An Icon for woman empowerment: Wonder Woman VS Black Widow

Wonder women is born good, she is perfection personified. She is sure of herself and beautiful both inside and out. And is undoubtedly the good guy and her villains are ultimately purely evil, and that right there is the first issue the world in the wonder women movie is too black and white, while reality is often a muddle of grey.

This brings us to Black widow. As a Russian spy who has done some shady things in the past who then turns good once recruited by SHIELD, she represents the person who became good through great effort. Hers is a story of redemption.

And while the Marvel cinematic universe also follows the basic good versus evil plot lines, they took a slight detour in the Format in Captain America: Civil war, were both sides of opposing heroes made valid points, and this is where Black widow shines. As someone who understands that the world isn’t split into black and white, she was better able to adapt to the situation and make decisions accordingly.

Another point to note is what these characters represent: Wonder women is literally a goddess. She is the chosen one, with all the inborn talents and destiny itself acting on her behalf. While this makes for great story telling, it’s not as relatable to us normal humans who have plenty of flaws.

Yes she is flawless, and No my crush is not blinding me

While Black widow represents a person who gained strength through training and facing hardships rather than inborn talents. And to me at least that is more inspiring. And that fact that she also exists in world with literal Gods and monsters and is able to fight alongside them as an equal makes her all the more respectable.

Now taking male counter parts to this discussion would be looking at Batman verses Superman(not the crappy movie but the characters). Yes superman has better powers and yes he is undoubtedly good, but this also makes him a bit boring, while batman on the other hand is a clear underdog in his world and has many flaws, but it still makes him more realistic (or at least as realistic as a person in a bat suit can be)

Sorry bats

And that’s what it boils down to, while I agree that Wonder woman is a great feministic icon, in terms of wish fulfillment and a great power fantasy, like superman. In the end she is a bit too perfect for my taste, unlike black widow that has her flaws like all of us, but knows how to overcome them.

And when choosing my icons, I do not judge them based on Sex, age, race or religion. I don’t even care if they are real or fictional. But I do tend to look at the point they started from. And to me when two people are presented, both of whom are amazing in their own way, I tend to admire the one that got there with her grit and determination over the one who had godly talents to begin with.

But then what do I know, I’m just a silly sarcastic Fox.

Also check out our Wonder Woman Review 

Can’t get enough of Goddesses, then check out the New World Odyssey series