Padilla: DC at the UN

WIKIPEDIA may yet have the lengthiest piece on the latest Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls of the United Nations, Diana Prince.

Diana’s work experience is a dream. Ms. Prince has worked at the United Nations as a translator and guide and then as staff of the UN Crisis Bureau.

Eventually, Diana found herself working with the Office of Strategic Services and then at the Inter-Agency Defense Command (IADC), operating at first from Washington and then from the Los Angeles field office.

But her work experience pales in comparison to what Ms. Diana Prince really is --- an Amazonian princess.

Currently, there are 192 member nations to the General Assembly and the 193rd may be just be Prince’s hometown, Paradise Island, a small island somewhere that’s inhabited by amazons like Diana.

Though usually dressed in diaphanous gowns, Diana spins crazy upon sensing crisis and when she stops spinning, she is clad in corset-like body suit in red, white, and blue. She also dons a tiara, gold bracelets, and carried a golden lasso.

The newest UN Ambassador is also the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and Zeus. As such, Diana was “gifted with powers from the gods, including strength, wisdom and courage, a hunter's heart, beauty, sisterhood, speed and flight.”

Yes, Virginia, the latest honorary UN ambassador for "the empowerment of women and girls," is Wonder Woman, the fictional character created by William Moulton Marston for DC comics in 1941.

The Wonder Woman with a gold tiara that can turn into a deadly boomerang, the bracelets that can deflect weapons, and a thin golden lasso that is a lie detector--- that demigoddess, the screen and comics super heroine, that make-believe character popularized on TV by Lynda Carter.

The fictional character, as a UN gender equality ambassador has not exactly enchanted staff members of the United Nations. It is reported that more than 600 of them have signed an online petition to condemn the superhero's ambassador status.

In the petition, the staffers urged Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reconsider their choice, writing that Wonder Woman's "overtly sexualized image" is not "culturally encompassing or sensitive."

As they explained: "The bottom line appears to be that the United Nations was unable to find a real life woman that would be able to champion the rights of all women on the issue of gender equality and the fight for their empowerment."

When the fictional character was officially appointed last week, around a hundred engaged in a silent protest in the UN chamber by “standing with their backs turned and their fists raised at the start of the ceremony, and left about halfway through to gather at the lobby with various protest signs.”

Wonder Woman’s image was unveiled by actresses Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot at the UN. Both have portrayed the character on screen. Yet many wonder how a fictional character can speak, “stand up in front of 192 member states and say this is what we would like you to door front a campaign promoting women’s rights and gender equality.”

One of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals is to achieve gender equality and empowering all women and girls in order to tackle poverty and inequality.

The petition says: “The character’s current iteration is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif and knee high boots – the epitome of a 'pin-up' girl.”

“It is alarming that the United Nations would consider using a character with an overtly sexualized image at a time when the headline news in United States and the world is the objectification of women and girls.”

A former UN advisor has expressed “disgust that the UN substitutes sexualized fake for real woman leader” and expressed “Hope Wonder Woman's lasso of truth reveals hypocrisy.”

UN representative for Lithuania, Raimonda Murmokaite, tweeted: “There should be plenty real life women and girls to inspire the rest of us.”

The United Nations is 70 years old and we have yet to see it appoint a female president. Meanwhile, Diana Prince a.k.a Wonder Woman is turning 75 years old this year and has not aged because she is, unlike the United Nations, a fictional character.

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