The United Nations (UN) has celebrated Wonder Woman’s 75th birthday by naming the comic book character as its new honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls, despite frustration from both inside and outside the world organisation that the spot should go to a real and less-sexualised woman.
About Wonder Woman,
Wonder Woman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is a founding member of the Justice League, demigoddess, and warrior princess of the Amazons, which are based on the Amazons of Greek mythology. In her homeland, she is Princess Diana of Themyscira, and outside of her homeland, she is known by her secret identity Diana Prince.
- Wonder Woman was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston, with his wife and co-creator Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and artist G. Peter. Their cohabitant, Olive Byrne, is credited as being Marston’s muse for the iconic characters’ physical appearance.
- Marston drew a great deal of inspiration from early feminists, and especially from birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger. The character first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in December 1941 and first cover-dated on Sensation Comics #1, January 1942. The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986.
- Wonder Woman’s origin story relates that she was sculpted from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta, and given life along with superhuman powers as gifts by the Greek Gods. However, in recent years she has been depicted as the daughter of Zeus, and jointly raised by her mother Hippolyta and her aunts Antiope and Menalippe.
- Her Amazonian-training helped to develop a wide range of extraordinary skills in strategy, hunting and fighting. She possesses an arsenal of advanced technology, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in older stories, a range of devices based on Amazon technology.
- Although Diana is 5,000 years old, her first exposure to non-Amazon society as Wonder Woman will have only come within the last few 100 years. While the Amazons were originally created to protect “man’s world,” they ultimately abandoned it.
- Wonder Woman was created during World War II; the character was initially depicted fighting Axis military forces as well as an assortment of colorful supervillains, although over time her stories came to place greater emphasis on characters, deities, and monsters from Greek mythology.
- Many stories depicted Wonder Woman rescuing herself from bondage, which inverted the “damsels in distress” trope that were common in comics during the 1940’s.
- In the decades since her debut, Wonder Woman has gained a formidable cast of enemies bent on eliminating the Amazon, including classic villains such as Ares, Hades, Cheetah, Circe, Doctor Psycho, and Giganta, along with more recent adversaries such as the First Born. Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society (from 1941) and Justice League (from 1960).
About the Ceremony :
The ceremony, at the Economic and Social Council chamber, was marred by some 50 UN staffers who silently turned their back to the stage, some with their fists in the air.
- The super heroine’s image will be used by the UN on social media platforms to promote women’s empowerment, including on gender-based violence and the fuller participation of women in public life, using the hashtag #WithWonderWoman.
United Nations :
♦ Headquarters: New York City
♦ Founded: October 24, 1945,
