Last week some noobs over at DC announced that they had "updated" Wonder Woman's outfit. Starting issue #600, Wonder Woman has a new look and a new timeline. According to the writers, no longer did Diana grow up on Themyscria, but rather grew up in an urban, modern environment and has an outfit that reflects this. The artist who designed WW's new look, Jim Lee, said of the change: “[it's] tough, elegant…a street-fighter’s look”. The reaction to the costume redesign was so huge that "Wonder Woman" was a top three trending topic on Yahoo! for three straight days. I can only hope that 99% of people who actually gave enough of a hoot to google "Wonder Woman" or "Wonder Woman Costume" were as disgusted by the new costume as I am. The updated costume seems much too 'safe'. And too restrictive. It's like Wonder Woman has swapped her superhero day job to become a hip librarian or an English teacher. A number of posters responding to this report by Bust Magazine commented that the new costume makes Wonder Woman look..."like she's stuck in the 90s".
My first reaction to the costume was similar - that it was painfully '90s'. With the new costume, it is very utilitarian and functional. However, it lacks the impact or appeal of her previous costume - a stark contrast. The Wonder Woman costume that we have all grown up is fierce and glamorous. She looks beautiful, powerful and I daresay, sexy. Some commentators have argued that the old costume wasn't realistic, and that she couldn't do her job properly in such an outfit. In the history of the character, I doubt there has ever been a single occurrence of Paris Hilton-style overexposure. So it's all fine and dandy for her to be empowered, but she can't be sexy. Where Wonder Woman's original costume illustrates quite succinctly exactly who the character is, the new costume leaves great room for error or miscommunication. Is she a super-hip urban bookstore employee who's really into cosplay? Is she a repair technician with a pechant for tiaras? Likewise, the new costume makes her appear tough and capable, but it's far from sexy or even cute. There is nothing about the new outfit that tells the reader who she is, and even less about her new look that makes little (and not so little) girls want to pick up an issue and read it.
Why is it that women who are both sexy and empowered remain an incendiary concept?
I don't think the problem is so much that being both sexy and empowered is an incendiary concept, I think the issue comes from people thinking that a woman being BOTH is anti-feminist. I think they are trying too hard to appeal to a modern ideal that strong women can't have sex appeal, because it risks having them objectified. I don't think the redesign is a good idea at all, and it definitely looks like she's a background character from the 90's X-Men.
ReplyDeletePeople who think that a woman can't be both sexy and empowered because it is "anti-feminist" are sadly mistaken. The idea of feminism isn't that one sex has more rights than another, but rather that we are all equal. If we are all equal, a woman who is both sexy and empowered never need worry about being objectified because it would be a moot point - or at most a greatly diminished occurrence. In such a society, being objectified would occur as often to men as it would to women and therefore the impact of such objectification would be largely negated.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I totally agree that the new Wonder Woman looks like a background character from a 90s X-Men comic. Lame and lamer.