She is an Amazonian demigoddess with abil-ities to rival Superman’s, but Wonder Wom-an has always been a second-class cit-

izen in the superhero world. Even when she made her comic book debut in the 1940s, she was only a secretary for the Justice Society of America.While male DC Comics heroes received fea-

ture films over the years, Wonder Woman has been continually ignored to the dismay of fe-male superhero fans—an audience that continues to grow.“I’ve been waiting for Wonder Woman to get

a movie since I was in high school, and that was almost 20 years ago,” said Regine Sawyer, founder and coordinator of Women in Comics Collective, a group of women who work in vari-ous parts of the comics industry. To the delight of many DC superhero fans like

Sawyer, “Wonder Woman”—starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins—is scheduled to open in theaters June 2017, 76 years after her comic book debut. With an action-packed trailer un-veiled at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, “Wonder Woman” already sets itself apart from previous superhero movies: It stars a woman. The movie’s budget of $150 million is about

$100 million less than the “Batman vs. Super-man: Dawn of Justice” budget and $75 million less than “Man of Steel.” Still, it is better funded than most films featuring female su-perheroes, indicating Hollywood is making room for super ladies but very slowly. Nearly a year before it opens, the movie is already facing criticism. Jenkins took to Twitter to defend “Wonder Woman” from rumors started by someone claiming to be from Warner Bros who called the film “a mess.”“Zero about the movie we are making has been

called a mess by anyone in the know. Fact,” Jenkins said in one of her Aug. 12 tweets re-futing the rumors.

Though Jenkins said the rumors were un-founded, if the highly anticipated and well-funded film ends up being a box-office flop, female superheroes may be kicked back to where they started: fighting even for small spots on Marvel and DC slates.According to a study published in Feb-

ruary by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg titled “INCLUSION

or INVISIBILITY? Comprehensive Annenberg Re-port on Diversity in Entertainment,” female characters make up only 26.5 percent of leading characters in TV and film. The superhero and action film industry falls far behind this, as the combined five previous and upcoming fe-male-led titles make up only a small fraction of all superhero movies.

“The producers and studio heads—many of them are men, and they operate from fear, because as soon as you have a bomb that comes out, every-one’s worried for their lives,” said Seth Soul-stein, a Cornell University instructor who has taught courses on superhero films. Out of a combined 25 confirmed

upcoming movie projects from Mar-vel and DC Comics, the only fe-males represented in titular roles are Wonder Woman and Cap-tain Marvel, whose movie has al-ready been pushed from a summer 2018 release to spring 2019. Marvel’s 2018 movie “Ant-Man and The Wasp” will star a male-and-female duo.The lack of female heroes is a striking part

of film history. Between 1984 and present day, only three films featured a female lead super-hero—“Supergirl,” “Catwoman” and “Elektra”—and all of them were underbudgeted, underdeveloped and seen as box-office failures.The financial failure of these films has been

used to excuse the lack of female-led superhero movies since then.“[Studios] are hesitant because they don’t un-

derstand what it means for a girl to be sit-ting in a theater or sitting at home and to see herself represented as the hero of the film,” Soulstein said.The Wikileaks Sony Pictures Hack in November

2014 indicated some studio heads do not think female heroes can draw audiences and make money. An email from Aug. 7, 2014, revealed that Mar-vel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter spoke with Sony CEO Michael Lynton about those movies, cit-ing them as reasons for not making more.To get more movies with female leads, film-

makers have to be able to point to similar mov-ies that have been successful and made money in the past, said Leslie Combemale, who created and moderated the panel “Women Rocking Holly-wood” for 2016’s San Diego Comic-Con. The panel included official Marvel and DC representatives Victoria Alonso and Deborah Snyder. However, if no one puts faith in a woman’s

ability to star in an action movie, there will never be successful examples to imitate.“We [have to] start making conscious deci-

sions to include women,” said Snyder, a produc-er for “Wonder Woman,” during the July 23 panel.According to the Motion Picture Association

of America’s Theatrical Market Statistics from 2015, 51 percent of moviegoers are female. De-spite these demographics, studios and filmmak-ers continue to ignore what women want, accord-ing to Sawyer.Lexi Chayer, a junior fashion studies major,

said she loves superhero and action movies, but she does not want to spend money to see them if they lack proper female repre-sentation in which the charac-ters aren’t overly sexualized.

Story by Zoë EitelDesign by Zoë Haworth “The world

isn’t all men—it doesn

’t look like

that,” Chayer said.

Historically, people in

Hollywood who fund ex

-

pensive projects haven’t

seen movies starring wo

m-

en as moneymaking oppo

rtunities, Combemale s

aid.

“Over and over, [that

idea] is proven wrong,

”

Combemale said, citing

“The Hunger Games” fr

an-

chise as an example wi

th a female hero who w

as a

difficult sell at firs

t but ended up carryin

g a

blockbuster series. Wh

ile Katniss does not h

ave

superpowers like Wonde

r Woman, she uses the

pow-

er she does have to he

lp people and overthro

w a

dystopian government.

Jessica Jones is anoth

er female hero who gai

ned

a large fanbase and

received critical prai

se.

