Diana, the Challenger: A Feminist Figure of Power and Salvation in Hollywood Feminist Fantasy Wonder Woman (2017)

Jenkins (2017) Wonder Woman is a portrayal of the traditional role of feminism, in which masculine traits including courage, strength, leadership, independence, and assertiveness are used to overwhelm male-dominant society, while manhood as a masculine trait is challenged by a woman constantly striving for power and authority. Marriage is shown as a failed philosophy in the movie, while men are shown just a minimal need to procreate. ‘Wonder Woman’ has an extensive gay male and lesbian fan base. This task approaches Wonder Woman with a semiotic and cultural examination to perceive how her character is comprised of some syntagmas that empower this sort of identification like same-sex society, battling bigotry, discovering one's place, and flourishing in transformation. The analysis shows that the virtue of fighting for peace in Diana has been compromised with the amalgamation of feminists’ radical approach. She has been presented as a female rebellion, while the rightful cause of the caretaker feminists has been degenerated by the amalgamating of bad feminism with good feminism. Keywords: masculine traits, male-dominant society, feminism, syntagmas, same-sex society, female rebellion

Fruit over sunbed: Carotenoid skin colouration is found more attractive than melanin colouration

Skin colouration appears to play a pivotal part in facial attractiveness. Skin yellowness contributes to an attractive appearance and is influenced both by dietary carotenoids and by melanin. While both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear, firstly, whether both pigments contribute to attractiveness judgements, secondly, whether one pigment is clearly preferred over the other, and thirdly, whether these effects depend on the sex of the face. Here, in three studies, we examine these questions using controlled facial stimuli transformed to be either high or low in (a) carotenoid colouration, or (b) melanin colouration. We show, firstly, that both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration are found attractive compared to lower levels of these pigments. Secondly, we show that carotenoid colouration is consistently preferred over melanin colouration when levels of colouration are matched. In addition, we find an effect of the sex of stimuli with stronger preferences for carotenoids over melanin in female compared to male faces, irrespective of the sex of the observer. These results are interpreted as reflecting preferences for sex-typical skin colouration: men have darker skin than women and high melanization in male faces may further enhance this masculine trait, thus carotenoid colouration is not less desirable, but melanin colouration is relatively more desirable in males compared to females. Taken together, our findings provide further support for a carotenoid-linked health-signalling system that is highly important in mate choice.

Γυναɩκòς ἀνδρόβουλον ἐλπίζον κέαρ (Agamemnon1. 11)

Most critics agree with varying emphasis that this is one of the most significant lines in the Watchman's speech, because of its emphasis on Clytaemnestra's unique masculinity. But the same interpreters widely disagree in deciding what exactly was her most masculine trait. In other words the meaning of the –βουλον part of the compound is in dispute. Here are some English renderings: ‘whose will is as a man's’ (Platt); ‘manly’ (Sidgwick); ‘with man's resolve’ (Lawson); ‘into the council of men’ (Verrall); ‘man-passionéd’ (Murray); ‘man's mind’ and ‘man-like spirit’ (Headlam); ‘manly-counselling’ (Paley); ‘shrewd-purposed as a man's’ (Tucker). Thus, as my italics show, we have will, resolve, passion, mind, spirit, counsel, and purpose, a pretty array of would-be synonyms, for the Greek βουλον, an area whose semantic termini are βουλεύομαɩ = I wish and βουλεύομαɩ = I deliberate, plan. The purpose of this article is to show that every ounce of interpretative weight must be put into insistence on the second meaning, and that unless this be done (and it has not been done by English editors) appreciation of two important motifs in the play will be impaired. The scholiast saw that βουλεύομαɩ was the operative element in ⋯νδρόβουλον, and wrote τò μείζονα ἣ κατ⋯ γυναȋκα βουλευόμενον ἣ κατ⋯ ⋯νδρòς βουλευομένης.1 His second alternative is otiose but scarcely culpable in the light of Aeschylus' amazing exploitation of verbal ambiguity throughout this play.2