Superheroines have often been portrayed as supporting characters or possible romantic interests for superheroes.
Sometimes they have been "variations on existing male characters," said Joe Askins, technical services librarian at NorthWest Arkansas Community College's Pauline Whitaker Library. He noted that She-Hulk is basically the concept of the Hulk transplanted into a female character. Wonder Woman, however, was different.
Go & Do
‘Wonder Women!: The Untold Story of American Superheroines’
Film Screening and Panel Discussion
When: 12:30-2:30 p.m. Monday
Where: Room 108 of the Becky Paneitz Student Center at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville
Cost: Free but donations to the Art Club at NWACC are appreciated
Information: [email protected] or wonderwomendoc.com
At A Glance
Panel Questions
A four-person panel will discuss “Wonder Women!: The Untold Story of American Superheroines,” following the screening. The audience is invited to participate in the discussion. Here are a few of the questions:
• Are powerful women at a disadvantage in our society? If so, why? What are some of the ways people — both men and women — describe and react to a strong woman?
• Why do you think women are so often portrayed in the mass media as sexualized, as having only romantic interests, and generally accessories to men? If men constitute the majority of writers and producers of mass media, what does this say about them?
• How do the speakers in the documentary become characters in this true story? What role do they play?
— Source: Lindsay Hutton
"I don't think she was a carbon copy of any of those characters," he said.
Askins is one of the panelists for the documentary film screening "Wonder Women!: The Untold Story of American Superheroines," which will be Monday at the Becky Paneitz Student Center at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. Other panelists include William Allred, associate director of technology at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and an adjunct instructor at NWACC; Bethany Hollis, a full-time student at NWACC with an interest in gender studies and superhero films; and Susan M. Marren, associate professor of English specializing in modern American literature and gender studies at the University of Arkansas. Lindsay Hutton of the NWACC English department will moderate the panel discussion.
The 2012 documentary directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan looks at "the history of women superheroines in comics, focusing mostly on Wonder Woman," Askins said. Wonder Woman is likely the most recognizable female superhero in comic books and pop culture. The film discusses "both the positive and negative ways that women tend to be portrayed in this one medium or genre." Askins added that the film offers hope that the medium can change and an optimistic view of the way women will be portrayed in comics moving forward.
Allred, a panelist who is a lifelong comic reader and writer of comic series "Diary of Night," which stars a female character, said the documentary "brings to light a lot of gender issues that I don't think are specific to just comics." The portrayals of female superheroes have gotten better over the years, but they still have a long way to go to be on par with the portrayals of male superheroes in comics, TV and movies, Allred said.
The documentary features Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV show, and Lindsay Wagner, who played the title role in "The Bionic Woman" show in the 1970s. There are also interviews with comic writers and artists and real-life superheroines Gloria Steinem and Kathleen Hanna.
Wonder Woman was created in the 1940s by William Moulton Marston. He drew on mythology of Amazons and the all-female society, Askins said.
Every comic book character has its ebbs and flows, he added, noting that these fictional characters are "subject to the whims of a writer and an artist." In the current comic book, Wonder Woman is physically more realistic than the portrayal in the 1990s and early 2000s of a statuesque, pin-up girl look, he said. Wonder Woman as a character did not interest Askins much until recently, he said, noting that he grew up reading comics on Transformers, Spider-man, Batman and X-Men. He said the current Wonder Woman comic book writer is doing some very interesting things with the character, though.
"She's not played as a kind of damsel in distress who's having to be saved by men," he said.
Askins believes most Americans recognize a lot of superhero characters and "have a sense of who they are, what their story is, what they represent, even if they don't read a comic book." Steinem and Hanna talk about how women were and were not portrayed in the media and popular culture when it came to these roles. They may not have shelves of comic books, but they relate to Wonder Woman and what she represents on a more symbolic level, he added.
Panel moderator Hutton said she has looked at the new Wonder Woman comic, but she does not have an extensive background in comics. Wonder Woman is her favorite comic book genre superheroine, but she also loves powerful female characters that are not actual superheroes, such as Ree Dolly in "Winter's Bone" and Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Hutton said she hopes that people will think about the way the character of Wonder Woman has evolved, "what that says about the way that we view women," and also how important it is for everyone to have a hero. She added that those attending the event can enjoy it even if they have no familiarity with the comic books because the film takes viewers through the history of the comics.
Askins is hoping for a good turnout of men and women to get a full spectrum discussion. He said there are plenty of students at NWACC who show an interest in comic books and graphic novels.
Allred says this event will first highlight that comic books still exist. It's not the mass media that it used to be, he said, noting that it had more impact and influence in the 1930s and 1940s. But he hopes the medium will become more influential in the future than it has been in recent years.
NAN Life on 04/09/2014