The series—which focus

es on serious topics s

uch

as rape, murder, child abuse, post-traumatic

stress disorder and ab

usive relationships—ha

s a

93 percent approval ra

ting on Rotten Tomato

es.

The show can thank its

producer Netflix for

the

freedom to take risks

for part of its succes

s.

“It says everything

that the advent of n

ew

platforms that aren’t a

s easily controlled by

the

white-male mentality a

re there,” said David

Lav-

ery, chair of the Grad

uate Program and profe

ssor

of English at Middle

Tennessee State Univer

si-

ty who taught “Special

Topics in Film Studie

s:

Superhero Movies.”

Unfortunately, not all

female-led shows have

as

much luck as “Jessica

Jones,” which was quic

kly

renewed for a second s

eason after its releas

e.

Marvel’s “Agent Carter

,” a British period-pi

ece

starring Hayley Atwell

as Peggy Carter, one

of

the original S.H.I.E.L.

D. agents, ran on ABC

for

two seasons. Members o

f the show’s fanbase c

re-

ated a Change.org peti

tion to get the show p

icked

up by Netflix after

the cancellation and

has

gathered more than 1

25,000 signatures so

far,

though the cancellatio

n was attributed to a

drop

in viewership between

the two seasons.

“Supergirl,” a show ab

out Superman’s cousin w

ho

grew up on Earth, wa

s forced to jump fro

m CBS

to The CW after the fi

rst season to stay on

the

air. The show started

out with great viewers

hip,

but interest tapered o

ff after the first few

ep-

isodes, and The CW has

had success with mult

iple

superhero dramas in th

e past.

The cancellation of “Agent Carter” and the

near-cancellation of “S

upergirl” do not bode w

ell

for the creation of othe

r female-driven hero sho

ws.

“Ninety-nine percent

of the time, if given

a

choice, a studio is n

ot going to choose t

o do

anything new if they

can just put out ano

ther

thing that looks exact

ly like the other th

ing

they just did,” said A

rnold T. Blum-

berg, adjunct faculty

at Univer-

sity of Baltimore and

University

of Maryland, Baltimore

County,

who taught “Media Ge

nres: Media

Marvels,” focusing on

the Marvel

Cinematic Universe.

The female heroes wh

o are in-

cluded in male-led mo

vies and TV

shows are usually ove

rsimplified

and oversexualized, ac

cording to

Bren Ortega Murphy, W

omen’s Stud-

ies and Gender Studies

professor at

Loyola University.

“How about just being interested

in her being a crusa

der for justice and

fighting evil?” Blumbe

rg said.

Suicide Squad member H

arley Quinn, Wonder Wo

m-

an, Supergirl and many

other female heroes h

ave

been made to fight cri

me and the forces of e

vil

in outfits resembling bathing suits or skin-

tight jumpsuits. The r

evealing costumes fema

le

heroes wear perpetuate

the idea that no mat

ter

who a woman is or what

she does, she also ha

s to

be sexually attractive

, Ortega Murphy said.

“Until very recently,

it’s just been assume

d

that women weren’t stro

ng. The woman was the

love

interest, the woman wa

s the comforter, the w

oman

was the prize at the e

nd,” Ortega Murphy sai

d.

Even strong female cha

racters wind up as th

e

token female group mem

ber.

Introduced in “Iron Ma

n 2” in 2010, Black Wid

ow

is a former Russian s

py turned superhero-w

ith-

out-powers who, despit

e not being granted

her

own movie and only hol

ding a secondary role,

can

hold her own next to t

he likes of Thor and T

he

Hulk and is an incredi

bly popular character,

ac-

cording to Lavery.

A poll conducted by Fa

ndango for USA Today b

e-

fore the release of “C

aptain America: Civil

War”

found that of all of t

he Avengers team membe

rs,

48 percent of fans mos

t wanted to see Black

Wid-

ow starring in a stand

alone movie.

“In the recent Avenger

s films, Black Widow i

s

there, but she doesn’t

add to the story as m

uch

as she does in the com

ic books, said Misha W

ood-

ward, a junior dance m

ajor who grew up readi

ng

comics and looking up

to heroes like DC’s Ba

t-

girl. “All the other

Avengers have their

own

movies, they have thei

r own stories, they h

ave

so much more depth to

them.”

Jessica Jones remains

the best example of

a

female hero who has de

pth and character.

“One of the things tha

t was so winning abou

t

Jessica Jones was her vulnerability,” Lavery

said. “She was constan

tly compromised—consta

ntly

anything but all-power

ful.”

Jones spends the show’s

first season making mi

s-

takes and showing her

flaws and humanity des

pite

her superpowers—someth

ing Sawyer said allows

au-

dience members to rela

te to and sympathize.

If “Wonder Woman,” “Su

pergirl” and the new s

ea-

son of “Jessica Jones”

are successful, it co

uld

convince Hollywood to

put out more female-

led

projects until the num

bers are equal.

“Will it happen in ou

r lifetime? I hope so

,”

Blumberg said.

24 THE CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 THE CHRONICLE 25

FEATURE

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s ingrained gender roles