Wonder Woman Feminist Analysis

Although graphic novels and comics have long been associated with and relegated to a predominantly male audience, there exists a complex and sometimes antagonistic history between female readers and representations of them in comic form. In recent years, as there has been a revival of graphic novels aimed at young adults, there seems to be a movement towards repairing this relationship with female readers by calling into question the pervasively rigid gender binary structure. To do so, these contemporary YA graphic novels utilize the interplay of image and text to provide a unique space for the adolescent reader to both uncover and deconstruct these traditional notions of gender. This movement has especially taken form with contemporary female

Comic covers that display her saving helpless men and carrying them through wreckage disrupt traditional images of women as damsels in distress, always waiting to be saved by a strong man. This is among the many reasons why, as Emad notes, feminist and founder of Ms. Magazine Gloria Steinem saw Wonder Woman “as an early feminist hero” (966). On the other hand, however, after Marston’s death and especially by the early 2000’s, critics like Emad note that Wonder Woman’s image became even more hypersexualized and lost much of its original

The story seems to show Emily taking up this kind of patriarchal role immediately after her father’s tragic death. This is exemplified with the image of Emily holding and comforting her hysterical mother, as a child might be held, while Emily seems to be trying to hold it together emotionally. This hiding of her own emotions in order to protect her mother’s feelings is shown again when Navin tells their mother that Emily is “making the mopey face again” (15) to which she replies “Don’t listen to him mom, I’m doing fine” (15). She also takes up a patriarchal role when she is ‘chosen’ to take her great-grandfather’s place as stonekeeper. The fact that she takes up these traditionally held masculine roles of power doesn’t is not by accident, and the fact that she does after her father dies is telling of how the story is constructing