Do we judge female and male Comic Book Movie actors differently? Alex Yarde says absolutely.
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This week, Gal Gadot was cast as the new Wonder Woman, I wrote about it here, but after reading the fan sites her detractors aren’t sighting her acting chops. All anyone really seems to want to talk about are the size of her breasts. The irony that those disappointed Ms. Gadot won’t properly fill out the Wonder Bra of a fictional feminist icon but were silent about any topic other than what Henry Cavill brought as an Actor to Superman in Man Of Steel isn’t lost on me. I take exception to the gross double standard.
That the feeding frenzy has begun is no surprise. Ms. Godot is a relatively new actress. Her claim to fame right now is the Fast & Furious franchise. Many fans, including myself, love to debate the casting choices of heroes in comic book movies before they actually come out. Detractors of Ben Affleck had been burning up twitter with the now famous hashtag #Batfleck in protest over the choice of casting Mr. Affleck as Batman. Opponents have cited his past wooden acting ability and lack of gravitas to carry the mantle of the Bat (examples of Daredevil and Gigli are then often cited) as reasons for their objections to him playing this role. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with Ms. Godot or her filmography but I’m invested enough in Snyder and executive producer Christopher Nolan’s spin on the DC universe so far to give them the benefit of the doubt, and as Matt Damon famously said in reference to the choice of Ben Affleck as Gotham’s vigilante “It’s Batman, it ain’t King Lear.” Interestingly (but perhaps not too surprisingly) the criticisms NEVER focused on his physical appearance or questioned if he was “well endowed” enough fit the Bat-Codpiece. This humiliation is apparently only reserved for women.
Using the training regimen (and CGI enhancements) that transformed Gerard Butler into the Greek hero King Leonidas and his fellow actors into the Spartan Warriors of 300, and carved Henry Cavill into a Man Of Steel and took Christian Bale from the 120 lb skeletal wreck in The Machinist to a solid 210 lb Proto Batman in Batman Begins, I trust that Snyder believes Ms. Gadot will pass muster as the Amazonian Warrior we fans have been waiting for. In explaining his choice, Snyder said,”Wonder Woman is arguably one of the most powerful female characters of all time and a fan favorite in the DC Universe. Not only is Gal an amazing actress, but she also has that magical quality that makes her perfect for the role. We look forward to audiences discovering Gal in the first feature film incarnation of this beloved character.”
In Mr. Snyder’s announcement he managed not to comment on her breasts as a part of his decision making process. However, there are entire industries developed around evaluating and grading women physically. Red Carpet rituals and sexy photo shoots have become a necessary evil for publicity. It certainly is not the right message to send to our daughters. Make no mistake, actresses suffer the same lack of access, privilege, and cache the vast majority other female professionals and non professionals endure on a daily basis living in a patriarchy because of their gender. How ironic that this discussion is happening over Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman has always been beautiful (and unfortunately does not wear too much: see my article Why Can’t A Girl Be The Red Ranger?) but her resume is much more than a buxom beauty queen. Princess Diana of Thyemicara is a passionate and cunning, warrior, stateswoman, ambassador & founding member of the Justice League. My main concern with any actor is can they suspend my disbelief and make me invested in the story. Perhaps Ms Godot will knock it out of the park with her acting ability. Perhaps not. But she should be judged by the same standards we are judging men, especially while she is portraying one of the most fiercely independent and powerful representations of womanhood in comics (Storm of Marvels X-Men being the other). First blood has been drawn. I, for one, look forward to see Ms. Gadot excel in her trials.
