So as we all know, the recent movie ‘Wonder Woman’ was a massive success.
What is even more gratifying is that it was a movie that studios had resisted making for years – thinking it would never be popular.
Now I am sure if you were to ask them what those reasons were, they would have many – but I’m also sure that if you were to hear them, the overwhelming reasons we’d determine from their answers would be sexism and prejudice.
But this isn’t about the movie, it’s about the 70’s TV show.
OK, so there might be people who come on here who have no idea what I’m talking about, but decades ago, Wonder Woman was a TV show staring Lynda Carter.
While I remember it, I don’t remember much about it other than it was different to the usual 70’s superhero TV shows of Batman and The Six Million Dollar Man.
But here’s the thing, while I categorise it as a classic ‘entertainment’ show from my childhood, a recent interview with Lynda Carter makes me realise it was so much more.
Not that long ago I met someone who asked what my earliest memories about black people on television were.
When I thought about it … it was Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch and the adopted brothers from the show Different Strokes. As soon as I said it, I realised the significance. My frame of reference for any black person on television during my formative years was a guy on the edge of society and 2 kids ‘saved’ by a rich, white person.
Fuck, that’s horrible.
But imagine how it must have felt if you were a black kid in the 70’s.
Fortunately I grew up with parents who would never let me get seduced by those media stereotypes – not to mention a diverse group of friends who made sure I would never define someone by their colour or gender – but I know not everyone is like that.
Which leads back to Lynda Carter and Wonder Woman.
While all the plaudits for female empowerment are going to the recent movie, the fact is the star of the original TV show was endeavoring to do that decades ago.
While the significance of her actions may have passed me by, I imagine if you were a little girl in the 70’s watching it, it didn’t.
Having a show about a ‘super woman’ must have been good in itself, but having a show where the lead actress approached her role by saying, “… she didn’t have any particularly super X-Ray vision or anything, she just wasn’t going to put up with anything from anybody” must have been absolutely empowering and inspiring.
Seriously, when I read that, I wanted to stand up and cheer
Role models are vital.
Not just for ‘minorities’ to feel heard and valued, but for the majority to not allow prejudices to be nurtured.
So while society may be focusing on the empowering actions of The Spice Girls, Cindy Gallop, Gal Gadot or Emma Watson … it’s worth remembering and celebrating the original Wonder Woman – literally and metaphorically – Lynda Carter.