Wonder Women!

April 13, 2013 Wisconsin Public Television Leave a Comment

Watch Independent Lens “Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroes” at 9 p.m. Monday, April 15 on Wisconsin Public Television.

I will never forget the Saturday afternoon I was channel surfing and came across the first Resident Evil movie. My first thought of course was that I’d look in the corner of the screen and see a logo for Spike or Syfy or maybe even FX. To my surprise, I found the Oxygen logo instead. I thought to myself, is this a joke? Perhaps just a commercial… why would the Oxygen network be airing a zombie movie based on a video game? Then it came to me – Milla Jovovich, the strong female lead.

At the time, there really weren’t that many movies or shows out there featuring a heroine as the lead. Years later, there is still a sizable balance issue of hero over heroine, but we are slowly bridging the gap.

I for one am excited to see what the future holds, if for nothing else but the sake of variety. We’re living in an era of remakes and sequels mixed in with only a few truly original ideas. And quite honestly, swapping out the lead character of a story and inserting a new back-story and personality and then meshing it with essentially the same story arc can tell a completely different tale. Just imagine your favorite book or movie and change the main character(s) age, race or gender. Paints a new picture, right?

So to bring it all back around, I can’t wait for the entertainment melting pot to continue to stir. Having female leads and people from different backgrounds has opened up so many opportunities for everyone to find their own personal role model. Because I think we can all agree it’s getting a little boring to constantly see the same stereotypical muscular Caucasian male saving the day every time something goes wrong (sorry Bruce Wayne).

Enjoy!

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