The UN celebrated Wonder Woman’s 75th birthday on Friday by naming the comic book character as its new honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls, despite frustration from both inside and outside the world organization that the spot should go to a real — and less sexualized — woman.
The carefully choreographed ceremony was marred by about 50 UN staffers protesting near the visitors’ entrance to the UN, who then went inside the Economic and Social Council chamber and silently turned their back to the stage during the opening speech, some with their fists in the air.
UN staffer Cass DuRant, who held a sign saying “Real women deserve a real ambassador,” said the protesters “don’t think that a fictitious comic book character wearing basically what looks like a Playboy-type bunny outfit is really the right message we need to send to girls or even boys for that matter.”
Photo: AP
The super heroine’s image is to be used by the UN on social media platforms to promote women’s empowerment, including on gender-based violence and the fuller participation of women in public life, using the hashtag WithWonderWoman. The push, hoping to reach young people, is backed by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros, which produce both comics and films featuring Wonder Woman.
However, an online petition, started by UN staffers, asked the secretary-general to reconsider the appointment, saying: “The message the United Nations is sending to the world with this appointment is extremely disappointing.”
As of Friday afternoon, it had more than 1,100 signatures.
Honorary ambassadors — as opposed to goodwill ambassadors like actresses Nicole Kidman and Anne Hathaway — are fictional characters. The UN previously tapped Winnie the Pooh to be an honorary ambassador of friendship in 1998 and Tinker Bell as the honorary ambassador of green in 2009, but the protest on Friday seemed to unnerve many of the UN’s press officers.
The Friday event brought together actress Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV series, and Gal Gadot, who has taken on the role in the forthcoming Wonder Woman film, as well as Girl Scouts in Wonder Woman T-shirts and UN staffers’ kids who skipped school, with one girl wearing a full Wonder Woman costume, complete with headpiece.
DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson gave a speech in which she argued that stories — even comic book stories — can “inspire, teach and reveal injustices.”
Carter, who gave a speech about how Wonder Woman embodies the inner strength of every woman, was the only one to acknowledge the protesters in her remarks, saying: “Please embrace her.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in