Why I love Wonder Woman

Anyone who knows me knows of my almost obsessive fascination with the pop culture icon Wonder Woman. She is less well known in a lot of European countries, but in the Anglo-American world she is on equal par with Catwoman, Supergirl, Superman and Batman. In fact she is a member of the Justice League and stands together with Batman and Superman as one of the lead characters.

But why this fascination? For the very fact that she is one of the few female heroes who actually offers something inspiring beyond skin-tight, revealing super outfits and impossible proportions. And for everything she stands for.

Wonder Woman was created by the psychologist William Moulton Marston in the 1940's. he had written a series of articles on the importance of (super) heroes as role models and the role of pop culture in this positive modelling. DC Comics approached him to create a character and he rightly pointed out they had NO female heroes. So he dreamed up Wonder Woman, an Amazon Princess whose job it was to teach humanity, then in the throes of World War II, about justice, peace and truth.

The back-story of this character is full of symbolism and heavily influenced by Greek mythology. On the island of Themniscyra, hidden in the Bermuda Triangle, a community of Amazon warrior women lives in a paradise of peace and immortality. Their task is to guard over Pandora's Box, and if any man's blood is shed on their island then the Box will release all manner of darkness into the world. (Read: Women as protectors, the mother energy, guarding the dark side of humanity.)

The Queen, Hyppolita, misses only one thing - a daughter. Living in a paradise of only women has it's downfalls, there is no male company to balance things out. Instead she prays to the gods and moulds a child out of the clay of the earth, and the gods bestow life upon this girl who is literally of the earth. (Read: Women as mothers, as creators, the earth as the ultimate life-giver, intutitive connection to the gods.)

They then bestow gifts of beauty, strength and wisdom upon her - so no weird chemical reactions or spider bites, but heavenly powers giving her a goddess-like status. When she comes of age she wins a contest to donne the crown of Wonder Woman and go off to "man's world" to teach the justice and peace oriented ways of the Amazons. (Read: Self sacrifice and leadership, seeking balance in conflict, offering feminine wisdom to the masculine fighting spirit.) She embodies what is often seen as an essentially feminine purpose - the healing of the world.

She carries a lasso of truth, which forces those whom she ensares to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Masterton is credited with having also invented the lie detector, so his fascination with truth-telling came through in his comic book character. Not only that, but his poly-amourous relationships and his study (and his practice!) of bondage and BDSM, and the dynamics of power and gender in this form of sexual expression, are reflected in WW's costume (the slave bracelets, the lasso) and the regularity with which she is tied up, bound, locked down and has to escape.

Despite the fact she was a product of the World War II years, she is shown breaking these bonds and chains with the regularity and deftness of a modern feminist (no-one is ever to blame, she simply busts out of the shackles and continues her message of equality and peace). She embodies the wisdom and strength of a mature elder, the independence of a woman who knows she doesn't need to play any certain role in life to be fulfilled, and yet the perfect complexity and emotional paradox that many women express - searching for what fulfills her heart she is unafraid to cry and show her vulnerable side in between fighting the Nazi axis or her more fantastic nemeses. She has the female warrior power as well as the softer, flowing feminity, a wholeness so many of us desire.

It's interesting then that she "lost" her powers when the "New Wonder Woman" series emerged in the 1960's. Suddenly she was just a sex symbol and she lost track of the very things which she stands for as a role model. A reflection of the shifts in political thought at the time.










Thankfully, with some strange twists in continuity, she was given her powers again in the 1970's (perhaps again due to shifts in sexual politics?), and the camp TV series with Lynda Carter gave her a new place in pop culture.

Whether the TV series was true to her deeper symbolic side remains highly questionable, but the fact that she was sky-rocketed to the forefront of the imagination of boys, girls, men and women alike says something about how right Masterton was all along that we need heroes and positive role models.

