5 reasons why ‘Wonder Woman’ is the superhero movie America needs right now – LGBTQ Nation

I just saw Wonder Woman last night, and I have not reacted this emotionally to a movie since Brokeback Mountain.

I get why women are reacting so positively to the movie; as a gay man, I know that my well-being in society is inextricably tied up in womens empowerment and there was something about this movie that went beyond seeing a woman as a superhero.

Last year, America saw a qualified woman run for president and lose to a completely unqualified man who didnt even get more votes than her. It was a scary glimpse of just how broken the political system is.

Even though production began well before the election last November, Wonder Woman feels like a direct response to that feeling of injustice.

Here are 5 reasons why Wonder Women is exactly the movie America needs right now.

Wonder Woman, aka Diana Prince, is a warrior-princess who leaves the secluded island of the Amazons during World War I on a mission to kill Ares, the Greek god of war, and save humanity.

With such an ambitious project, shes going to need allies. I was expecting a lot of Mad Men-esque Look at how un-sexist we are in 2017! nonsense. I was expecting half the movie to be about men telling her she cant fight because shes a lady, about men who feel useless next to a powerful woman, about men saying that they cant follow a woman into battle.

Even if the men come around by the end of the movie, it still would have been a movie about men and sexism. Thats a topic that needs to be discussed, but what about just putting that aside for two hours? Envisioning a world without a certain problem is necessary to fighting that problem.

In Wonder Woman, Diana just rocks, the men recognize that, and they help her and follow her into battle. Its as simple as that.

No lies, no looking into every moment of her past for a flaw, no double standards. Shes obviously awesome, and people want her on their side.

Diana has a way of floating above the other characters. Shes not really a part of their world, and shes not just a fish out of water. Shes has high ideals and she makes no apologies for them.

Moral complexity in fiction is great, but theres a difference between moral complexity and nihilism. Seeing the flaws in all sides of a conflict is important, but its frustrating for that to be an excuse for inaction.

Wonder Woman herself knows that humans are more complicated than good versus evil, but she doesnt take that to the place where theres nothing worth valuing in this world.

Trumps campaign was all about nihilism: what have you got to lose? Everything is awful, so I cant make it worse. The media blew Clintons flaws out of proportion to make it seem like Both Sides Do It, and I had supposedly progressive friends tell me they just wanted to see him burn everything down because everything is so terrible.

Diana fights for love, honor, and justice in an age when nihilism is chic. And its just so refreshing.

Why does Diana Prince want to save the world?

Well, if the world needs to be saved, then someones got to do it!

Theres nothing wrong with her that makes her fight. Theres no troubled past, no one she wants to avenge. Yes, troubled heroes can be great to watch, but why does every female superhero have to have a dark past that makes her want to help others?

Wonder Woman doesnt need an excuse. Shes just a good person.

It reminds me of another famous woman who devoted most of her life to helping others out and faced decades of scrutiny because some people just couldnt believe that a woman would want the most powerful job in the world for any reason besides personal gain.

One of Wonder Womans main themes is whether humanity deserves to be saved. We can be pretty terrible, so why should someone so good trouble herself with helping us?

Especially since she trained hard since she was a child to be the person that she is today. Couldnt everyone else just try harder instead of depending on her?

Superhero stories dont usually raise these questions, but Wonder Woman went there and made it central to the story.

Dianas answer to that big question is just so right-on: who cares about merit when theres so much need?

So many times have I heard some permutation of Why should we have to help someone who could have done X or Y? in political arguments, which then gets the conversation bogged down in whether its reasonable to expect people to do X or Y.

Diana gets that question thrown at her time and again, but shes not deterred. Ultimately theres no way to prove or disprove that people deserve because there is no objective standard to determine merit. Instead, whats important are our beliefs.

Diana is an Amazon princess who is trying to find Ares and kill him. In the 20th century.

So some people think shes crazy.

In the end, the problems are more complex than she thought they would be, but fundamentally shes right.

Diana is more idealistic than everyone around her, has a vastly different belief system, is a strong woman in a world run by men, and holds fast to her sense of duty and justice.

And she gets to be right, dammit.

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5 reasons why 'Wonder Woman' is the superhero movie America needs right now - LGBTQ Nation