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One less woman in politics: Wonder Woman loses job as UN ambassador One less woman in politics: Wonder Woman loses job as UN ambassador
(about 5 hours later)
Wonder Woman’s tenure as a United Nations honorary ambassador will come to an abrupt end on Friday, less than two months after the appointment of the comic book character sparked outcries of protest. The UN has dropped the superhero Wonder Woman as an ambassador for empowering girls and women after a brief stint that drew widespread criticism.
Plans had called for the use of Wonder Woman in an empowerment campaign for women and girls into 2017, according to the comic book’s publisher, but the character’s role is ending this week, a UN spokesman said on Monday. The campaign around the comic book character, who turned 75 this autumn, lasted for less than two months. Among its key aims were challenging female stereotypes and fighting discrimination and violence against women and girls.
The superhero’s appointment as UN honorary ambassador to fight for gender equality promptedangry criticism that the choice sent the wrong messages. But the appointment prompted an angry backlash from some quarters. More than 44,000 people signed a petition that claimed to have been started by “concerned United Nations staff members” which called on the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to appoint a non-fictional woman to the role.
Nearly 45,000 people signed an online petition asking the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to reconsider. “It is alarming that the United Nations would consider using a character with an overtly sexualised image at a time when the headline news in United States and the world is the objectification of women and girls,” the petition’s authors wrote.
“Although the original creators may have intended Wonder Woman to represent a strong and independent ‘warrior’ woman with a feminist message, the reality is that the character’s current iteration is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit,” the petition read. Her scanty clothing – “a shimmery, thigh-baring bodysuit with an American flag motif and knee-high boots” – meant that deploying her as a role model for the UN was culturally insensitive in many parts of the world, the petition added.
Wonder Woman, a DC Comics heroine, first appeared in 1941, fighting villains, rescuing victims and unearthing evil plots. Wonder Woman’s tenure as an honorary ambassador was launched on 21 October with an event that saw a silent protest by audience members who turned their backs on the panel, which included current and former Wonder Woman actors Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter.
Dozens of UN employees protested at UN headquarters on the day of the appointment, when Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment, said the Wonder Woman campaign would feature various initiatives “over the course of the next year”. Others protested in the lobby, holding up signs that said “I’m not a mascot” and “Let’s get real”.
The UN did not provide further details as to why the Wonder Woman campaign was ending this week, but spokesman Jeffrey Brez said campaigns using fictional characters often lasted no longer than a few months. Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment, the Warner Bros subsidiary behind Wonder Woman, told the event the campaign would feature various initiatives “over the course of the next year”, suggesting that the partnership was envisaged to last into 2017.
The designation of Angry Birds, a collection of animated characters that originated in an online video game, as UN climate change envoys in March lasted a single day, he said. But now the UN has confirmed Wonder Woman’s time as an honorary ambassador will end this week. “From the UN’s side, there was no plan for it to be much longer than this,” said Jeffrey Brez, the UN’s chief of NGO relations and advocacy.
DC Entertainment, which publishes DC Comics, said it was pleased with the exposure Wonder Woman brought to the UN’s global goal to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls by 2030 “as well as elevating the global conversation around the empowerment of women and girls”. DC Entertainment had approached the UN to explore a joint project to mark the character’s 75th birthday, Brez said. The campaign aimed to harness Wonder Woman’s popularity to allow the UN to target new audiences with its messages on equality for women and girls.
“Wonder Woman stands for peace, justice and equality, and for 75 years she has been a motivating force for many and will continue to be long after the conclusion of her UN honorary ambassadorship,” said Courtney Simmons, a spokeswoman for DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros Entertainment that is a division of Time Warner. The angry response in some quarters prompted the UN to make celebrating the achievements of “real-life Wonder Women” one of the campaign’s core goals.
The release next year of a special-edition Wonder Woman comic book on the empowerment of women and girls, announced in October, is still planned, Simmons said. The collaboration had lasted longer than previous UN roles given to fictional characters, Brez added, pointing out that a character from the video game Angry Birds served as climate change ambassador for a single day in March.
Other fictional characters to have been given honorary roles include Winnie the Pooh as honorary ambassador for friendship in 1997, and Tinkerbell as honorary ambassador for “green” to promote environmental awareness in 2009.
Warner Bros and DC Entertainment have been “extremely pleased” with the partnership’s role in raising awareness of the empowerment of women and girls, a spokeswoman said.
“Wonder Woman stands for peace, justice and equality, and for 75 years she has been a motivating force for many and will continue to be long after the conclusion of her UN honorary ambassadorship.”