Popular Culture Review Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 2018 | Page 190

An Analysis of the Cultural Dismissal of Wonder Woman
As a character , Wonder Woman has clearly endured , from a powerful example of “ linking the individual consumer-citizen to the public sphere via the affective commodity object ,” as Yockey writes about Andy Mangels ’ s use of Wonder Woman Day to support victims of domestic violence , to the success of the 2017 film ( Hughes ). But as Yockey writes , while the Wonder Woman show appeared in “ the early to mid- 1970s ,” “ perhaps the most prominent period of mainstream feminist visibility ,” Wonder Woman as a character has been additionally concluded by Robbins to be “ threatening to heterosexual men ... not only is she physically powerful , but she also chooses to use her powers in nonviolent ways . Thus Wonder Woman herself literally and figuratively contains the aggression of patriarchal authority .” The suppression of the series is part of a very tangible suppression of women in American society , both consciously and subconsciously . The response to the television show was influenced by a “ rise of market segmentation ” in which Wonder Woman could be used both by Ms . Magazine and suppressed by “ the corporate gatekeepers of hegemonic values ” ( Yockey “ Wonder Woman ”). Emad refers to “ discourses of danger surrounding the women ’ s movement in the 1970s ,” writing , “ While the movement appropriates Wonder Woman as a powerful symbol of feminist strength and possibility , DC Comics ’ own representations of Wonder Woman during this time often depicted her as too powerful ... Female power is depicted as a menace to society ” ( 968 ). This cultural perception has been as embedded in the American superhero genre as in any other part of society . Yockey writes that during the 1960s Batman television show , “ Mainstream news coverage of feminism in this period typically reduced the movement to narratives about the breaking of boundaries , rather than a consideration of what motivated such ‘ transgressions ’” ( Yockey 56 ). In Batman , “ Masculine authority always retains an advantage over
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