– cover photo / Matt Dunham AP
– interior photo / Clay Enos Warner Bros. Pictures, File
I think the whole idea is a fool’s errand. If my opinion counted, I’d say the studio should scrap the idea of a live-action movie and instead spend $100 million (less than half the film budget) and make an Akira-level CGI animated film based on Alex Ross’s representations. Go all out and turn the movie over to Paul Dini and the writers and producers who have been doing unbelievably good work for 15 years now on the animated properties. It galls me that the folks who really know what to do with these characters and stories seem to get cut… Read more »
What is further lame about this who junk complaining about her breast size and how she needs to “fill out” the uniform, it’s as if people don’t understand how much make-up and other tricks the movies use in general to make such films to begin with. They can always put gel-inserts into her costume or use other movie tricks. To me, it sounds like there are some men out there that are trying to make this real woman, this actress, into their sexual fantasy more they then they care about anything else. Hence all the complaining about..of all things..her breasts..completely… Read more »
I must call “bullcrap” on the “authenticity” of looks argument. I remember Hallie Berry playing cat woman. She certainly didn’t exactly look like the orginal character. I also remember having to be subject to hear men carry on about how hot Hallie was in her skin tight black leather outfit. This has nothing to do with wanting “authenticity” and everything to do with the fact that there are many people out there stubbornly clinging to the value of a woman being in her breasts and in her looks.
Wait, is Wonder Woman’s super powers generated from her boobs? Oh that’s right, they’re not. So maybe we should see how she does in the movie before raising a big stink about her looks. Also, “filling out” a Wonder Bra isn’t actually a challenge….that’s kind of the point of them but…whatever.
Atypical, I love your response.
The actual build of Batman is of less importance because the movie costume is padded anyway.I would be surprised if Ben doesn’t get buffed for the role.The superhero male physique matters,otherwise Hugh Jackman wouldn’t go into the gym to prep for his role as Wolverine.Wonder woman,like most female comic heroines,especially an Amazonia,has big boobs. Authencity is important to comic book nerds.As I recall in Iron Man 3 the female shield agent didn’t have big breasts and her character didn’t suffer in the minds of fans.I am curious how these female characters can be so violent yet completely escape criticism.Nice try.
Laying aside the (false) argument that male actors cast in the role of iconic characters are not subject to criticism based on their appearance (and especially physique), the larger problem with the Wonder Woman casting is that you are taking a voluptuous character (and I’m not simply talking about her breast size as you suggest above) and casting her with a hyper-thin model. What kind of message does that send to women that don’t have thin model bodies / builds? How many icons are there for women that don’t match the hyper-skinny Hollywood standard? Not very many. Why then did… Read more »
“How many icons are there for women that don’t match the hyper-skinny Hollywood standard?” @Peter: This, exactly. I don’t see a lot of complaining about Gadot’s cup size (at least not in my corner of the interwebs), but I see a lot of women expressing frustration that Wonder Woman has been reduced to just another heroin-chic Hollywood starlet. In comics, WW has the kind of physicality we don’t often see praised as sexy in the real world: she’s big, muscular, broad shouldered….Amazonian! Whereas Gadot is the kind of sexy Hollywood is more comfortable with — model-thin, waifish, fragile and non-threatening.… Read more »
Pete, like most actresses, she’s probably only “thin” when she’s got a gig. This may be a welcome chance for her to not have to starve herself for the usual ornamental roles.
She is perfect!
She is thin, but nothing a few months of cross fit and weight training can’t fix. I’m actually really impressed that they cast her as WW. Love her accent too!
As far as Ben Affleck being Batman, that will have to wait and see. He could never replace Bale in that version of Batman, but they aren’t planning to either.
CrossFit – really? If you want to add weight to a female, you better hit diet and free weights. CrossFit is for showing off – not for those serious about adding muscle.
She’s actually got a great rack: http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11112/111124701/3484503-6828238288-02-ga.jpg
That’s not Gal, this is http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/wennpic/gal-gadot-uk-premiere-fast-and-furious-6-03.jpg
I looked for Wonder Woman in Gal’s eyes and her expression. In the photo above, I see Wonder Woman right there. Clear as day.
Agreed. I don’t really care about her bra size. I care that she has the exotic look of wonder woman.
I’m actually anxiously awaiting the first movie incarnation of WW, maybe more so than the teamup of BM & SM.
