This is from my first-draft for this assignment... it doesn't have a lot to do with my new subject matter--but I spent a lot of time on it. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
"Wonder" Woman
“Love The Lie”
Do you see a superhero? Or do you see a sexual fantasy?
Women are constantly trapped in a sexual readymade identity—and Wonder Woman is the prime example.
--> What is Identity?
The word identity is an abstract idea that is defined through answers we try and come up for ourselves I look at identity as the first word that you think of for yourself when someone says, “Who are you?” I never know the answer to this question… I (like most people) usually start spouting off things I’ve accomplished in my life, where I live, and my gender. Gender is a very common answer I’ve come to realize. Using my personal Twitter account, I asked my friends late one night , “what’s the first word you think of when describing yourself?” I received back: “Male” (x2), “Female” (x1), “Girl!”(x3), “female Student Senator”(x1), “Student Leader”(x1), “Alcoholic!”(x1 –some frat boy trying to mess up my stats)
What does Ramage think about readymade identities?
-->Is there a way to fully understand identity? Or can we grasp it enough to lable ourselves? Ramage says, “The given identity includes all aspects of our identity that are inherited or acquired willy-nilly rather than by choice and/or by creative act” (42). These are the first pieces in understanding readymade identities. Ramage is saying that these “lables” (as I call them) aren’t given by choice—they are gives by how the person acts… but don’t we all act a certain way because of our identity and what we perceive that to be?
Back to “Wonder” Woman—
Who is Wonder Woman? Wonder. Woman. She is supposed to represent justice and power—but she looks like a stereotypical figure head for women’s sexuality.
Why isn’t she wearing pants? Why is the cleavage necessary?
Wonder Woman isn’t like women like me—she was drawn. Her sex appeal was designed for a reason. Male artists from that generation (around 1970) decided to make her leotard sit in a sweet-heart line along her chest and swoop the contours from her slender waist out to sexy hips—and no pants. She didn’t wear a mask to protect her identity—probably because her identity lied in her outfit.
When I was growing up in the 1990s, all the neighborhood boys would say things like, “Wonder Woman isn’t a real superhero because she’s a girl” –and maybe they were right. She wasn’t a ‘real’ superhero… there was nothing super about her. She was just pretty. And that’s what girls needed to be—just pretty. Her airplane was invisible; she didn’t have any ‘super’ strength, x-ray vision, or lightening fast speed. She does have a “Lasso of Truth”… a lasso… of truth. Compared to Batman’s gadgets from Wayne Enterprises—she’s got nothin’.
I recall a class in 8th grade—through the next few weeks of this American History course I started a new chapter: the 19th amendment. I found real women in history—some even wore pants—and the great things they did for American women. Susan B. Anthony didn’t wear a mask, or have super powers, or have a complimentary side kick. She had a loud voice and determination, which is something every woman should have. She wasn’t pretty. She wore pants and hats and paraded around town yelling for women’s rights to vote. Men at this time saw nothing sexual about her, and my class mates didn’t comment on how “hot” she was. But her voice was heard—she’s even in our history books.
So, women’s readymade identity is always sexual in most kinds of readymades that Ramage discusses: workplace, marketplace, and cultural-space.
Workplace: Her soul job is to fight crime… she is Wonder Woman.
Marketplace: When Wonder Woman came out it started as a new marketing strategy for the 1970s comics at the time. They wanted to tie in a woman to gain some popularity.
Cultural-space: This is our culture. We as Americans sexualize women—this may come as a broad/abstract statement, but can you argue it?
In this day and age we’ve moved from stereotyping women as “innocent” and “quiet” to SEX. Google a label and the word “woman”—and you’ll get some kind of porn instantly. Some will argue that the internet world is formed by pornography everywhere you turn (or click) but is it the case for men?
Women’s readymade is sex.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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