 And preferably something more than the latex-clad Catwoman who emodies the seductive, "dangerous" myth of women's sexuality, and something beyond the submissive, diminiutive role played by Supergirl.

 We need a complex, multi-faceted, mature woman, a Wonder Woman to inspire us. Her strengths and weaknesses, her beauty as well as her wisdom, her mothering nature as well as her her warrior energy, and her kick-arse sexuality, these are all the reasons I love Wonder Woman and proudly wear her symbol on my wrist!

Any woman with any inkling of these characteristics in herself is a Wonder Woman.

Entering the playing field

A friend of mine, Nico, whose 50th birthday was celebrated last week in the theme "Lust for Life", wrote the following in response to reading this blog. It's an honour to be able to share his thoughts here:

"I find myself struggling with new feeling inside myself. I guess it is spring and new feeling want to grow, blossom and bloom. Or maybe it is because I have entered the age of the big five-o. When I discussed it with friends the thought rose that it could be my male side developing further. Being a 50 year old man this thought was both promising and disturbing. There was a good point in it, but not the point to win the game

Then I realized myself that it is probably a next step in the path that started a few years ago. I discovered that my possibilities in life are Love, Power and Joy. Since then I have been growing into the person I am now. Love, power and joy are now firm foundations in my personal life and in my personal relationships with my kids and my friends. The thing that seems to be growing is the next step of bringing these possibilities into the world on a larger scale. So out of my personal world into the open world.

I realize myself that this may be another term for developing the male side. Personal environment and especially the care for children is normally considered the female side. And using power to change the world on a larger scale is seen as being the male side.
As I am entering this new playing field I realize myself that I need a new tool set to be successful. In my personal life it is the ability to handle feelings (understand, interact, show) which is the key to success. Out in the open world this is not the case. It is the ability to handle action that is needed: come into action, bring people into action, inspire, steer, energize, make/keep the motor running.

There is both a promising and a disturbing side to this insight. The promising side is that I will find ways to bring love, power and joy to the world, and that this will make the world a better place to be in. The disturbing side is that I have to leave my warm and safe personal world and step out in the open. I do not have to lose this warm and safe place completely, but at least partly as you cannot do everything.

As Spiderman said: “With great powers come great responsibilities”.

And then I realized. Maybe it is not the male/female thing. Maybe it is just growing (up?). Entering a new playing field, with new rules, and new types of relationships with others who share the same goals: making the world turn into the right direction. Let’s play!"

Eyjafjallajoekull

Gaia is speaking. Pictures of passengers stranded in airports are not what this is about. The frustrations of people not being able to move across and in or out of Europe with the convenience they are used to is not what this is about. Ash in the sky is not what this is about. Even the impressive images of fire and smoke spurting forth from the magical glacial mountains of Iceland is not what this is about.

People keep talking about 2012, and about Nostradamus' predictions that shortly before the "end of the world" there will be more and more natural disasters. I'm not sure that I believe it will be the destruction of us or the planet, but there is something rumbling deep in the belly of our mother.

I actually think it's quite simple. I too am guilty of wasting energy, burning and drinking the natural resources of our planet by leaving lights burning, using fuel inefficiently, flying across the Channel at my whim, buying those bananas that were flown in from Spain and throwing out the packaging which took energy to produce and takes energy to deal with as waste. Each and every one of us is.

And it's not like we don't know it.

It's quite simple. It's time we simplified everything, start getting more creative about our energy needs and energy use, start moving across the globe in lighter and simpler ways, start eating locally, start behaving like the intelligent creatures we actually are. As in, right now, right this minute.

It's time. Gaia is speaking. And she knows us well enough to know she can do it subtly, slowly to start with and that we may just listen. And she also knows us well enough that if we don't listen, she only has to light the spark she has already set off. And we'll all call it a disaster and feel sorry for ourselves. But she is letting us know right now we just have to listen and act.

Gaia is talking to us in no uncertain terms. That's what this is about. Are you listening?

