Wonder Woman is 69 years old this year and her birthday present is a makeover -- new hairstyle, slinky pants and a jacket

Be an action hero

Wonder Woman is 69 years old this year and her birthday present is a makeover -- new hairstyle, slinky pants and a jacket. I definitely won't miss the American flag pattern swimsuit. All her compassionate crime fighting and stellar feminist values were somewhat undercut by the fact that she did it basically togged up in a US flag, symbolising a defense of that particular civilization and its supposed values.

The part of her makeover which I'm really not liking is the new backstory. Earlier, Wonder Woman was the daughter of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons of Paradise Island. She was given the powers of love and wisdom along with some magic stuff like her girdle and bracelet, by the goddesses Aphrodite and Athena to make "bad men good" and "weak women strong."

In the new version, she survives an attack by unknown forces that destroy her family and home. Boring. I mean, why, when she can have a glamorous, mythic background, should Wonder Woman share backstories with Harry Potter or Vijay/Amitabh Bachchan?

There have been standard (and appropriate) critiques of sexist depictions of female superheroes -- namely their gigantic breasts and revealing costumes. But political correctness trumps power -- a costume change making the body and the soul into something more acceptable. Is an avenging angel more palatable than Amazon ancestors -- a race of warrior women who ruled their own island, having sex with men of a nearby country once in a while to keep the line going? OK, the Amazons did some dodgy things (like killing male children apparently). But it was a super size history.

Illustrations/ Satish Acharya

A lot is said about how women are essentially pacifist. I'm no votary of violence, but the idea of an angry woman is much too villainised in societies everywhere. While the Angry Young Man becomes a Working Class Hero, an Angry Woman is merely a shrew. There is such a thing as righteous anger and women should claim that as much as the next person instead of buying into the stereotype of beatific, barefoot and bovine goddess -- without turning into violent, vicious nutcases. We have Arnold Schwarznegger for that.

Wonder Woman was cool because she never killed or indulged in faltu mayhem, but defended justice with the boons bestowed on her by goddess ancestors. So, if having that innately strong history means I have to deal with the bustier, hey, I'll take it (without stars and stripes).

But meanwhile, you can provide tips on How To Be An Action Hero -- through the Blank Noise Project campaign at https://actionheroes.blanknoise.org/. If you have a story about how you fought back against sexual harassment/eve teasing, you can add it to others on the blog, which outlines some things that make you an action hero -- "an Action Hero can day dream in public, make eye contact with strangers, walk the streets without apology. An Action Hero does not take the age old blame for experiencing street sexual violence. She believes there's no such thing as 'asking for it.' I especially like this last one.

We'll need to channel our inner action hero if we're ever to make laws on sexual harassment meaningful. Women would learn not to shrink like fearful violets from unwanted, clumsy sexual overtures -- because deep inside they worry that they invited it and want to prove they are not bad girls. Without a little Amazonian cool, it's hard to distinguish between what you can handle yourself and what is systemic abuse of power, hence sexual harassment. Protective laws matter because they afford citizen power -- and handling that power with strength, not weakness, makes action heroes of us all, in swimsuits or whatever.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer, teacher and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevi.com

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