I have to call shenanigans on the thesis of this article. Every male actor that appears as one of the hunky superheroes talks about the fierce training regiments they have to undergo to get their bodies in line with the idealized male physique that is represented in the comics, which the audience often bares witness to, as there is always an excuse to show these men bare chested or in their undies. And all these male actors conform to the objectified Hollywood ideal as to what a handsome male looks like. I think that the difference is that this is… Read more »
I disagree with this.. the controversy in this situation focuses on, “does she have the natural look for the part?”, not “she’s a horrible actress!”.. people aren’t questioning her acting ability. Conversely, the criticism of Cavill and Affleck centers on their acting ability- no one is questioning their natural look of the part, because they ‘look’ like they can be Kal-El and Bruce Wayne.
Except that she has more of the natural look for the part than Lynda Carter (the fan boy fave) did. On top of that… outside of the fact that she may be a couple of cup sizes smaller than Lynda at the time, she’s virtually the SAME height and shape. Also, there’s insane notion that the actress HAS to have blue eyes in order to play the role. Which is insane since she’s only been really blue-eyed in more modern interpretation and not Golden Aged versions, also contacts couldn’t resolve that minor issue? The issue is and has been since… Read more »
I agree with most of your comment except Gal *is* white, as are greek people. I know this often gets fuzzy with the history of Jews being seen as outsiders and culturally removed from the the countries they are native to but just because they are not Scandanavian pink (or Irish blue, like me) doesn’t mean they aren’t white. Same goes for all other European Mediterranians and some Middle Eastern/North African Mediterranians. Everything else I totally agree with. I’m not sure if Gal can act but I couldn’t give a toss if she’s “closer to the comic” version; the same… Read more »
Ever seen superman in the comic movies? No human alive has his build, he was drastically cut down to size for the movies. Wonder woman should be played by an actress who can gain the muscle required, and yes she should fill out the bra if that is what the character in the comic looks like. Why? Because it’s closer to the comic. The men in comic book movies drastically increase their physique to play the role because putting a skinny n scrawny man in the role of superman would be beyond stupid. She should also not be blonde, her… Read more »
Agree
She is, you really think men don’t get judged over their physique in movies??? If you didn’t notice, most comic book men do not have such large and chiselled bodies all the time and there is a reason why Hugh Jackman worries about being replaced as Wolverine. His body takes a lot of effort to maintain. Yes. For some reason we are at a point where in order to make it look like women get treated so harshly (and they are at times) we actually have to ignore the harsh treatment that men face in order to make it look… Read more »
Actually, in the case of superhero comic book world, it very much is a boy’s/man’s world. There is very much a huge difference in how men and women are treated. And that even goes to how we treat men’s bodies vs women’s bodies. While men may have cartoonish body proportions, women with cartoonish body proportions is really nothing new in the kind of things that appeal to men. So yes, things ARE very harsh for women in ways they aren’t for men. Comic books and their characters are largely made to appeal to men. Both the male and female forms.… Read more »
Comic books are about action and violence usually. The majority of violent roles in this world have men in them. If women want more superheroes, they need to get off their ass n join the military, police, firefighters, etc so that writers will be equally inspired by them instead of seeing a sea of men with a few women. Female superheroes often have both strength and power, and go toe to toe with men much bigger than them.
A) What an insult to the many women who are infact in the military (my sister-in-law included), the police, and firefighters. Please honor and respect the women who do enlist and take on such roles. To insult both women in service and women who are not inservice because your angry that the numbers don’t equal men’s is ridiculous. Especially considering the history of what women were and weren’t allowed to do through the history of our country. B) Today, there are big, big issues in the military regarding women being accepted. Infact, if you did a little research you would… Read more »
Here we go again. Judging by what little we know about what the producers are doing with the character. Can we wait until we get the first real picture of her in costume. They must have seen something in her acting to figure she could pull off Diana. But the real question will be which of the costumes from over the decades will she be wearing? Or will it be a combo of some. Just relax and not judge until on film.
“Fans”? These characters are wholly owned private property of major corporations. Pretty sure they can do whatever they want with them.
Thank you. It is indeed maddening.