Men's Day

Visiting Germany I learned of one of their cultural traditions which kind of makes the mind boggle as to its roots. On Ascension Day, one of the many Christian holidays that western European countries celerbate by taking the day off - again - the Germans do something a bit different. Every year Ascension Day is also known as Men's Day (Herrentag), and all the men get hold of little wooden pull-along trolleys, like the things kids put lego in, fill them with bottles of drink and cans of beer, and walk around getting drunk.

Fascinating.

The German who told me about it said they go for walks in the woods and then get drunk. I'm not sure what the significance is of going into the woods, but somehow that't the only bit that was suggestive of any tradition. Searching for something more meaningful, I imagined an old tradition of German peasants taking the religious day, the day Jesus's soul rose to heaven, and walking in the woods together in some clan-like brotherhood, reflecting upon their spiritual lives. Or perhaps even a pagan tradition, where the men walked together as warrior hunters, in the spring lit woods, where life is teeming, orienting themsleves for the summer, finding where the animals have been nesting, banding together as brothers, teaching young boys the ways of being a man, and connecting with the fertile spring energy in nature to bring home their mating energy to their women.

I liked the images that came to mind, but my German friend assured me it's just as excuse to start drinking at 10am and keep going all day.

He was telling me this while we were watching a young muscular man dressed in a pink tutu, pink fairy wings and a pink crown, being forced to sweep confetti and streamers and other messy things from the steps, while his friends continued to strew them about, making his task impossible. Every few minutes another swig was taken from a bottle of spirits (this was on the university grounds at 5pm) and another beer can was opened. Apparently on your 30th birthday if you are not married this is what you are subjected to. Another old tradition with unknown roots - surely in this day and age most of the 30 year olds aren't married?? Or is it kept alive because of the excuse it is to drink and make fun of friends?

I asked if there was a Women's Day as well. Apparently there is, but there's no drinking tradition that goes with it. My friend couldn't really tell me much about it - he knew more about International Women's Day on March 8th.

So what to make of it? There is actually an International Men's Day on Nov 19th to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of men to their communities and familes, improve gender equality, mens and boys health. Awesome stuff if you ask me, but not many people know about it. Perhaps they should combine this with the pink tutu and the drinking and the walking in the woods and there might be some more enthusiasm for it.

Blaze

I took three 15 year old girls to see a dance performance called Blaze and they were completely blown away! It was street dance brought to a professional stage and it was very impressive. Young dancers from all over Europe and the USA, and a creative team with more credentials than you could poke with a body pop.

Director Anthony van Laast has choreographed and directed West End shows from Oliver to Mamma Mia and worked on films like Harry Potter, choreographers Ryan Chappell and Chris Baldock have worked with the likes of Janet Jackson, Kylie, Black Eyed Peas and done ads for Adidas and Nike, set designer Es Devlin designed the set for Lady Ga Ga's Monstor Ball tour and lighting designer Patricj Woodroff has done shows for the Rolling Stones andMichael Jackson. Add to that the video and projection genius of The Mega Super Awesome Visual Company (yes that is their real name) and you have a visual spectacle that beats any video clip or action film you've seen in the last 10 years.

Oh yes, and the dancers....wow. What I loved was the energy and vibrancy that was unashamedly street and young and kick-arse. And I loved that there was a gender neutral style to it all. Of course the guys and the girls had some different moves, some duets, some dance-offs, but across the board they were all equal players. The costumes were gender neutral street wear - baggy pants and tops, peak caps, sometimes tracksuits or black and white suits, but almost no difference between the male and female dancers.

And though were wa a beautiful duet that had a sexual tension, it was more about the discovery of movement and expression than anything contrived.

The audience was predominantly made up of teenagers who cheered and screamed at appropriate moments. Of course when the young male dancers stripped off to swap shirts and expose thier fit young bodies the theatre was filled with young screams of excitment from the girls. Interestingly when two female dancers did the same, with a wink, there was a far more self conscious and brief cry from the boys in the audience. They were happier to cheer for their male counterparts on stage.

