Seventy-five years ago, Wonder Woman made her first appearance on the comic book scene, creating a strong female role model for generations to come. In the Variety magazine article, "Wonder Woman at 75: How the Superhero Icon Inspired a Generation of Feminists," Associate Professor Carol Tilley and other notables reflect on Wonder Woman’s message of empowerment and how the superhero continues to attract audiences. The movie "Wonder Woman" is scheduled to be released in June 2017.
"Wonder Woman is a character whose central message is one of love and redemption, and for me that points to her continued resonance and the concern about how she's portrayed in the upcoming film," said Tilley. "She was born into a world at war (the brink of US involvement in World War II) and our world continues to be dominated by violence of all kinds. Wonder Woman offers us hope for a better future. What could be more empowering than that?"
According to Tilley, the only other superhero who inspires similar optimism is Superman. While Superman has been in film since the 1940s, this will be the first feature film for Wonder Woman. Tilley is cautiously optimistic about the upcoming film. "Both Patty Jenkins (the director) and Gal Gadot (the actress) seem to understand the core of Wonder Woman's character, so as long as their vision doesn't fall prey to studio expediencies, I think we're good. Most important, after 75 years, it's beyond time for Wonder Woman to helm her own feature film," she said.
At the iSchool, Tilley teaches courses in comics reader's advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children's Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Frederic Wertham has been featured in The New York Times and other media outlets.