ActionFest Screening: Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines (2012)!

This year ActionFest shined the light on women in action by first honoring Gina Carano with the Chick Norris Award, and then by screening Wonder Women! The Untold Story of the American Superheroines. This documentary follows the path from the beginning of the first superheroine to the strong action women of today. Scholars, authors, and actresses such as Jane Espenson, Jennifer K. Stuller, Lynda Carter, Trina Robbins, Lindsay Wagner, Kathleen Hanna, plus many more women discuss the these strong women characters and their impact on society. The film also examines at the women’s movement in connection to the rise of superheroines.

This documentary is an excellent depiction of the struggles of women throughout the years to overcome opposition while seeking equal opportunities. During that uncertain time women were looking for strong female role models in media but came up with very few. More heroines came along throughout the years, but then a new trend started of altering these women to be hypersexualized as well as killing them off.

Jennifer Stuller makes an excellent point when talking about how some people say that male heroes are just as objectified as women are: “That’s just bulls**t.” She points out that, yes, the heroes are depicted with overly developed muscles and as handsome, but they’re shown saving the day, whereas superheroines are often shown being tortured, killed, or raped. Men characters aren’t “subjected to those treatments of their bodies.”

Today there are more superheroines to serve as role models for children and women, but there is still a long ways to go before these heroines are treated equally and given leading roles and clothing that isn’t skin tight, or shown using camera angles that focus on going down their shirts or up their skirts. I highly recommend Wonder Women! The Untold Story of the American Superheroines for everyone to watch, not just women. It’s educational in an entertaining kind of way!

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!