And there was even an explicit commentary from the MC in one of the dances, which was a comic piece about food. It began with him saying " you don't need to be skinny to be a model these days. You're sexy if you like you're own body. You can eat what you like. Everyone who likes beef let me hear you scream! Anyone who likes chicken let me hear some noise!" He then begana dance about beef, chicken, broccoli, beans, cellery and had the adolescent crowd giggling and the more politically minded among us smiling quietly.

Really exciting to see street dance and top notch theatre producers collaborate on such a dynamic production and bring young people into the theatres. And really exciting that street culture is so conducive to breaking down gender stereotypes.

Upstreaming

On average, the number of women pursuing PhD's at any given university in the western world outstrips the number of men pursuing PhD's. This is on average, so some fields are more male dominated, some are more female dominated. It's interesting that in law, a traditionally conservative field which in the higher professional echelons is most definitely dominated by men of upper class backgrounds, the number of young women trying their academic mettle is dramatically higher than the number of young men.

But as we look up the ranks - junior lecturers, senior lecturers, assistant professors and professors - the number of women dwindles rapidly. In the Netherlands the national average of female professors is only 8%. In the UK it's around 18%, in Australia it's around 17%, in the US it's around 22%. The European average is 15%. And the European goal for 2010 (yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's THIS YEAR!) is 25%. Clearly we are lagging far behind this goal.

So what's to be done? There is always a debate around quotas: some women feel they don't want to be selected for a position just because they are a woman and a quotum needs to be filled, as that undermines their credentials for the position. Some women feel that if there are no quota, they stand a lesser chance of being considered for the position and it doesn't matter what their credentials are.

In a recent presentation at the university I work at it we were shown statistics that among the PhD researchers, women drop out at a much higher rate than their male counterparts (left before completing their PhD) and on average take longer to complete their thesis. It was pointed out that this could be a reason fewer women stream up to the higher ranks, but I am left wondering if this isn't a chicken and egg dilemma. If women know there are more difficulties for them to reach the higher positions, they are more likely to be demotivated and leave before they are done. If women have children, of course it takes them longer to complete their research, as the time taken out for maternity leave affects the duration of their research. And if this, or the fact they published fewer articles during the time they were caring for young babies or children, affects their "track record", then they are disadvantaged when it comes to being considered for senior academic positions.

One woman, Marieke van de Brink, recently wrote her thesis on this very topic, focusing on the process by which women are (or are not!) nominated for professorships. Some of her observations were that the committees who decide on these functions are overwhelmingly populated by men. Because we tend to look for familiar characteristics when we are interviewing people, it has been shown that men prefer to nominate men. The under-representation of women on these committees means that women remain underrepresented in the positions they are applying for. But it also appears that both women and men are harder on female candidates for a position than on male candidates. We test out other women and judge them harsher, expect more of them than their male counterparts.

The measures by which candidates are tested should also be questioned. If a publication requirement is purely quantitative, and a woman has chosen to have children and therefore sacrifice some of her publishing time, she is penalised. It should therefore be a qualitative test as well - in what kind of journals and books has this academic candidate published, have others cited their work, have they contributed to the academic debate or to scientific knowledge in a significant way?

And there are cultural expectations to contend with. In the Netherlands there is a very dominant view that women should carry the lions share of the work when it comes to child rearing, and that they really should give up work or go part time. I have often heard the comment that it's better that this society values the upbringing of children over career aspirations, and that a mother should be with her children rather than outsourcing to strangers, and that children who go to creche full time are neglected. I don't know about other ex-pats, but this sounds like a 1950's nuclear family values argument - I was brought up by my full-time working mother. My parents split up when I was six. I don't feel neglected or scarred or underdeveloped. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I would have been a genius or a more fulfilled indivudal if my mother had been at home with me for years. But whole societies seem to have done just fine with working mothers - in fact cultures which have encouraged women to partake in the workforce in post World War II years have higher measures of equality across the board (Sweden, Finland, Spain, yes even Ukraine!)

