–by Dr. Laura Wilhelm, LauraWil Intercultural
Wonder Woman has become perhaps the world’s best-known female action hero since being introduced by DC Comics in October 1941. The Amazing Amazon who partners with no less than Batman and Superman is a founding member of the Justice League and Ambassador-at-Large of the Amazonian people.
Wonder Woman (aka Diana Prince) was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton) and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston drew a great deal of inspiration from early feminists, and especially from birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger.
With her lush figure set off by long ebony hair and lovely blue eyes, this girl is a goddess both of love and war! Actress Lynda Carter literally fleshed out Wonder Woman physically in her long-ago 1970’s television role, garnering comparisons with Elizabeth Taylor.
While tall, rangy Israeli-born brunette actress Gal Gadot strays rather far from this prototype, she definitely channels Wonder Woman’s activist essence in the 2017 film co-starring Chris Pine and Robin Wright. This might be explained by Gadot’s service for two years in the Israeli Army and previous role as Gisele Yashar in the The Fast and the Furious franchise.
Gadot’s ancestry is Polish-Jewish, Austrian-Jewish, German-Jewish, and Czech-Jewish. A breathtaking combination of Angelina Jolie and Monica Bellucci, she won the 2004 Miss Israel beauty pageant at age 18 and moved on to compete in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant. In 2007, the 21-year-old Gadot was featured in the Maxim photo shoot, “Women of the Israeli Army.”
Her high school major was biology and she was successful at basketball in high school because of her height. As an adult, the 32-year-old Gadot started studying law and political science twice.
Gadot has received swordsmanship, Kung Fu kickboxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training in preparation for her Wonder Woman role. The WONDER WOMAN film is the second of three DC Extended Universe installments that will feature this spunky heroine.
On October 21, 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, that character was designated by the United Nations as its Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, a gesture intended to promote gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. In attendance to mark the occasion was Gadot, fellow Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and U.N. Under-Secretary General Cristina Gallach.
Gal Gadot
“I used to want to save the world, to end war and bring peace to mankind. But then I glimpsed the darkness that lives within their light. I learnt that inside every one of them there will always be both. The choice each must make for themselves – something no hero will ever defeat. And now I know. . . that only love can truly save the world. So now I stay, I fight, and I give – for the world I know can be. This is my mission now, for ever,” says Gadot in the last lines of WONDER WOMAN–and we believe her! Prepare for a rousing summer romp with Gal Gadot and the rest in theaters everywhere.
