Wonder Woman to get her own cosmetics line

You're right, of course. And I recognize that much of the value of these properties is in licensing them for various products. It's just regrettable that the owners of the Wonder Woman brand don't seem to respect the source material. But that's the way of the world.

I agree with you, Golden Girl. Women wear make-up for many reasons. To think it's purely to look attractive to men is a little sexist, actually. Part of female empowerment is celebrating your femininity. Be strong, be a woman. Wear make-up or don't...whatever makes you feel like the best you possible.

I don't think make-up conflicts with Wonder Woman's style at all.

A bit of cognitive dissonance here.

It's just nothing says "female empowerment" like...cosmetics?

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She is?

I thought that was just in that horrible All-Star Batman series.

Picard's arm needs better photoshopping.

this should sum up the infinite rage

It might prove to be "better than nothing" as far as promoting Wonder Woman. But I suspect it's also a symptom of precisely why we don't currently have a Wonder Woman TV show, Wonder Woman movie, and/or no Wonder Woman cartoon. People in the industry basically don't know how to "sell" Wonder Woman as a modern character in 2011. As Arcanaville mentioned she has always embodied a complex mixture of concepts and I seriously don't think Hollywood producer types really have any idea what makes her tick as a character. Since she's hard to "figure out" she gets passed over for easier productions.

Sadly I suspect Wonder Woman will continue to remain in limbo TV/movie wise.
And as you say it's hard to say if this makeup thing will actually prove to be good or bad for that. *shrugs*

On one hand I don't see anything strictly wrong with the idea of a new line of Wonder Woman makeup for pre-teens. In a free market world people are pretty much free to try to make money anyway they can. But on the other hand I can see how this move was, at best, fairly questionable from a "promoting the right public image" for Wonder Woman into the future.

To me the idea of peddling Wonder Woman makeup could be taken as being as misguided as the NRA trying to convince PETA that hunting is harmless by promoting a line of rifles for pre-teens to go out to shoot their favorite bunnies and squirrels. It just seems like the people behind this makeup promotion could have come up with something, anything, to sell based on Wonder Woman that would have been much less of a political "hot-button" issue than makeup. I don't know what that would have been offhand, but surely something better could have been devised.

I guess there's some "humor" in this situation from a social commentary point of view, but sadly this kind of thing just tends to keep us from getting -any- new Wonder Woman TV show/movie made.

Leaving out whether or not I think Wonder Woman make-up is a problem or not; why is it such an insult to the character? Heroes have been used to sell everything from underwear, to shampoo, to snack cakes. Should we call foul because Batman would OBVIOUSLY never eat Hostess Fruit Pies?

I guess I kinda see the point; a female superhero is selling make-up supplies. But I'm not sure how that automatically makes her pandering to men. I'm sure if asked, the majority of women would say they wear make-up mainly because they like how it makes them look. And this is coming from someone who looks at the "Before" and "After" pictures in make-up ads and more often than not, prefers the former.

Wonder Woman has sold plenty of non-stereotypical products in her time. I don't see how make-up is any more insulting to the character than Hostess Fruit Pies. Heck, I think the Batman squirt gun is more insulting than this.

To be fair the idea of Wonder Woman being used to sell makeup doesn't bother me -that- much.
I don't find it insulting as much as just a tad bit stereotypical and uninspired.

I just figure if they wanted to pick anything in the world to sell using the likeness of Wonder Woman that the idea of makeup was probably not the most "politically correct" choice because of all the historical and cultural connotations it drags up. Then again I guess I'd rather see Wonder Woman linked to a line of cutesy "girl power" pre-teen makeup than see Batman linked to a line of unisex/emo/Hot Topic goth makeup. *shrugs*

BTW, that visual image of the Batman "squirt gun" is just disturbing on sooooo many levels.

Exactly. Feminism is about choice. You're free to express yourself in any manner you see fit.

I rarely agree with you, Golden Girl, but you're hitting the nail on the head in this thread.

If Wonder Woman was a real person and she decided to endorse a brand of makeup I probably wouldn't care less because she'd just be following in the footsteps of many other celebrities who've attached their names to products. I might have a passing thought that doing such a thing would be beneath her public persona as a superheroine, but who would I be to openly mock a real life Wonder Woman who could beat me silly if she wanted to.

But somehow this situation (a fictional female comic book character attached to real life makeup) just makes me almost think they went a tad too far with it. Again I understand it's just pure capitalism at work. It just seems unfortunate somehow that the only thing they thought Wonder Woman was good for was for selling makeup. Did they really have to jump to that stereotypical combination? There's nothing "wrong" with it, but it doesn't exactly feel "right" either.

I've been told that "Pass the pizza" doesn't count as "talking".

Consumer watchdogs forced Neimen Marcus to cancel their line of bullet proof jewelry.

I think the situation probably came up the other way around. Cosmetics company approached DC...it likely wasn't DC's marketing arm saying "What can we slap Wonder Woman's image on today?"

Maybe, but I'm not really worried about who was more or less to "blame" for this. Again I'm not going to send any "angry letters" or boycott DC over this. I just think something more innovative and/or less questionable could have come out of this kind of business scenario somehow.

Maybe if we knew for a fact that this was going to lead directly towards generating enough hype for Wonder Woman to get her a new show/movie then I wouldn't be so critical. I'd just rather have a new Wonder Woman story than wear her lipstick or eye shadow.

Superman underwear isn't bad. It's Batman underwear you gotta worry about.

But then that begs the question of, if the make-up company wants to make a superhero themed line, who SHOULD they have used?

I suppose someone like Emma Frost might make more sense from a character standpoint, but she has nowhere near the name recognition of Wonder Woman.


I doubt the make-up line will have any bearing on Wonder Woman's movie career one way or the other. Products so far removed from the comic really never do.

Well clearly from a name recognition point of view Wonder Woman is at the top of the list. No doubt about that. But for the pre-teen "girl power" angle they could've used Supergirl. For a more young adult "vampy" spin they could've gone with Catwoman. Of course the negative role makeup played in the plot of the last Catwoman movie probably killed that possibility regardless of the silliness of that movie or not.

This makeup thing is what it is, and at least it doesn't have anything to do with that creepy Batman squirt gun.

Well sadly I'm not expecting much of a bump from this either.
That just adds to the whole "this scenario could've been more positive somehow" vibe I get from it.

From my perspective, the issue isn't about whether feminists can or should wear makeup. Any person can adorn themself as he or she sees fit. It just seems that makeup is incompatible with this particular fictional character. In the decades of Wonder Woman stories that have published, she's never been overly concerned about her appearance. It's inconsistent for this character. Real people, however, can make their own choices.

But she still wears makeup.