Read “Wonder Woman: A Poor Representation of Feminism”.

Li Yuxuan wrote “Wonder Woman: A Poor Representation of Feminism” for Writing as Inquiry I. The assignment asked students to produce a research-based, argument-driven essay on a topic that points to a practical or research problem important to a larger audience. While situating their own arguments on the controversial topic within an ongoing conversation, students were also expected to consider alternate and opposing positions, create strong exigency for their own positions, offer in-depth analysis, employ the pillars of argument, and adeptly accommodate the essay to the values, interests, and previous knowledge of the intended audience and academic writing conventions.

Yuxuan clearly problematizes popular and critical interpretations of the 2017 film Wonder Woman as a positive contemporary American feminist representation. She considers the viewpoints film directors Patty Jenkins and James Cameron have made about the film’s relation to American feminism, and she resorts to film critics like Laura Mulvey and Zoe Williams to enrich the conversation. Yuxuan successfully utilizes that debate to articulate, and transition, the conversation to her significant research question: “In what way is the film Wonder Woman representative, or not, of contemporary American feminism?” To answer this question, Yuxuan examines the body image of the heroine, traces the source of her superpowers in the film versus the original comics, and finally compares how racially different Wonder Woman is from other contemporary female superheroines. The film, she concludes, falls short from actually challenging the status quo on three fronts: Wonder Woman reproduces a sexualized female body, chooses a privileged white woman to play Wonder Woman, and endows her with superpowers rooted in male power. Yuxuan’s essay makes clear and sound claims and employs compelling evidence. It is well-researched, and its prose is clean and eloquent. It is an excellent model of a short, research-based essay in Writing as Inquiry I. I commend Yuxuan on this achievement. 

—Adam Yaghi, Lecturer in the Writing Program