One of the interesting what-ifs about “Wonder Woman” is that it might not have been directed by Patty Jenkins or starred Gal Gadot at all. As Heat Street reports, joss whedon, of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly” fame wrote a “Wonder Woman” script in 2005 with the idea that he would direct a movie starring Angelina Jolie as the title character. The studio rejected Whedon’s approach and decided to go in a different direction, with the results that “Wonder Woman” is a smash hit film. The script has been leaked on the Internet and people are not reacting very well.
Whedon’s take on ‘Wonder Woman’
Some significant differences exist between the Whedon “Wonder Woman” and the version that finally made it to the big screen. Whedon sets his movie in modern times. Diana, as the title character is called, has a lot more issues with the other Amazons, especially her mother, Hippolyta. The big bad in the film is not Ares, but an entity called “strife.”
What is triggering the feminists?
Apparently a lurid description of Diana’s more physical attributes have feminists on social media up in arms. Whedon’s initial take on the character starts as, “To say she is beautiful is almost to miss the point…her body is curvaceous, but taut as a drawn bow.” The description is true to life and would be apt with either Jolie or Gadot playing the role.
But some are calling the description and some other aspects of the script sexist. Some are also complaining that there is too much Steve Trevor in the story and it is more about him than Wonder Woman.
The irony cannot be more delicious
Whedon has built a reputation of being a “male feminist” on the strength of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and other strong female characters in his TV shows and movies.
However, that reputation has started to fray a little in recent years, for instance of an exchange with the character Black Widow in “Avengers: The Age of Ultron” that did not sit well with some feminist movie goers.
Possibly, Whedon has become a victim of the evolution of feminist dogma that has increasingly expanded what can be called sexist.
What was acceptable in the 1990s, when Buffy Summers was sticking stakes into vampire chests, has become triggering in that second decade of the 21st Century.
Ironically, Whedon is hard at work developing a film about another female superhero, Batgirl. One suspects that the product is going to be subjected to extreme, critical scrutiny by some feminist and far left commentators who have become increasingly hostile to what they find wrong in popular culture’s take on women.
