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Wonder Woman
Movie

Wonder Woman

2017 • Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when a pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers and her true destiny.

Overall Series Review

The 2017 origin story positions Diana, an Amazonian demigod from a sheltered, all-female paradise, against the backdrop of World War I, which serves as a canvas for highlighting the failings of the male-dominated world. The narrative structure is inherently a feminist statement: a superior female civilization confronts the destructive chaos of a male civilization, leading Diana to abandon her initial belief that a single villain (Ares) is responsible for man's cruelty. She learns that the darkness is an innate human choice. The film features a clear 'Girl Boss' dynamic where Diana is immediately superior in skill, morality, and competence, and must lead a diverse but passive male support team. While the movie is not focused on lecturing about intersectional race politics, it makes sure to feature a multi-ethnic team, some of whom briefly comment on their societal positions. It is a straight-forward superhero story of virtue and action, but it uses every opportunity to contrast a superior female world against a failed, war-torn, patriarchal one, heavily influencing its scores in the Oikophobia and Feminism categories.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics4/10

The film features a main supporting cast of diverse ethnic backgrounds, including a Native American, a Middle Eastern-looking confidence man, and a Scotsman, who all comment on their marginalized status in the war. The protagonist, however, is a non-white European (Amazonian demigod) played by an Israeli actress, but the plot does not center on an explicit vilification of whiteness or privilege.

Oikophobia7/10

The narrative explicitly frames the Amazonian home of Themyscira as a superior, peaceful, all-female paradise. In stark contrast, the Western world (World War I Europe) is portrayed as a corrupt, self-destructive, and chaotic sphere of war and suffering, with the male gender being the source of this civilizational chaos. This employs a heavy 'Noble Savage' trope, applying it to a foreign civilization superior to the Western one.

Feminism8/10

Diana is the 'Chosen One' warrior who is instantly more capable than all her male counterparts and repeatedly outsmarts or physically rescues the male lead, Steve Trevor. Steve Trevor takes the role of the 'secondary' character and 'love interest.' The powerful men in the world are depicted as either buffoons or warmongering villains. Dialogue also explicitly critiques traditional marriage as a failed 'ceremonial administration' and dismisses sexual activity as merely 'biological reproduction,' touching on anti-family messaging.

LGBTQ+1/10

There is no overt centering of alternative sexualities, gender ideology, or deconstruction of the nuclear family beyond the feminist critique of traditional marriage. The focus is entirely on the dynamics between the sexes.

Anti-Theism2/10

The film uses a clear, transcendent moral framework based on Greek mythology. The ultimate conflict is presented as an objective struggle between the virtues of love/justice (Diana) and the vice of war/human darkness (Ares), which reinforces the idea of an Objective Truth and a higher moral law, rather than promoting moral relativism.