since the actress had her share of real training as the soldier.
When the Israeli beauty was announced as the next face of Wonder Woman in Zack Snyder's Batman Vs Superman, not many of the close associates of Hollywood focused on the fact that a woman with prior experience of being a soldier, with acting abilities have been given the role. It mainly wanted to bring in diversity, to be politically inclusive and correct. Warner Bros clearly didn't want to face accusations of being too white men dominated.
Wonder Woman does not become a feminist icon only for being a woman but earns it for herself. Unfortunately on screen, she begins in the form of a male gaze. In an event hosted by Lex Luthor, she walks in to seek information about a possible villain. She moves through the crowd and Bruce Wayne takes notice.
In the comics, Bruce Wayne always kept an appearance of the eccentric, womanizer, billionaire to avoid any kinds of suspicions of him being the caped crusader who rescues the town by wearing a bat mask. He pretends to look at her with a male gaze, but in reality, he remains aware that she might be onto something. He reassures his womanizer identity by making a comment to Clark Kent.
But Diana shatters them all and manages to prove them wrong.
Diana slips past a well equipped Bruce Wayne and steals a computer hacking device thereby making a point that she is more than just a beautiful woman with cleavage. When she makes her appearance as Wonder Woman to fight against Doomsday we prominently notice her beside two fully dressed men, who are completely clueless about her identity. Both Batman and Superman remain under the impression that she is from another man's world. It doesn't occur to them, that she might be from a world of goddesses.
With tight armours, hair flowing all over the place, Princess Diana appears less like a superhero, but more like a dominatrix here to whip some sense in the minds of men. Some may criticise her screen appearance for giving into the male gaze, but there are no comic book rules which say a superhero woman cannot possess the ability to be a butt-whipping dominatrix. She can be both. And those boys who were till then fighting uselessly until one uttered 'Martha' really needed to get a good whip of the lasso, and see for themselves that there was a bigger villain present there and their Martha moment can wait. Rather it was not needed.
Wonder Woman: The rise of the real superhero.
The thorough grooming and re-grooming of Wonder Woman took place in the 2017 stand-alone film. We learn that despite being a goddess, Princess Diana trains herself. works hard to achieve the place and does not just expect to be served for being more powerful than mortal men.
In an iconic proud, moment, from the film, she walks into the war zone and fights against the nazi Germans, rescues all the men and brings them back to safety. Later in the film, and in Justice League, she worked shoulder to shoulder with all the men in her team, without demanding special attention towards herself for being a beautiful woman.
The real power of feminism is not women being given opportunities simply for their gender. But when she earns that place for herself and does not look down upon the men only for working hard to reach her goals.
