So, Wonder Woman has been named Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Girls this month. On the one hand, I think this is a great thing—that little girls can look to female superheroes instead of princesses as role models. (Did you know that for the first time, ever, female superhero costumes are outselling princess costumes as girls’ choice for Halloween?) On the other hand, could they not find a real life woman to be honorary ambassador? They’re headed in the right direction–don’t get me wrong. They’ve already invited Jessica Buchleitner and Siobhan Neilland to speak. And honestly, honestly, honestly—if you knew what these two women have been trying to do for the female world–with far less of a brand name than Wonder Woman, with far fewer resources than they should have for their tasks, and while holding down fulltime jobs to pay their bills as well. They ARE Wonder women. So, yeah—I’m kinda torn about this one. But I’m going to look at it as though we are making progress, one slow step at a time. And I’m going to keep cheering on women like Siobhan and Jessica, and let’s see who else–Kimberly Moore, Lindsey Keesling, Hyla Molander, Rebecca Rosenberg, Amber Burke, Sharon Cohn and her sisters, Jamie Allen Carrieri, I’esha GaptoothDiva, Kathy L. Murphy…I could go on and on. And that’s just MY list. I bet you also know real, breathing women who’d make great ambassadors. Great, in-the-flesh role models for girls. Girls who are still being taught to starve themselves into invisibility, or to accept sexism in the work place and in politics, or to keep their heads down and stay quiet and small. So I get it. I get Wonder Woman. I even like it in some ways. But you know what? Look around you. Hardworking, strong, daring, righteous women are everywhere.
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