Dara Birnbaum (American, born 1946). <em>Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman 1978/9</em>. NTSC Digi-Beta Master, color, stereo sound, 5 minutes 30 seconds Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler, 2013.23. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2013.23_view1_PS4.jpg)

Dara Birnbaum (American, born 1946). Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman 1978/9. NTSC Digi-Beta Master, color, stereo sound, 5 minutes 30 seconds Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler, 2013.23. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2013.23_view1_PS4.jpg)

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My teenager wants to know what’s up with the Wonder Woman video.

The artist is using actual footage from the Wonder Woman television show that was popular in the 1970s. She cuts together various scenes of Wonder Woman's transformation, meant to make the viewer consider the change more closely.

The artist felt that the way Wonder Woman was depicted, and considered by some to be a feminist icon, was unfair. She believed that Wonder Woman was in fact a woman denied any way to live "in between," going from plain jane to unrelatable superhero and back again.

Here's a great quote from the artist: "How dare you confront me with this supposedly super-powered image of a woman who is stronger than I am and can also save mankind? I can’t do that, and I won’t—and there’s no middle ground in between. The middle ground is what we need to work from.”

Great point!

Hi, can you tell me more about this?

This work of video art explores unrealistic expectations of women portrayed in the media under the guise of feminism.

The artist, Birnbaum, bristled at the idea of Wonder Woman as a feminist icon. In her opinion this hyper-powerful and sexualized character represented an unattainable ideal.

In the work, she focuses on Wonder Woman's moments of transformation, cutting them together to create these "extended moments," forcing the viewer to really consider the change that is taking place.

She said "How dare you confront me with this supposedly super-powered image of a woman who is stronger than I am and can also save mankind? I can’t do that, and I won’t—and there’s no middle ground in between. The middle ground is what we need to work from."

I get it and I like the work. But couldn’t one argue that’s true of all hero archetypes, that they transcend human capabilities and that’s their cultural value? If no one is saying they’re confronted with the unattainable superpowers of Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter or Black Panther, what was it about Wonder Woman for Birnbaum that’s essentially confrontational?

Well, firstly I think it has something to do with the lack of diversity of female representation on television at the time and the overarching sexist/misogynist paradigm of placing unrealistic expectations on women that men often don't have to contend with. Another differentiating aspect where Wonder Woman is concerned is the very deliberate sexualization of her character which caters to the male gaze.

Beyond that, Birnbaum is using Wonder Woman as a symbol for media representations of women in television in general; she's not necessarily critiquing the hero archetype.

When talking about the middle ground, you could expand that beyond Wonder Woman to the idea that the only women she saw portrayed in TV existed at two wildly different ends of the spectrum—the housewife and the superhero—with no representation or connection with the myriad women who find themselves in between.

Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman 1978/9

Dara Birnbaum

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Groundbreaking video artist Dara Birnbaum was an early and prescient appropriator of television clichés and pop culture icons. In Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, she critiques media representations of women by repurposing footage from the well-known weekly television series, isolating and repeating the character’s signature movements of power transformation. Displaying the lyrics to “Wonder Woman Disco,” released in 1978 by the Wonderland Disco Band, Birnbaum highlights the song’s sexual subtext and lays bare its double entendres.

ARTIST Dara Birnbaum, American, born 1946

MEDIUM NTSC Digi-Beta Master, color, stereo sound, 5 minutes 30 seconds

COLLECTIONS Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2013.23

CREDIT LINE Gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler

PROVENANCE 2009, purchased from the artist by Elizabeth A. Sackler of New York, NY; 2013, gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler to the Brooklyn Museum.

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CAPTION Dara Birnbaum (American, born 1946). Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman 1978/9. NTSC Digi-Beta Master, color, stereo sound, 5 minutes 30 seconds Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler, 2013.23. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2013.23_view1_PS4.jpg)

IMAGE component, 2013.23_view1_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014

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