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mrockwellWriting
Wrote a poem for the first time in...well, since before the downhill rush to finish The Shard Axe, about a million years ago. As much as I love the world of Eberron/DDO, between the tie-in work I've been doing and the ghostwriting gig, it feels good to produce something that is wholly my own. I only wish it paid as well, and up front. It's a lot easier to write when the money's already in the bank, heh.
Everything Else
With all the controversy surrounding the reboot of the Wonder Woman TV show (most of it well-deserved), I've really been thinking a lot about CAN vs. SHOULD.
First, some context. I did not have an idyllic childhood. (Who did, right?) I don't talk about it much; suffice to say that there are only a few visible scars. I had no positive role models growing up, parental or otherwise. The one person I did look up to, because I thought she'd escaped the hell I was still stuck in, turned out to be mired in it far more deeply than I ever imagined.
Enter Wonder Woman. Here was a smart, beautiful woman who sometimes wore nerdy glasses (just like me!) and solved her problems with kindness and honesty, not anger and violence. And doing so did not make her weak - on the contrary, she was a bona fide super hero; strong, powerful, and good. Looking back on that less than pleasant period in my life, I have come to realize that, in a lot of ways, she saved me.* If I hadn't had her example to look to every week, to remind me that the ways I saw people around me dealing with life were not the only ways, who knows where I might have ended up? Stuck in an abusive marriage, living on the street or in a shelter, dead by age 20?
That probably sounds silly to some of you, or melodramatic, to which I can only say - good. If it sounds unreal, then you were spared the sort of childhood I had, and I'm really happy for you. Because, despite how unbelievable it may sound, children who are betrayed on a daily basis will latch on to anyone who doesn't disappoint them. Even if that person is a fictional character on a TV show.
I've written before about why I hate the new comic reboot, especially the costume, which basically eradicated everything patriotic about my favorite hero and made her look...just like everyone else. I railed against it because Wonder Woman's origins are inextricably linked with the stars and stripes, at least for me. Because that was the Wonder Woman I grew up with, the one who gave me something to aspire to.
But this new Wonder Woman, she of the black pants (comic reboot), ridiculous angsty moments where she worries about her bra size (TV series), and violent rampages (any number of comics outside her own title)? What does she give girls to aspire to?
Nothing.
A reboot should mean taking what's good about something and making it better, not just changing things for the sake of changing them, or making that something into something else that it was never meant to be. DC rebooted Wonder Woman, but instead of making her better, all they've really done is make her like every other super hero. There's no kindness, or love, or joy in her anymore. There is no showing a young girl raised in violence that there are other, better options.
I'm glad I grew up when I did, and had the Wonder Woman of the 70s to look up to. And I ache for the girls just like me who are growing up now without her.
* - not in the religious sense.
Wrote a poem for the first time in...well, since before the downhill rush to finish The Shard Axe, about a million years ago. As much as I love the world of Eberron/DDO, between the tie-in work I've been doing and the ghostwriting gig, it feels good to produce something that is wholly my own. I only wish it paid as well, and up front. It's a lot easier to write when the money's already in the bank, heh.
Everything Else
With all the controversy surrounding the reboot of the Wonder Woman TV show (most of it well-deserved), I've really been thinking a lot about CAN vs. SHOULD.
First, some context. I did not have an idyllic childhood. (Who did, right?) I don't talk about it much; suffice to say that there are only a few visible scars. I had no positive role models growing up, parental or otherwise. The one person I did look up to, because I thought she'd escaped the hell I was still stuck in, turned out to be mired in it far more deeply than I ever imagined.
Enter Wonder Woman. Here was a smart, beautiful woman who sometimes wore nerdy glasses (just like me!) and solved her problems with kindness and honesty, not anger and violence. And doing so did not make her weak - on the contrary, she was a bona fide super hero; strong, powerful, and good. Looking back on that less than pleasant period in my life, I have come to realize that, in a lot of ways, she saved me.* If I hadn't had her example to look to every week, to remind me that the ways I saw people around me dealing with life were not the only ways, who knows where I might have ended up? Stuck in an abusive marriage, living on the street or in a shelter, dead by age 20?
That probably sounds silly to some of you, or melodramatic, to which I can only say - good. If it sounds unreal, then you were spared the sort of childhood I had, and I'm really happy for you. Because, despite how unbelievable it may sound, children who are betrayed on a daily basis will latch on to anyone who doesn't disappoint them. Even if that person is a fictional character on a TV show.
I've written before about why I hate the new comic reboot, especially the costume, which basically eradicated everything patriotic about my favorite hero and made her look...just like everyone else. I railed against it because Wonder Woman's origins are inextricably linked with the stars and stripes, at least for me. Because that was the Wonder Woman I grew up with, the one who gave me something to aspire to.
But this new Wonder Woman, she of the black pants (comic reboot), ridiculous angsty moments where she worries about her bra size (TV series), and violent rampages (any number of comics outside her own title)? What does she give girls to aspire to?
Nothing.
A reboot should mean taking what's good about something and making it better, not just changing things for the sake of changing them, or making that something into something else that it was never meant to be. DC rebooted Wonder Woman, but instead of making her better, all they've really done is make her like every other super hero. There's no kindness, or love, or joy in her anymore. There is no showing a young girl raised in violence that there are other, better options.
I'm glad I grew up when I did, and had the Wonder Woman of the 70s to look up to. And I ache for the girls just like me who are growing up now without her.
* - not in the religious sense.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-19 06:13 am (UTC)I really love that I know so many Wonder Women, especially you, my friend.
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Date: 2011-04-21 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-22 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 07:29 pm (UTC)Yes, yes and yes. I'm terrified of how horrible this new show might be.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 08:07 pm (UTC)