beccaelizabeth | Wonder Woman

There was going to be a Wonder Woman movie. There's often going to be one, and yet here we still wait. I went around reading what was planned for it, and something about it bugged me. The writer, whose work I otherwise liked, was talking about Diana first arriving in man's world, and learning about it.

No.

Diana is not here to learn. She is here to teach.

Her weapon is truth. She is here to make the whole of man's world look at itself and see the truth of what they have become. To see the injustice, the inequality, the harms subtle and gross that they have built into their systems, that they do to each other day after day after day. And she is here to show them a better way.

When I was growing up, reading Wonder Woman, what I understood from it was this:

Because of men's violence, women got hurt. Women got killed. But the goddesses did not let the injustice stand. They gathered them up, and gave them a better place to live. Paradise Island was a women's shelter, and Diana grew up there. They practiced peace, and learned how to be both wise and strong. And then one day, when Diana proved she had learned all their lessons and become the best of them, she was sent out into the world. Man's world. Because it was time to try again to make it better.

Diana is a Princess with no need for a Prince, to be saved by or to save. Her power comes from her mother the Queen, who rules without need of a King. She has two moms, the Queen and the Goddess who gave her form. Her mother tried to stop her competing to be Wonder Woman, because every last woman of Themyscira knows what men can do to women, and she wanted to keep her baby away from them. But Diana proved she could handle it, so she became her mother's Ambassador.

Wonder Woman is the strongest woman of an island of strong women, who teach that strength can be used with love. Her enemies include the God of War, who represents the use of violence to create fear and enforce domination, to beat down the small and keep them weak. Amazons have a better way. They fight to protect the weak and the innocent, and teach them to stand up, so everyone can grow stronger together. They show that even after the worst has happened, even when you have every reason to fear, you can be wise and loving and to the bone brave.

The only thing Diana came out here to learn is that separatism isn't needed any more, because we are ready.

You can read the comics and find stuff that doesn't fit that reading, I know. But I read it that way. I needed someone like that.

Like a lot of people do.

Who is it who needs that other woman? Some puzzled innocent who has deep lessons to learn from these men she's been deprived of? I can't think of anyone. There's plenty who might want it, but they'd be chugging down poison, propping up their ignorance. That's not what Wonder Woman is for. She's here to make them see. Goddess of truth.

Guys need a Wonder Woman who believes in them, too. Who believes that the violence can end, because men are better than that. Who believes equality is possible, because it frees us all.

We need her because she represents all the things we need to survive this world. Peace through strength, love, and learning better together.