I’m a spy! That’s what I do!
wonder woman
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the pitch perfectness that was setting Wonder Woman during WW1? I mean, at first I was like…WWI? Why WWI? There was no clear cut bad guy in WWI. It was one of the most tragically pointless wars in human history.
But then I realized that was the point. In WWII it’s easy to point at Hitler and the Nazis and say, that’s them! that’s the bad guy. Just KILL THEM AND BE DONE WITH IT.
But the Point of Wonder Woman is that people, all people, are part of the problem. From Steve Trevor, who’s people, my people, massacred the Native Peoples, to the teenage German soldiers putting gas canisters on a plane, EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING IS MIX OF GOOD AND BAD CHOICES, and a victim and a perpetrator of choices that lead to death and suffering and tragedy.
And that makes Diana’s choice to keep fighting for peace even better. Because she’s not out to defeat one big bad and get it over with. She’s out to fight for peace, and that is a war that will NEVER end. How is that not 10000 times braver than just killing one person and ending a war?
It is Tolkien’s long victory, the victory you only see after the end. And that fight is braver than anything else you can do because it is step by step, day after day, choice after choice.
So I keep going on about this but what I love so much about Wonder Woman, about Diana, is that she is kind. She is so kind.
And yes, sure, Superman is kind, (at least most adaptations of Superman), but what gets me about Diana is the little things. Pretty much every person she runs in to, she wants to help them.
The small moments that got me in the movie were when she listened to people, really listened, and tried as best she could to help them.
When she has her super determined face on, ready to go to war and then stops because “Baby!” and runs over to hold the baby.
When she sees a man in agony her first instinct is to help, even when most people are running away.
When a poor woman who does not speak the language of anyone else around her latches on and begs her to help, Diana doesn’t tell her she has more important things to do. She breaks off her mission to save the few she can.
When Charlie is being hard on himself because he thinks he’s broken and useless from war flashbacks, Diana asks “who will sing for us?” She, who has valued the art of fighting all her life, does not belittle someone for being too scared, she gives them value regardless.
I love so many things about this movie, but the small moments of genuine care and kindness for people she doesn’t even know, especially in a time of war (real, terrifying, soul-scarring war) really get me.
Etta Candy, and the actress playing her in Wonder Woman.
(The world does not begin and end with Melissa McCarthy, except apparently it does.)
Part of me is still very excited about the movie, but:
1. it’s very white
2. fat suits are rarely a good idea
3. the slavery “joke” is just…don’tRELATED: here is a useful essay about how to be a fan of problematic things!
I noped out months ago when I saw the first picture of Etta Candy, but the secretary/slavery “joke” was the nail in the coffin.
…why would anyone not just hire a plus-size actress??
Beats me! Like, that’s an old photo, and her weight has gone up and down over the years … so why put her in a fat suit? (Let alone with those weird, improbable facial prosthetics?/incredibly unflattering make-up?)
Like, put Actual Lucy Davis in the movie, and we’d all go, “LOL, Hollywood!fat, bless their hearts”. But why they’ve taken a good-looking, average-sized woman and made her really ugly is beyond me. It’s not as though Gal Gadot is going to suddenly look terrible if she’s standing next to another attractive woman.
Anyway, I’ve never cared much about Wonder Woman, so I was never hugely excited for this movie – it’s just tiring to have yet another Great Feminist Tax Avoidance Scheme I Mean Action Movie that goes, “Yes! Women! Girl power! No fat chicks!”
I don’t think that is a fat suit. Here’s what Lucy Davis looked like in NCIS last year:
(I mean, sure, they might have had her in a fat suit then too, but I doubt it? Here she is on Twitter that same year.)
Anyway, put a picture of 2015 Lucy and a slightly more flattering picture of Lucy-as-Etta together and –
– I’m not a make-up artist or costume designer, obviously, but don’t think she’s been made to look larger than she actually is. I think it’s much more likely that the actress in question, after years of being called ‘dowdy’ by the Daily Mail and much much worse by commenters online, is just happy in her body now.
Etta Candy, and the actress playing her in Wonder Woman.
(The world does not begin and end with Melissa McCarthy, except apparently it does.)
Part of me is still very excited about the movie, but:
1. it’s very white
2. fat suits are rarely a good idea
3. the slavery “joke” is just…don’tRELATED: here is a useful essay about how to be a fan of problematic things!
Lucy Davis suffers from eating disorders and her health and body fluctuates because of that. You keep using a pic thats over 10 YEARS OLD. Please research before sprouting hate.
Google ‘Lucy Davis’ and her talking about her eating disorders comes up on the very first page. Finding non-Wonder-Woman pictures of her in 2016 is much harder but it doesn’t look like any fat suits are involved at all? (How would we know? Is it mentioned in a behind-the-scenes thing somewhere?)