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10 Common Misconceptions about Wonder Woman and Why They're Wrong


Wonder Woman is going to be getting her big screen debut this week. Diana of Themyscira has been around for many years and has always been a complex character. She’s often misunderstood, both by the general public and sometimes even by some of her writers. So I’m going to list some of the biggest misconceptions about her character and why they’re wrong. Here’s hoping that the Wonder Woman we see in the movies is written well and not based on any of these untrue assumptions about her character.

  1. Wonder Woman is not an inherently angry person

    Many adaptations, or comics where the writer is clearly not a particular fan of Wonder Woman depict her as an angry person at heart, but this is not true. Wonder Woman has a temper, but not a huge or uncontrollable one. Anger is not her default emotion. The modern version of Wonder Woman officially works as a diplomat, and she’s a good one. A diplomat can’t be an angry person at their core or have a hair-trigger temper. Wonder Woman is someone who can debate calmly, who tries to steer a situation in the right direction and always tries to find the best solution.

    She’s definitely not someone you want to piss off and injustice or a friend being harmed has been known to make her slip into a deep rage, but it’s not like she’s always angry or prone to overreaction.

    Sadly, some comic book writers will deliberately ignore the “diplomat” element of the character, and sometimes adaptations will leave it out completely so they fall back on the “angry feminist” stereotype. I adored the Justice League cartoon, but it was definitely guilty of this. 

  2. Wonder Woman is compassionate and not needlessly violent

    Many people think of Wonder Woman as someone who is “kill first, ask questions later”. This stereotype probably comes from both the aforementioned “angry feminist” perception, but also the fact she’s one of the few major DC heroes who is willing to kill at all. But being willing to kill doesn’t mean she will kill if she can help it. Seeing Wonder Woman as ruthless and trigger happy goes against the very core concept her creator William Moulton Marston had for the character- he wanted a hero who solved things with love and compassion, rather than relying only on violence.

    As stated before, Wonder Woman is a diplomat, and much of her comics history shows her reaching out to her foes and trying to understand them and help them, moreso than many other heroes do. In the early comics, she had an entire “reformation island” devoted to reforming her villians (in a…very bondage-y way, but still.”)

    A panel from Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman captures Diana’s philosophy perfectly:

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    Diana will kill if she’s backed into a corner and has to do so to save the lives of many. She killed Maxwell Lord when he was mind controlling Superman because he told her, under the lasso of truth, there was no other way to stop him, and he would go on to use Superman to kill many more. Diana is pragmatic and there’s nothing wrong with that. But being pragmatic is different from being ruthless. 

  3. Wonder Woman is not a man-hater who needs to be reformed

    There’s a lot of people who feel threatened by an explicitly feminist character who was raised on an island of all women. An assumption is made that she must look down on men and needs to be taught a lesson or something. You saw this in both the Justice League cartoon and the Wonder Woman animated movie.  Many adaptations go down the tired road of having some very basic “boys vs girls” storyline with Wonder Woman’s introduction. The animated movie showed Wonder Woman’s love interest as sexist and unappealing- he even tried to get her drunk so he could have sex with her. Yet somehow he teaches her “not all men are bad”, despite the fact he basically was attempting to rape her.

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    From Wonder Woman

    Throughout comic history Wonder Woman is not shown to be particularly disdainful of men. Wonder Woman is full of love and compassion for all people.  She knows not all men are bad, she saves the life of one in her very first appearance.

    What she does have a problem with is women being treated as second-class citizens. There is absolutely no need to having an overly defensive storyline about men being okay- it’s boring, it’s overdone, and we should be focused on fighting monsters and kicking ass instead. 

  4. Wonder Woman should not have a love interest who demeans her

    In the same vein, it’s time to stop giving Wonder Woman male love interests who are threatened by her and who are condescending and demeaning to her. There’s often this impression given that these writers feel men have to be insecure if they date a woman stronger than them, which is very unfair to men. There are lots of them out there who can handle a woman being better than them at stuff.

     Sometimes the writers go even farther than this and make the man somehow on equal combat level with Wonder Woman even when it makes no sense. For instance, in the aforementioned Wonder Woman animated movie, their version of her love interest Steve Trevor was somehow able to fight on an equal level to Wonder Woman despite the fact he was a normal guy and she has freaking superpowers. It made no sense, but God forbid Steve be emasculated!

    The funny thing about this is Wonder Woman repeatedly outperformed Steve and saved his life in comics from the 1940’s and he loved her for it. He was not threatened at all, he basically worshipped her for being such an awesome savior. If a comic written in the 40’s had a man fill the “love interest in distress role” and not feel threatened or demean her in response, then modern media should really be able to handle that.

    Though I also wouldn’t complain about avoiding the issue altogether by having Wonder Woman date a woman. 

  5. Wonder Woman is not a weaker version of Superman

    It’s true that Wonder Woman, like most superheroes, owes some her inspiration to Superman. And she does share powers with him in flight and superstrength. But Wonder Woman also has her own unique powers and strengths.

    First of all, there’s Wonder Woman’s control over the lasso of truth, which is the coolest thing. The lasso isn’t merely a tool for her. She herself has a connection to the truth. There was a storyline where she lost faith in her ability to wield the lasso and as a result the entire world fell apart. Truth and belief became one and the same, the moon turned to green cheese and so on.

    So Wonder Woman has a command of the very concept of truth- for everyone. And the lasso is much more powerful than a simple lie detector. It can show people the truth about themselves, which can either completely tear them apart or change them completely.

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    From Wonder Woman

    She once used the lasso to bring down Ares, the God of War, by showing him that his desire to spread war would leave him with no one to worship him. This caused him to give up the fight completely and shut down- she didn’t even need to throw a punch.

    Her powers are also demonstrated by her interaction with this villain:

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    From Wonder Woman

    It can make people reveal their deepest fears, greatest vulnerabilities and things they’d hidden even from themselves. It’s terrifyingly powerful. Not to mention the lasso is unbreakable even for the strongest foes, making it an amazing weapon.

    This is not the only unique ability Wonder Woman has- a little known fact is she can talk to animals. She also has a connection to the earth itself and a preternatural hunting instinct.

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    From Justice League

    And on a combat level, she’s much more skilled than Superman and many other super strong heroes. She was trained as a warrior from birth after all and can wield all kinds of weapons. It’s been confirmed that thanks to this, she has much faster reflexes than Superman. She’s fought toe to toe with him several times in the comics and beaten him a few times. 

  6. Wonder Woman has a unique mission statement

    Wonder Woman’s mission statement is unique compared to most heroes. She doesn’t just want to save the world, she wants to change it. That’s her stated mission as a diplomat. She wants to change the world on social level, rather than only defend it from supervillains. She’s very entrenched in politics, founding charities, doing social work and her stated goal is to end all war. She’s not merely reactionary- she’s trying to make a world where fighting is unnecessary and everyone is equal.

  7. Wonder Woman has a vibrant mythology

    Wonder Woman is a mythological character and it’s something to embrace about her. She fights the scariest mythological monsters and gets her powers from the Greek Gods. Someone who does this cannot be boring if the writer is talented. She literally beats up Gods on a regular basis. That’s cool as heck and Greek mythology and mythology in general is so huge and endless there’s no limit to the amount of stories you can tell with her.

  8. Wonder Woman is not naive and easily scandalized

    Some writers go in to opposite direction of “angry and bloodthirsty” and present her as ridiculously pure, naïve and innocent.

    The worst example of it was a comic by Jodi Picoult, which presented her as not knowing how to pump gas or order coffee despite having lived in America for many years. A Wonder Woman who’s just arrived in our world can be a little naïve and innocent - but Wonder Woman is incredibly smart and picks up on things fast. She even worked at a fast food restaurant once- she knows her stuff. She’s definitely not some parody of purity either- she grew up in a warrior culture surrounded by very rowdy women and had a very dry sense of humor. 

    click to enlarge
  9. Wonder Woman has a strong code of honor

    Wonder Woman is the champion of truth and she takes this very seriously. She doesn’t typically do deception. The modern version of her doesn’t even bother with a secret identity and is often shown to be a bad liar. She has such a strong dedication to the truth she even wraps herself in the lasso on a weekly basis and tries to confront any self-deception within her. When she was hit by a dragon whose fire burned people more severely based on the deception they engage in, she barely burned at all.

    Which is why depictions of her as a femme fatale or thief ring false. She couldn’t wield the lasso of truth if she wasn’t an honest person with a strong sense of honor.

  10. The Amazons who raised Wonder Woman are meant to subvert misogynist mythology

    As I’ve mentioned before, the original stories about the Amazons in Greek Mythology were anti-women propaganda, meant to convince people how horrible an all female society would be. This is why the Amazons were murderers and rapists. However, William Moulton Marston’s explicit goal in depicting the Amazon culture from Wonder Woman hailed from was to reject that misogynist propaganda. He wanted to show that an all women society could be functional, successful and even great, rather than inherently evil.

    Marston’s Amazons, like Wonder Woman herself, are meant to be a celebration of women. This reclaims a story meant to harm women and makes it something that supports women.

    Any depiction of Wonder Woman’s fellow Amazons as being largely evil, murderous rapists or her culture as being inherently bad goes against Marston’s point and instead simply falls in line with the women-hating rhetoric of a thousand years ago. It’s not “realistic” or “subversive” and it misses the point of Wonder Woman. It simply shows whoever wrote it has not evolved past believing the ancient horror stories demonizing communities of women.

    This is not to say Wonder Woman’s culture has to be depicted as a completely perfect utopia. There should realistically be cracks and flaws and not-so-great Amazons- and there are in many great Wonder Woman stories. But Themiscyra should be depicted as a functional, decent society that strives to do the best it can, not some evil dystopia, otherwise it loses the positive message the story is supposed to have.  

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