Between being known for my natural “fiery energy,” regular advocacy for human rights, and how angry I get at how I can rarely be a girl character when I play video games, all factor into why I would jump at the opportunity to review this beauty of a documentary. Not going to contain it, this is in fact a five star documentary in my opinion! Obviously this film carries a strong feminist message, but as a 21 year old female, I identify with the content, as any female will. As for males, I believe as long as they have one significant female in their life, whether it be a mother, sister, daughter, etc…I firmly believe this documentary can give them a lesson in how to better appreciate them.
This documentary spends a majority of the time explaining the origin of Wonder Woman—and not just where she came from, but how and why creator William Moulton Marston brought her into existence in the comic world. It then follows the transformation of Wonder Woman through the ages, looking at both the bright and dark ages of those transformations, and how she impacts the feminist movement. Now, I’ve personally been more of a fan of She-Ra and Rogue from X-Men and have only become more familiar with Wonder Woman this past year, but this documentary has blossomed the respect I had just been slowly growing for her. Some of her admirable qualities are well-known, such as her just simply being a kick-ass woman! But a lot of her qualities have been repressed, looked over, or altered in such a way her original position as a role model has been sacrificed, leaving a lot of girls with no one to look up to. The importance this has on the development of image, ambition, and esteem of girls everywhere is the main focal point of this documentary, as well as the vitality of the resurgence of strong female characters in entertainment.
While she takes up at least 85% of the film, Wonder Woman is not the only super heroine mentioned, and she shouldn’t be the last either. There needs to be more super women to come. Women take up 50% of this world and not all of them are going to settle for being damsels in distress. In fact, hopefully more women embrace their inner Wonder Woman, or She-Ra, Ghost, Batgirl, Shadowcat, whoever, as long as they’re strong in spirit and not afraid to do their own saving. I found this documentary empowering, I hope it does the same for you!
INDEPENDENT LENS “Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines”.
Premieres Monday, April 15, 2013, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher