Wonder Woman!
Wonder Woman comics gave girls and boys their first female super heroine and showed them that women could do more than just cook and clean and take care of children. While Wonder Woman still embodied the feminine stereotype of beauty and grace, participate in the war effort, nurse her man back to health, buy a new identity and keep a strapless top on while running. My favorite part of the comics we read this week was when Steve leaves the hospital to “save the day” and Wonder Woman has to go save him. She effortless grabs Steve out of the sky before he plunges to his death, then delivers a nice right hook to capture the bomber and enjoys Steve’s adoration (Moulton 27-28). Wonder Woman can do it all.
The Wonder Woman television series in the 1970s carried on the theme that women were capable of participating in all aspects of the world. One of the groundbreaking features of the show was it use of female stunt women. Although men were still used for much of the stunt work done in the show, including female stunts, Linda Carter’s stunt double was a woman which was and is usual. Jeannie Epper did her professional stunt at age nine and has been working ever since (“A Mighty Girl”). Not only has Wonder Woman given girls and women a role model to look up but she has also provided opportunities for women like Epper. I grew up watching the television series and admired Wonder Woman because she could fight, run and take out all the bad guys and not have a hair out of place (I had no idea about the magic of make-up and hair people at the time). So when I was 11 years old and decided that jumping off the barn roof was a good idea, I can totally blame it on the influence of Wonder Woman (and Jeannie Epper apparently). I was smart enough at the time to know that Wonder Woman had air bags she jumped into, so I aimed for the snow drift (don’t ask me what I was doing on the roof in winter, kids are stupid!) but it moved. So I learned an important lesson about Wonder Woman that day, if you are going to fly, take the invisible jet.
“A Mighty Girl.” Facebook. Amightygirl.com, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <https://www.facebook.com/amightygirl>.
Moulton, Charles. “Wonder Woman.” Wonder Woman Archives. Vol. 1. N.p.: Sensation Comics, January 17-30 . Print.
Image: https://www.facebook.com/amightygirl?fref=nf
OH MY GOODNESS. Cindy, this first bit has nothing to do with Wonder Woman, but…when my mom and her sister were little, they ALSO jumped off the roof of their parents’ garage into snow in the winter time! It’s one of the scariest stories she’s ever told me (but funny, too). Perhaps they were also inspired by Wonder Woman! Also, I’m super excited that you brought up stunt ladies. I had no idea that Linda Carter’s stuntwoman started doing stunts at just nine years old! That’s incredible! I have to say that you made me think of Angelina Jolie and the Tomb Raider movies, in which Jolie does her own stunts (I have the highest respect for her for that, among her other accomplishments). I guess in some ways, Lara Croft herself is a little like Wonder Woman in that sense (but her sex appeal was blown WAY out of proportion upon her first inception.), since she’s an adventurer lady beating up bad guys who are putting precious artifacts in danger (maybe she is the Wonder Woman of Archaeology?). Anyway, I am also a big fan of how Wonder Woman is gorgeous, but that isn’t what helps her save the day as she’s got her superpowers to help her do that (as you say, she certainly can do it all!).