So we need to consider how to support those who want to swim further upstream, and look to solutions which go beyond "write more, and finish your PhD on time!" Perhaps there are some structures that can be put in place to support women to do just this, but perhaps some of the measures should be reconsidered because of their silent gender bias.

The dating game

My sister goddess in training, who is American, is familiar with the "dating game". I am convinced it's a cultural thing. I'm Australian and we don't really date. We meet up for drinks or go out to dinner, but we're pretty quick to decide if it's going somewhere or not, or if we just want a casual fling. There's not a lot of the giggly "what's it mean and should I call him or should I wait for him to text me and how flirtatious should I be???" I mean, we did some of that as teenagers, discovering what the game was about, but there doesn't seem to be the same extended etiquette and rules of the game as there seem to be among my American friends.

And the Dutch certianly don't date! They spend time together in groups and if you like someone enough you basically end up kissing and/or going to bed with them. And if a relationship develops it's usually with the proviso that they're just seeing each other, but even after half a year there's no way they would refer to each other as girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, whatever. It's just someone they're seeing. And who makes them giddy with happiness. But nothing serious.

And then if they move in together they will inevitably both keep their own apartments as a safety net, a back door option should things get too serious or not serious enough. It will be years before they give up their ticket to singledom.

And so when I was asked out for drinks by an American the other day I was flattered, and ensured he had my number, and hoped he would contact me, but when he did I found myself entering a new world. The dating game! I had to ask my American goddess in training how to go about this - we have only had sms contact and I have been cautious about sending texts which are too flirtatious. But I find myself wanting to send funny responses to his playful remarks. And should I rspond straight away or leave it a few hours or a day? And is he doing the same thing - deliberately waiting a day to respond? Or is he just busy at work?

And why am I even asking these questions? It seems so adolescent to me. I am entering a phase of life that is all about delving in to the shadow, discovering what lies beneath, waking the goddess who sleeps within, going to places which are emotionally and spiritually unfamilair territory in order to grow and fulfil who I am. It is a delicate and profound journey. Is this a time in which to play the dating game? Is it not a time to be focused on the inner woman and just reject sexual attention all together?

My sister goddess in training suggested this is another opportunity to give up knowing and get out of my head. I don't have to know that this person is NOT the one I will have something meaningful and special with. I don't have to know this is not the time. I don't have to know what it is to be in the presence of others who are attractive and attracted to me. I can explore, be vulnerable, discover some new territory. And maybe even just have some fun.

It feels so strange. I thought my journey of being vulnerable was only to be in sacred areas of my life. Going out for drinks and laughing and flirting and maybe even "making out", as she suggested, feels like it's superficial and not sacred and not a place to be vulnerable. But she also suggested it's like a playing field. What is it to be vulnerable in different contexts?

And then another thing comes up - what about mixing my professional world with my personal? Having had the revelation that I can be an Amazon warrior in the world of my career and the world of international law, and then take off my armour and lay down my sword as I enter my home space when I can be the nurturing, gentle women within, and be vulnerable and alllow myself to be taken care of, it seems dangerous to mix the two. This "date" (if that's what it is!!) is with a man I met through a professional contact, and is working on a project I would love to be involved in professionally. It's an important new networking arena and a potential to move my expertise into the practitioners world. Should I expose my personal self and my vulnerable self to a person who works in the world I want to be a warrior in?

I think my sister goddess in training is right. If nothing else this is a time to get out of my head, let go of analysing, let go of needing to know, come back to my intution and even there, let go of looking for answers. That's what being vulnerable is about too...being vulnerable towards myself and just embarking on the journey.

So should I text him or not...? ;-)