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mysteryfan (mysteryfan) wrote in scans_daily,

That story opens in a women's shelter being run and maintained by amazons. A woman shows up, seeking asylum from her husband, because she and her child are being mistreated. Problem is, her husband is a mystical king, a JLA-level threat, and he wants them back.
That is not a tempting scenario for me to read.

That's a gender story. The fundamental issue at the heart of the external conflict is this: Rama Khan's patriarchy and disregard for his wife and child's needs is wrong, and unacceptable, and must be changed. A balance must be found where their needs and his are considered equally. That is exactly the reason Diana was sent into the world - to deal with exactly that kind of bullshit.

I feel it may be sexist if the biggest, most important, most visible woman hero is specifically supposed to deal with sexism. That seems limiting and.. kind of sexist.

And she's doing it in stories--repping all women and the struggle of the terrible struggle of being a woman, in stories written--what 99%? By men.

And they won't even let her be lesbian. Or even bi. I mean, she doesn't even get to like sex, right? Is it the madonna ideal at least in some minds?

I don't like learning lesson stories very often, they often feel condescending and in this Golden Perfect story case it would seem to me to very much be preaching to the choir.

I don't think you can compare a specific WW story to 'a Batman story featuring Damien and Talia'. And I like complicated characters. I like that Talia's often devious and probably insane. It makes her more interesting to me. She's not saddled with the role of representing female perfection. WW is, and that feels sexist to me. There is only one kind of woman? Obviously not, and no man has to put with that.

Having a character who's explicitly about critiquing that default provokes an examination of that default, and the production of stories that defy that default, that is desperately needed.

It probably is needed, but...if that is the case, the reason for her existence and/or the way her stories are crafted, it's not surprising that I can't get into many of her stories.

not worrying about gender stuff means you use the default
I address issues of equality and social conscience in almost every choice I make, from the language I use to the groceries I buy. But I think it's --well, for me--it's the time to know that I don't use the sexist default, and that I trust more and more men, too, to not use the default. To not be sexist. And a lot of them are right there with me.

And if a reader learned anything from the last Talia and Batman story I read, which was originally printed in 1971, I think, we learn that Talia is quite resourceful and will save Bruce's life. I don't say we learn that women are quite resourceful, because luckily, Talia doesn't have to rep all women.

I will agree, very very wholeheartedly, that Batman has been written as a terrible misogynist recently. This makes me sad. And confused.

I don't know why writers of Batman in the 80s, 90s and 2000s hate women more than the writers of Batman in the 70s.
Is it a societal problem? Do they? They seem to. I don't know. I see it in the way they write the female Batcharacters, too. Diminishing the female characters.

I really don't know WW, so I may be totally off on some of this WW ideas. It's just what I think I see as an outsider looking in on the WWverse.
I like her character, and am very glad she exists. I love her and the idea of her and don't want them to make her go shopping in Trinity. I get that she does represent a feminine ideal, and that that will never change. I hope I didn't seem disrespectful in mentioning what I think I may have picked up on regarding her portrayal. I know she's your favorite character, and that it all, always for any character, comes back to the writing and the reader's own personal take on the character.