Perez's Wonder Woman. Moffat's Doctor Who.
Jun. 5th, 2011 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywaterblueOnce upon a time, I sat down to write myself the ideal Wonder Woman story. Like many women, I feel an innate connection to Wonder Woman - she's a demi-Goddess from the ideal feminist society, trained as a warrior but chooses to become a diplomat - that has nothing to do with the actual quality of Wonder Woman.
She's historically underwritten when compared to Batman and Superman of the DC Trilogy. Compared to the big male heroes (Batman, Spider-Man) she has far fewer villains anyone can pick out of a line up. There are very few storyarcs or graphic novels that comics fans can quote by name as being 'the essential Wonder Woman stories'. Of the options, two names seem to float up frequently: the Perez era of Wonder Woman and the Greg Rucka Wonder Woman, Perez being far more archetypal due to the recentness of the Rucka era.
So, why is that? I sat down to have a think about what made those eras interesting to me and I came up with a bunch of stuff: both are more interested in the Greek mythology than in necessarily fitting her into the wider DC universe. The Rucka books focus mainly on her political role as an Ambassador (I am in the habit of referring to them as 'West Wing with Xena') but within that context they have a lot to say about women as role models to other women, and the depiction of women within the political sphere. The Perez books are rather more domestic, with Diana building a family-of-choice in modern-day America. The Perez era, especially, feels like it would have been more at home in Vertigo had it existed yet. Strong roles for women, particularly with an age disparity always has feminist undertones, then.
What I realized was that the monomyth, the Hero's Journey - that great Joseph Campbell tool that's been run into the ground by a generation of crappy American screenwriters, has fuck all to do with women. You can make your female protagonist go through the Hero's Journey, but the psychological aspects of why it works has nothing to do with the way a majority of women experience the universe.
In so far as mythology has a monomyth for women, it goes something like this: a woman passes through the ages of maiden, mother and finally crone, reaching her ultimate power to shape the universe after the end of her fertility. Fertility is cyclical, and the maiden Goddess loves the God, who dies. She gives birth to the son, his heir, and then descends on a quest through the underworld to resurrect her lover to life, becoming the Queen of Heavens. Inanna. Isis. Persephone. Mary, Mother of God.
A lot of stories for-women, by-women are about the generational conflicts between daughter-mother-granddaughter. The ability to give life, defend it (and perhaps take it away) is a woman's domain, along with the grappling women have with their own fertility. A girl discovers the power of her own sexuality. A mother has to figure out her children. The grandmother's grandchildren think she's an asexual witch. So if you're wanting to write a powerful female character who resonates with a majority of women, you'll include those elements.
So of course, Steven Moffat had to go there, because more than re-habbing the Doctor what Moffat is really interested in is establishing the importance of the Companions to the Doctor. Amy and River are the yin to the Doctor and Rory's yang. In "A Good Man Goes To War" we don't just see them become his army, we see them become his family for the first time.
In conclusion, what I really want to say with this little essay is this: a woman's fertility is an essential part of herself that all women must deal with to grow and change. Feminism is not just the ability to end a pregnancy, to choice to be childless, it also has to have a place for all the women who choose to take on motherhood. It historically hasn't always been so. This wasn't something casual - Moffat's been leading us there for quite a while, with the hints that River is extraordinarily invested in making sure Amy and Rory got married and "Amy's Choice" which is basically an episode entirely about the above conflict. I suspect that we will continue to see Moffat play out his female monomyth with the next half of the season being about Amy's motherhood and cronehood.
Amy gets to know her grown daughter, River Song, as they have fantastical adventures inside the TARDIS, and River Song knows her mother as a little girl. It is fabulous and wonderful. Thank you, Moffat.
She's historically underwritten when compared to Batman and Superman of the DC Trilogy. Compared to the big male heroes (Batman, Spider-Man) she has far fewer villains anyone can pick out of a line up. There are very few storyarcs or graphic novels that comics fans can quote by name as being 'the essential Wonder Woman stories'. Of the options, two names seem to float up frequently: the Perez era of Wonder Woman and the Greg Rucka Wonder Woman, Perez being far more archetypal due to the recentness of the Rucka era.
So, why is that? I sat down to have a think about what made those eras interesting to me and I came up with a bunch of stuff: both are more interested in the Greek mythology than in necessarily fitting her into the wider DC universe. The Rucka books focus mainly on her political role as an Ambassador (I am in the habit of referring to them as 'West Wing with Xena') but within that context they have a lot to say about women as role models to other women, and the depiction of women within the political sphere. The Perez books are rather more domestic, with Diana building a family-of-choice in modern-day America. The Perez era, especially, feels like it would have been more at home in Vertigo had it existed yet. Strong roles for women, particularly with an age disparity always has feminist undertones, then.
What I realized was that the monomyth, the Hero's Journey - that great Joseph Campbell tool that's been run into the ground by a generation of crappy American screenwriters, has fuck all to do with women. You can make your female protagonist go through the Hero's Journey, but the psychological aspects of why it works has nothing to do with the way a majority of women experience the universe.
In so far as mythology has a monomyth for women, it goes something like this: a woman passes through the ages of maiden, mother and finally crone, reaching her ultimate power to shape the universe after the end of her fertility. Fertility is cyclical, and the maiden Goddess loves the God, who dies. She gives birth to the son, his heir, and then descends on a quest through the underworld to resurrect her lover to life, becoming the Queen of Heavens. Inanna. Isis. Persephone. Mary, Mother of God.
A lot of stories for-women, by-women are about the generational conflicts between daughter-mother-granddaughter. The ability to give life, defend it (and perhaps take it away) is a woman's domain, along with the grappling women have with their own fertility. A girl discovers the power of her own sexuality. A mother has to figure out her children. The grandmother's grandchildren think she's an asexual witch. So if you're wanting to write a powerful female character who resonates with a majority of women, you'll include those elements.
So of course, Steven Moffat had to go there, because more than re-habbing the Doctor what Moffat is really interested in is establishing the importance of the Companions to the Doctor. Amy and River are the yin to the Doctor and Rory's yang. In "A Good Man Goes To War" we don't just see them become his army, we see them become his family for the first time.
In conclusion, what I really want to say with this little essay is this: a woman's fertility is an essential part of herself that all women must deal with to grow and change. Feminism is not just the ability to end a pregnancy, to choice to be childless, it also has to have a place for all the women who choose to take on motherhood. It historically hasn't always been so. This wasn't something casual - Moffat's been leading us there for quite a while, with the hints that River is extraordinarily invested in making sure Amy and Rory got married and "Amy's Choice" which is basically an episode entirely about the above conflict. I suspect that we will continue to see Moffat play out his female monomyth with the next half of the season being about Amy's motherhood and cronehood.
Amy gets to know her grown daughter, River Song, as they have fantastical adventures inside the TARDIS, and River Song knows her mother as a little girl. It is fabulous and wonderful. Thank you, Moffat.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 05:12 pm (UTC)And The West Wing with Xena sounds AMAZING, btw.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 05:34 pm (UTC)There's a reason so much of our fiction gravitates towards eventual babyfic, is what I'm saying. I think the challenge is to make that fresh and meaningful, to tease out why it works and what we need it to say, without excising why it seems to have a such an innate hold on people. Moffat, it seems to me, is trying to find a way to make Doctor Who a little more feminine while still appealing to a broad audience.
Judging by the ratings, it seems to work, but is also REALLY sets off a segment of fandom. Of course, what I've just said is incredibly gender essentialist and there are legitimate arguments against that.