But enough about me and more about Wonder Woman [film and comic spoilers ahead... so...]
From the very beginning of the film, it's made clear that Diana is an archetype of Christ. Let's lay it out:
- Initial, unknown divine origin which she must learn
- Key in a vast plan of God to save humanity
- LITERAL offspring of God
- Loves all people
- Must fight a fallen angel/brother to save humanity from his evil influences
Even Superman doesn't hit all those marks.
Take it from an English major/teacher, (or just go read some books) it is not uncommon to find women as archetypes of Christ, or at least symbols. (I mean, it's definitely more common to find men, but women exist there.) What makes Wonder Woman special is this: she's Fighting Jesus. Most female symbols of Christ are Submissive Christ and rarely people possible to emulate or even desirable to emulate.
Some examples of female symbols of Christ in other places through the eons:
Beatrice, Dante's Inferno
One inconvenience given to women as archetypes of Christ is that they can be impossible to emulate in that they are so perfect that the distance between the reader and the pedestal can alter the way she is seen. Beatrice in Dante's Inferno is his muse and guide and is perfect enough to be missing any kind of defining characteristic or personality. It's like trying to be the human version of perfect khakis: sure it's perfect, but it's sooooooo boring. And where would you even start?
Grushenka, The Brother's Karamazov
The other common inconvenience in the female Christ archetype is that she is not someone you want to emulate: she's unhappy and exists solely for the saving of men, not women. Grushenka in The Brothers Karamazov, who is rumored to be a prostitute, is the saving grace of several of the main characters in this book. Grushenka, however, is left without personality or plot of her own. In fact, the book does not even pass the Bechdel test (for those of you unfamiliar with this test, what??? And here's a link).
Babette, Babette's Feast
Similar to Grushenka, Babette is not someone anyone wants to be: because of her self-sacrifice, she begins and ends in rags and is grossly underappreciated.
In all the examples I can think of in mainstream media and literature, women are the Helpful Jesus, Submissive Jesus and are never the center of their own story (unless you consider Babette mainstream, you hipster).
HERE is why Wonder Woman is important:
Wonder Woman takes her place among Superman, Optimus Prime, Aslan, Harry Potter, The Doctor, Neo and SOOOO many other archetypes of Jesus who fight for good. Christian women and men are told to emulate Christ, but we are shown that it means different things for the different sexes. IT DOES NOT. Men can be submissive like Christ was when he was subjected to the scorn of wise men in his day or prayed for us or took on the cross. Women can be strong and heroic like Christ when he threw out the money-changers or stood up for the weak or like he will be when he comes again. Wonder Woman is important because it breaks through this barrier and shows that there is no one way to be like Christ.
(Sidebar: I know a lot of ladies are crying out there because of this normal portrayal of women, but I got suuuuuper angry with everyone else who hasn't done this already. Like, if it's so easy, wtf Marvel?)
I wonder if I agree that emulating Christ does not mean different things for men and women. Yeah, childbearing seems to come up in this kind of conversation a lot, but I think it's valid. I think having a child is Christlike and it seems like he does too since he tells us that he wants to beget us and uses the example of a woman remembering her suckling child ad apparently the closest approximation of his care for us. That'll obviously never be part of how I emulate Christ. I've also noticed times when I couldn't be a "fighting" Christian for certain gospel principles because my gender made it hard to be considered trustworthy or empathetic and I had to literally ask my sister what she thought about responding to it instead.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if being Christlike is EVER desirable? I don't think I'd rather be Aslan than Grushenka.
I definitely like your lesson that men and women can both emulate Christ through both submission and, uh, "fighting."
See??? This is why I wanted to have, like, a discussion; my ideas are not fully fleshed out, but I hope the idea of female empowerment came through positively. (I know you aren't against that...)
DeleteWe know what Paul would say about the ways men and women express their Christianity, or at least the way he was translated, but mostly, the Bible doesn't make those distinctions (although it's hard to tell due to lack of representation).
It's true that Christ is often referred to by himself as a mother hen, but that just means to me that men can be motherly too…? Gender roles we have today are social constructs. There are so many instances in the Bible where women display Christlike attributes through things we might consider the "manly." Esther stands up to the man, apocryphal Judith beheads a warlord, Naomi adopts stewardship of her family (Ruth), a priestess in the temple prophesies about Jesus, Zapporah circumcises her son for Moses, and so many more. On the flipside, I feel like there are tons of examples of men doing "womanly" things in the Bible as well. I just don't think we should be exclusively submissive or bold. There's a time for each, but if we assign each gender one or the other, it could be harmful...
Fair point about Aslan. But at least you get Harry Potter, Superman, Optimus Prime etc. ;)
Oh, well I didn't want to be disagreeable but I think Harry Potter, Neo, Optimus Prime are kind of lame Christ surrogates. :D
ReplyDeleteBut superman...yeah. Superman rocks.
I partially agree about gender roles. I believe that some are artificial social constructs. And some are not. I do think men can be motherly, but that on the whole mothers do the best mothering.
My least favorite feminism says that women are only free or good when they are as good at masculining as men. I also dislike feminism that says gender is meaningless. My preferred feminism says being a woman is different from being a man, but differently than what much of tradition has told you, and being a woman is not inferior to being a man.
So full agreement on the idea that women can be Christlike in ways that include fighting/teaching/leading folks. Even when those folks are full geown men folks and not just children folks.