7 Years After Justice League, Hollywood Still Can’t Stop Insulting Wonder Woman

June 26, 20244 Mins Read

Summary

Hollywood continues to reduce Wonder Woman to cheap jokes, reflecting a larger issue with women’s representation in the industry.
Red One’s disrespectful joke involving Wonder Woman highlights outdated humor that may harm its critical reception.
Wonder Woman deserves respect for the values she represents, not being objectified for juvenile jokes in movies like Red One.

Wonder Woman premiered seven years ago in 2017, but despite Gal Gadot’s character being retired with the DCEU, Hollywood is still reducing the character to a throwaway joke, as seen in Red One. Hollywood has a long and lurid history with its treatment of women in the industry. Despite women being some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and pulling in huge audiences and inspiring young girls everywhere, their role is often minimal and playing off of poor taste innuendo.

Gal Gadot became one of the most notable celebrities of the last decade when she assumed the role of Wonder Woman, starring in two standalone films that highlight the grace, power, and strength of the female hero. However, the crossover movies were less uplifting when it came to their treatment of Gadot and her character. Now, with the release of Red One, seven years after Wonder Woman debuted, nothing has changed or improved.

David Harbour in Violent Night and Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) in Red One

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Red One’s Cringe Wonder Woman Joke Continues A Sad Hollywood Trend

Wonder Woman Deserves More Respect

Regardless of the opinions of the movies, or the portrayal of the character by Gadot, Wonder Woman deserves more respect than becoming the butt of immature jokes. Red One is simply the latest in a list of films that have reduced a character that stands for so much to make her simply an object. However, Red One takes things a step further by actually reducing the character to a literal object. As the characters establish how they will embark on the next leg of their journey, the film can’t help but make a nasty and cheap joke at Wonder Woman’s expense.

Dwayne Johnson’s character uses a special device that makes a toy car into a real, life-sized car, in a remarkably similar way to Ant-Man’s size-changing technology. In response, Chris Evans’ character, (a far cry from the gentleman Captain America) rushes into the toy store and inquires if they have a Wonder Woman action figure as an implied joke. However, this is not the first time Wonder Woman has been reduced to a simple object of desire, as even the Justice League movie in 2017 had Aquaman making inappropriate comments while sitting on the Lasso of Truth.

Red One’s Outdated Jokes Are A Bad Sign For Its Critical Hopes

It’s Going To Be A Cold And Lonely Awards Season For Red One

Dwayne Johnson and J.K. Simmons in Red One

Not only is the joke outrageously outdated, considering the reference is to a character that hasn’t had a theatrical release in the last four years, aside from the most minor of cameos, and even then, each time, her arrival is accompanied by some ridiculous innuendo. These jokes are tired, pointless, and only serve to show the audience how little they truly understand about humor. However, there is minor solace in the fact that this is exactly the kind of cheap and hollow humor that will likely preclude Red One from gaining any degree of positive critical attention.

Red One
takes things a step further by actually reducing the character to a literal object.

For years, there has been a backlash when it comes to movies crossing lines and devaluing entire groups of people. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman has been just one individual that this kind of humor has circulated around, and it has gone on far too long. Wonder Woman is a character that is worth uplifting, not because of how attractive she is, but for the values she represents. Instead, even her Lasso of Truth is diminished to some bit that reveals every airheaded man’s juvenile thoughts. Red One didn’t need the Lasso, it is stupid enough to crack those jokes unprompted.