Female Heroes and Villains vs. Men?

Hello readers! Welcome back! After taking a break from Wonder Woman last week, I am excited to tell you that she is back! Now, one of the biggest controversies that people had regarding Wonder Woman was the fact that all of the other superheroes were men, therefore she was treated differently. Wonder Woman tried to show that she could be “tough and manly,” while still acting like a lady. In an article that I read, the author discusses the history of superheroes, in specific, Wonder Woman and her enemies . The author, Katherine G. Aiken, talks about how when Wonder Woman was created, women were treated differently. Aiken claims that “writers were never really comfortable with a woman superhero, and Wonder Woman's career demonstrates that clearly” (46). Aiken argues that as a superhero, Wonder Woman was treated differently because she was female, therefore the men did not think that she could do as much as them, but Wonder Woman proved them wrong. Aiken also says that “In Wonder Woman comics, the strongest characters, even the villains, are women” (46). Aiken explains that Wonder Woman values other woman, regardless of who they are sometimes because if they do not stick together, then they will all be brought down. 

I think that Aiken’s argument is both logical and reasonable. She uses specific examples from the comics that exemplify the fact that female comic book characters were not treated equally. I think that Wonder Woman’s feelings regarding inequality made her feel somewhat “less of a woman” and motivated her to do her best when fighting enemies. The ironic thing is that basically, all of Wonder Woman’s enemies were woman just as well. Because they were all women, I believe that she might have had more sympathy for them than if she was fighting a male. Wonder Woman wanted to promote women power as best as she could, therefore she probably would do her best to not kill her female enemies or else the number of strong, courageous women would constantly be decreasing.  I think that Aiken presented this specific topic in the article very well because she was able to make a connection with Wonder Woman, considering Aiken is a woman herself.  I agree with the fact that women heroes being treated as “less of a hero” is wrong, because they are just as important.  The only question that I would have for Aiken is: if Wonder Woman got to a point where she hated the discrimination so much, would she team up with any villains to fight the discriminatory men?

(Aiken, G. Katherine. Organization of American Historians. "Superhero History: Using Comic Books to Teach Us History." 2010. Web. 8. Oct. 2015.)