Gender marking in MoonSand

For the boys

- Action-packed

- Construction, demolition

- Male narrator, speaking aggressively

- Action music

- Only boys playing

- A lot of talk about “work”

- Appeals to young boys who like action & adventure and building

For the girls

- Somewhat relaxing

- Mermaids

- Female narrator, speaking peacefully and calmly

- Only girls playing

- Appeals to young girls who like mermaids and building

To what extent have gender stereotypes been

used to construct female representations in the
trailer?

YES = stereotypical
NO = challenging stereotypes
- Wonder Woman is a fictional superheroine in media, ranging from
comic books, marketing and movies to television, toys and video
games (NO)

- She is considered a popular figure in women’s culture and

feminism with a cultural impact, since her creation in 1941 (NO)

- Israeli actress & model Gal Gadot, who portrays Wonder Woman
is also a popular figure in modern day women’s culture and
feminism (NO)

- Most of her antagonists are male (she comes from a background

and environment where the male gender is presented as rare and
negative) (NO)

- Her costume can be questioned (wearing a skirt while ‘saving the

world’) but she alters to a golden armoured suit. This is still skin
tight and reveals curves however. (YES)

- Even when she isn’t being a superheroine, what she wears could be
revealing to some: she wears a white dress, overtly feminine and
made to be ‘sexy’ (YES)

- Having superpowers, she often comes to the rescue of/protects her

partner/love interest Steve Trevor. Some would say the man
with/without the powers would usually be the ‘shining knight in
armour’ (YES)

- The sequel is set in the 1980s. Superhumans and

superheroes/supervillains would be considered rare and
phenomenal – but a female being one of the only (or first based on
the timeline of the cinematic universe) would raise eyebrows. (NO)

- ½ of the villains, the Cheetah is based on a half-human, half-

cheetah hybrid. A cheetah is a feline animal (typically female)
(YES)

- Female vs female: jealousy, revenge, power (YES)

- Camera angles reveal WW’s thighs and looking up her skirt (low
angle shots), WW pushing the lorries apart (mid-shot), WW
swiping her enemies (upskirt shot) (YES)
 - Wide angles of tribes of women (The Amazons of Themyscira)
lined up like an army in combat costumes (NO)

- She works independently because of her abilities and advantages –

often seen fighting enemies alone in shots (NO)

In the WW trailer, women have been represented stereotypically, even

with the protagonist being a female superheroine as the importance and
duty of a vigilante, with or without superhuman abilities would align with
the male gender. For example, several camera shots and angles expose
WW’s body (scenes of fighting, running and displaying her superhuman
strength) as well as the antagonist The Cheetah’s body (by what she
wears). Evidence to support this is her costume – WW often wears a skirt
as part of her superhero costume and it is exposed with upskirt shots, low
angle shots and mid shots. Secondly in one scene, she wears a white dress
also revealing her thighs: this garners male attention, presenting her as
‘sexy’ and overly feminine whether she is WW or not.

This exemplifies Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory because even with a
female-led movie franchise within a multimedia franchise/shared
universe where most of the males are either superheroes or supervillains,
women are still objectified and represented stereotypically.

On the other hand, women in the trailer also challenge stereotypes: for
example, WW is represented as ‘mighty’ and a ‘symbol of hope’. The
sequel is set in the 1980s (over 60 years since WW was set during World
War 1) – the idea of costumed crime-fighters and beyond the average
man would be considered either legendary or catastrophic, but the fact the
hero is a woman would come to question as female representation in the
1980s was improving, but not enough. Superman, who was just a baby in
the 1980s and Batman, who was just a young boy based on the
chronological timeline of the shared cinematic universe only normalised
the idea of superheroes in modern-day America years later while being
muscular, powerful, god-like men.

Within comic book culture, the male is often the hero while his sidekick
would either be another male or a weakened (or simply helpless) female
acting as a love interest and/or partner. Evidence to prove this is WW
challenges this stereotype as her love interest/partner (also comic relief)
Steve Trevor is considered helpless due to not having superpowers unlike
WW/Diana while adapting to the environment she is in.
5/10