United Nations Drops Wonder Woman as Honorary Ambassador Amid Controversy
The United Nations will no longer move forward with Wonder Woman’s honorary ambassadorship amid public uproar.
The U.N.’s decision to drop the Amazonian superheroine comes after a petition, asking U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reconsider the selection, collected nearly 45,000 signatures, including from staff members of the organization.
Related: United Nations Names Wonder Woman Honorary Ambassador
“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,” reads the petition. “The image that Wonder Woman projects (life-size cut outs of which have already appeared at UNHQ) is not culturally encompassing or sensitive — attributes the United Nations expects all its staff members to embody in the core value of respect for diversity.”
“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” is not an appropriate spokeswoman for gender equity at the United Nations, the petition also said.
Though the United Nations has yet to release a formal statement, Jeffrey Brez, a spokesperson for the U.N., told the New York Times that many people “voiced a concern that they didn’t feel it was appropriate for a fictional character to be representing women and girls.”
The selection came in celebration of Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary as a DC Comics superhero. Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship, which was intended to run through 2017, formally ends on Friday.
Brez told Reuters that the campaign had not ended early as a result of the protest, but because honorary ambassadorships usually have brief tenures — sometimes as short as a few days.
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