The narrative that there are only two genders is pushed by a colonial agenda. There are Indegenous people who have not fit into the colonial binary for years, but for there to be complete assimilation the government had to eliminate that idea. Colonialism only leaves room for a house wife and a working husband and that’s it. There are no bisexual’s or trans people in the colonial narrative. Anything outside of the colonial narrative is rejected as another. I think that that’s stupid. I think its stupid to hate on people because they dont identify witht he made up rolls that colonialism is trying to force on them. Obviously the best way to eliminate the colonial norms is more education. I think children should be taught about the gender and sexuality spectrum in elementary school. There is no reason they should not be taught that. I was taught to be a heterosexual woman but turned out a bisexual one. Children will not be indotronated by the “homosexual” agenda by learning that people are gay or trans. But not learning about any different genders or sexualities can be much more harmful as children will not know why they feel a certain way and think that they are bad for feeling that. Not teaching about the gender and sexual spectrum is accepting and pushing forward the colonial agenda. Another way is through representation. Children of all different genders and sexuality should be able to turn on Disney channel and see themselves reflected back at them.

The documentary Miss Representation made me remember something that happened to me. I am a big DC comics fan. I grew up watching animated shows and movies and I started reading comics in high school. I mainly read Batman and Superman. Not that I didn’t like Wonder Woman, I just didn’t know where to start with her. It’s very easy to get into Batman or Superman. There’s a solid list of classics that most if not all comic fans know, but there are none that come to mind for Wonder Woman. She is just as important in the comics like Superman and Batman but I know far less about her. I came to realise I  knew nothing about her because I never watch shows about her. The only show I watched that had her was the animated Justice League show, and she’s just one member of a huge cast in that show. So I didn’t think much when I went to see the live-action Wonder Woman movie. I was excited to see a female lead superhero movie, but I didn’t know how deeply this movie would impact me. I  left that theatre crying like a baby, and my friends thought it was because Steve died but that wasn’t it at all. I just watched a movie led by a female superhero who did not waiver in her beliefs when a man told her otherwise. She was always the most capable person in the room. There was no one as strong as her. She was not a sidekick. In Miss Representation they point out how female characters are often sidekicks or sex objects or both. I would say that Black Widow from the MCU fits this pretty well. She is a shallow character for most of the movies she is in. She is shot through the male gaze and when she reveals her backstory she feels shame for the fact that she can not have children. I remember watching that scene and being mad. The movie basically said that Bruce Banner (the Hulk, an actual uncontrollable force of nature) is not the monster, Natasha Romanova (Black Widow, the woman who was forcibly sterilized) is. What’s worse is that I’ve been taught to vilify women like Black Widow, and I admittedly did not like her at all. Not because she couldn’t have kids, but because of the way she was shot and portrayed. I didn’t like her until she died. Which says a lot about her character writing. I think it’s important to point out that only half of the Marvel movies pass the Bechdel test (Popdust, 2020). Which isn’t great.

Wonder Woman made me realise the importance of representation in media on a different level. I always understood that representation was important, but I had no emotional investment in it until this movie. I want everyone to feel the way I did coming out of that movie. It also made me think something; do men, white men in particular, constantly feel this. When they watch Batman and Ironman so they feel the same level of empowerment that I  felt watching Wonder Woman?  Or is that just the norm for them. Make you wonder…

Newsom, J. (Director). (2011). Miss Representation [Film].

Popdust. (2020). A Realistic Look at the Representation of Women In Superhero Movies. https://www.popdust.com/a-realistic-look-at-womens-representation-in-superhero-movies-2453826431.html