American superheroine history discussed at Crystal Bridges

As an introductory event prior to the June 29 opening of “Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art,” about 75 people gathered at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Friday (June 14) to watch a screening of "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines."

Following the nearly hour-long film a panel discussion was held with Susan Altrui, board chairwoman of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, Courtney Pledger, Arkansas Motion Picture Institute executive director and Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival director, and Dr. Lisa Corrigan, chairwoman of gender studies at the University of Arkansas.

The film, which premiered at the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival and played at last year's Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, traces the evolution of superheroines from Wonder Woman to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even touching on the controversial characters of Thelma and Louise.

The film explores how the depiction of heroines reflects popular culture, values and the role of women in society.

"Studying the history of Wonder Woman revealed how attitudes about female power have changed over the past 70 years. Comic books are not a heavily edited form of media because they're produced so quickly," said Kelcey Edwards, producer of the film. "Comic books are a pulse on our national attitudes and perceptions about female strength."

Edwards has a master’s degree in documentary film from Stanford University.

As the longest-running superheroine, Wonder Woman changed from what author Trina Robbins termed an “Amazon-Princess-Goddess” in the 1940s to a stint as a fashion boutique owner with no superpowers in the 1950s, coinciding with changes in the role of women. During World War II, women left the home and worked to support the war effort in many ways.

“Women made planes and they flew the planes, and they became superheroines," Robbins said in the film.

When men returned from the war, women often went back to full-time homemaker jobs. The clamoring of women’s rights activists in the 1960s led to a revival of Wonder Woman’s superpowers and her appearance on the first cover of the feminist magazine Ms., which is still edited by journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, who was interviewed in the film.

"It's interesting to see how the depiction of women superheroes has changed over time and how different people interpret the Wonder Woman character – some see her as a feminist icon, some see her as an example of the exploitation of women," Altrui said. "Even though we might think that our culture is more sexually free than in the 19th century, we still haven't gotten away from stereotypes about women."

The film, which took three and a half years to make, features interviews with 1970s TV stars Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman, and Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner. A variety of authors, artists and fans are in the film. One of the highlights was Wonder Woman fan Katie Pineda, a young girl who conveyed the timelessness of the character.

"Girls can be daring and brave," Pineda said.

Edwards said they met Pineda at a comic book convention in New York, and fondly described her as "amazing and cool."

Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan got the idea for the film after "reading a New York Times article that introduced Gail Simone as Wonder Woman’s first female writer ever," she wrote on the film's website. "Here was this incredible feminist symbol who had always been stuck, like a lot of strong female characters, between being created by men and being primarily consumed by boys."

Wonder Woman was the brainchild of the inventor of the lie detector test, William Moulton Marston, a psychologist who saw a lack of strong women in the comic books of the time.

"I hope that people enjoy the film and feel empowered by it to realize the power of the individual," Edwards said. "Just being there watching the film is a political act: you can demand more gender balance by the way you spend your money."