Defrocking Wonder Woman
A few days ago I had a painful epiphany: I live in a world where both men and women are sexually objectified, both in word and action. This epiphany occurred here on campus. The pain came from understanding that objectification is a form of sexual harassment. Whew. What happened was that I went to a rally on gender as an English 101 assignment. You know the ones where you do your Math 101 homework while listening with half a ear to the speakers. While I was sitting there trying to square two xs and a y, I began to hear stories from the speakers about normal situations I recognized from my own life that made me aware that sexual harassment is all around. I had never noticed it before because it is so prevalent ,and the behavior seemed so normal since it has been that way all my life. Wow painful epiphany. Women, as well as men, are viewed as objects on commercials, television shows, at their workplace, and even in the classroom.
Let me use a common television show to display the significance of this problem. The other day I watched the show, Wonder Woman, which had been one of my favorite shows when I was young girl during my teen years. "Eight to fourteen is the time when a young woman 'claims' her sexual identity: will she be a plain Jane or a sexy Sadie?'" (Uttmeyer 35). Now, as I watched the show in my thirties, I noticed something that had never infringed upon my consciousness in my teens. Wonder Woman doesn't wear anything except a sparkly swimsuit type of clothing. She struts and strides around the brush and bramble with nylons that never seem to tear or run. Her hair is perfectly coifed even after the most arduous of adventures. All her conversations when she is dressed in such a way are assertive and functional. "Stop now," she says, "let me do that." Wow, talk about objectification. Noted author S. Sheridan also believes Ms. Wonder promotes the objectification of women, "This cardboard adventure queen sends messages to both girls and boys: a heroine can be both strong and sexy which reinforces the old myth of a perfect cook in the kitchen and whore in the bedroom" (26). Is it any wonder that young, inexperienced women have trouble identifying sexually harassment? While young, we girls would dress up like Wonder Woman and the guys like Superman. We would imitate these larger-than life action figures because they were the epitome of a hero. What we didn't realize was that we were falling into society's trap from which only time and age could release us. We thought it was appropriate to dress and talk the way Wonder Woman did; we did not really understand it was helping us adapt to the sexual and linguistic stereotype.
Appropriate attire is, of course, what the "good girl" will have in her closet; Wonder Woman also showed us that. When she is not saving Damsel In-Distress or helping a Johnny Geek, how conservatively she dressed, without make-up and her hair pulled back into a bun. Her discourse could be lifted from Little Women, the infamous tome of manners. "This images reinforces the idea that girls should mask their real selves and hide their true identity" (Johnson 36). Moreover, her sentences, as the meek-mannered, office worker are tempered with qualifiers and terms to produce agreement while avoiding conflict at all cost. You will not find her making a declarative statement; instead, she will be ensured that her words will create harmony. However, when the time comes to become a super hero, the transformation occurs: clothes come off, effort-free make-up appears, the hair goes down and the language explodes. "Take your hands off the woman, sir, before I knock you to hell and back;" this is no wilting violet, shy to the extreme, creating a harmonious atmosphere. What a heroine for young girls to aspire towards: a made-up, half-dressed, expletive-spewing, wild-haired vixen. The moment she is not needed by someone, anyone, she must truss, bind, and silence herself until she is needed once again, a model of purity.
The effects of this type of role-modeling on young girls is apparent everywhere. Noted psychologist, J. Alexander, states,
Many women, so inured to the rampant sexual harassment present in the very core of our society, will eventually have to come to terms with it. Some will slowly awaken and notice they have been passed by during promotion time and time again; others jerk awake when an uncle or cousin makes openly suggestive remarks and no-one seems shocked. And a few others will take a quick look around, notice they are out-numbered by those in power (men, of course), then close their eyes and deny there is a problem. (35)
A few women, too, I would think will not be Wonder Women; instead, they will stand up in their blue-buttoned blouses, their Nikes, their loose and baggy clothing; they will stand tall and try to change the problems of sexual objectification.
Mark Ortega-Luna, a college friend, has a mother who does just that, though she wears Birkenstock's not Nikes, and she has taught her children that the only degree of superiority between women and men lies in people's perceptions. When friends gather at Mark's house, traditional woman's work or man's work does not exist -- all housekeeping and auto maintenance are put on one list, whomever is next on the list, does the job whether it be changing the oil in the Bronco or ironing mom's surgical scrubs. Often Mark can be found cooking and serving his family's dinner while his sister will be out in garage cleaning the carburetor on the lawn mower. Mark has noticed the different ways men and women are treated in the real world, especially, sad to say, in the high school classroom:
When I noticed the science teachers treating me and my buddies with more respect than the girls in the room, I was curious. I even asked one once why he did that. He told me that I would understand when I was older. Well, I'm older, and I still don't understand.
Mark's mom, Jane Ortega-Luna, indeed, deserves hero status for teaching those with whom she comes in contact to not objectify either women nor men.
Luckily, not all men view women as objects, and ideally all of us, men and women, who have not been trapped by the Wonder Women and Superman images, will help those still ensnared escape the bondage of those pseudo action figures. The real heroes in our society are those who are working for this change, those who wear nothing underneath their daily costumes but their own skin.
Works Cited
Alexander, Jane. "Heroes of a Different Sort." Wherever Daily. 29 Nov. 1995: A3.
Johnson, Jan. Noted Role-Models Missing in Girls Lives. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Luna, Mark. Personal Interview. 17 Jan. 1996.
Meunier, Lydie E. "The Psychological Impact of the Socialization Process: Further Understanding Gender Issues." Mental Health Net. Home page. 6 Nov. 1996. <http://www.cmhc.com/perspectives/articles/art79621.htm>.
Sheridan, Sue. "Can Women Really Succeed in the Wonder World?" Science Not Psychology 206 (1989): 891-1000.
Utemeyer, Luisa. The Why of It All. Dartsmouth: Best of the Best,
1998.
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