Tag: opinion

  • Wonder Woman is a Great Choice for Special UN Ambassador

    Wonder Woman named a special UN ambassador, despite protests

    This is the poster I had hanging on my wall for years of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Photo Credit: Everett Collection on People.com
    This is the poster I had hanging on my wall for years of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Photo Credit: Everett Collection on People.com

    I read this article on CBC a few days ago with respect to the UN choosing Wonder Woman as the icon for the young women, showing strong women everywhere, and the protest that was displayed by the members of the UN staff.

    I am under the impression, based on the research that they provided here, that many of the totems or representations that they choose for these positions, is usually someone fictitious. Now, the argument that the UN staff gave, was that of the idea that a woman or the young women around the world should be represented by a real individual, who should be given that honour. There are plenty of them, with which I agree, however the idea that all of the idols that they have chosen for these types of positions have been imaginary or not real representations, should follow suit along with everything else.

    Now, these staff that protest obviously have not done their homework with regards to Wonder Woman, when they talk about a woman flaunting around in a skimpy outfit. I’m sorry, Wonder Woman is, in my humble opinion a wonderful representation and it’s one of the biggest influences that I grew up on as a child, and has made me who I am today. I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I am a very strong woman, and part of that was growing up looking to Wonder Woman as someone I looked up to and swore that I would be one someday. Today, I’m a martial artist and like to pretend that I am Wonder Woman. Even as an adult, many of the young women in my dojo look up to me as I once looked up to her. That is a real honour!

    When I say that they have a look at their history, they obviously have not looked at the fact that Wonder Woman was an Amazon. The Amazons are bound to no one, especially men. They were fighters, they were hunters, they were warriors. These are the types of people that in my opinion women should be looking up to and should be given a chance to show women, because they are not typically as strong or take on roles where they are meant be docile, and I think it is a great choice to have somebody like Lynda Carter who embodied the role of Wonder Woman in the TV series (in my humble opinion), who has been an outstanding member of the community and representation of strong women everywhere, and has never wavered from that, even though she probably hasn’t played this role in almost 30 years. She is an amazing individual, and has always stood up for less fortunate than herself, those around her, and I think that it is a great choice. I think it is well deserved that she should speak and accept it, at least on behalf of Wonder Woman, because I think that she will be one of the best representations that they will have.

    Women and staff of the UN, while I appreciate the idea that you’re trying to bring about, may I suggest that before you do a protest of this kind, and try and change things, that you do it in such a way where you show that you are an informed individual/s especially when it comes to just showing that a woman is a piece of meat, because if anybody is not, it’s Wonder Woman.

  • Speaker’s Corner – London Style

    Speaker’s Corner – London Style

    Originally posted on Facebook during my trip to England with my mother, May 13, 2009

    My mother and I decided to take a stroll through Hyde Park this past Sunday on our way back from having toured London most of the day. We’d heard something about this speakers’ corner and thought it might be fun to just watch what happens. So much for that!

    As we went through, there were crowds around various people who were ranting on top of their step ladders, going on to anyone that might listen. I stopped to listen to one older woman who looked like she was about to go head to head with another man on a stool and wanted to hear what was being said. Her argument: England for the English. Another man who was obviously from another country, argued with her and was light spirited about this. I had to take a line from one of my recent favourite comedians, Papa CJ, as turned to my mother and said “Watch this.”

    I pleaded for everyone’s attention when I addressed the crowd around when I claimed that if England was for the English, they should have thought of that before they invaded everyone else, like India and the West Indies and brought all of the people back to be slaves. They should have realized the consequences of their actions when they did so and then it might still be England for the English. She then said, “Well then, why do you live here?” (since most of her argument had been about foreigners coming to the country and living off the backs of the hard-working English). I replied: “I don’t! So you can’t blame me if you don’t like the way this country is. I have English influence everywhere from Canada where I was born, to my British mother and my Indian father.

    She had nothing to say against it, so she attacked my heritage instead. “So, you’re Indian then? Go back to India!” After arguing that I was Canadian, she claimed that I was who my father was, even if it was my mother who carried me for nine months. “Well, that was her mistake!”

    I lost it! “Mistake? You want to tell her that? She’s right here!” Then she started telling my mother how it was her problem if she gave up being British and married an Indian. No one attacks my mother like that and before you know it, we were both in the mix. I made one maybe two other points and then left the crowd as everyone there applauded my statements, which apparently were the best ones to shutting her up for a good part of the day.

    It made my day. The pot is being stirred, even on this side of the pond…;)