10 LISTENER NOVEMBER 5 2016
W
hen I heard that Wonder Woman had
become an Honorary United Nations
Ambassador for the Empowerment
of Women and Girls, I hoped it was a
spoof. Alas, the appointment is real. However, that
doesn’t make the character any more useful than it
would be to appoint Tintin as Honorary Ambassa-
dor for the Protection of the Free Press.
If you’re granted one phone call in an emer-
gency, don’t try Wonder Woman, because she
doesn’t exist. That hasn’t stopped the UN “task-
ing Wonder Woman with raising awareness
about Goal 5 of the UN Sustainable Development
Goals, which seeks to achieve gender equality and
empower all women and girls by 2030”. How ironic
to appoint as a champion of female empowermentHonestly, how can a
TV character be an
ambassador for women’s
empowerment?
Wonders will never cease
Being alive
seems a not
unreasonable
bar to be met by
a candidate for
high oice.
HARRY BLISS/THE CARTOON BANK
“Your barn door is open.”
a character who cannot speak for
herself.
I do not object to Wonder Woman
being white, shapely or gay, because
none of those should be disqualifiers,
but being alive seems a not unreason-
able bar to be met by a candidate for
high office. I also think that, on bal-
ance, anyone who aspires to be taken
seriously as anything other than a
model for Sports Illustrated or Victo-
ria’s Secret should wear actual clothes,
not a garment that brings to mind
the “togs, togs, undies” dilemma.
It may be liberating for Wonder
Woman to zoom through the air
without needing to hold up her
strapless top, but that is probably not
a specific subclause that the UN had
in mind when it set its development
goals. Chances are there are more
women and girls in need of empower-
ment in the Middle East and parts of
sub-Saharan Africa than in developed
countries. It would be help-
ful if men in those places
supported women’s rights.
When young men there
see an image of Wonder
Woman, perhaps they say
to each other, “Cor, let’s
take a look at number
5 of the UN Sustainable
Development Goals.” Then
again, perhaps they don’t
say that. Just surmising.
The UN needs some wins,
and more importantly,
there are a lot of women in
the world who need wins,
too. They are unlikely to be
assisted by the muddling of
fantasy and reality.A
friend and I are just
back from Pennsylva-
nia, where we visitedtwo wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright
houses, including the famous
Fallingwater. Both houses seemed
part-genius, part-artistry, part-utter
impracticability in roughly equal
measure. For example, Falling water
is built on six floors, but has just
one modest kitchen, which is on
the first floor.
I’m no fan of overzealous health
and safety regulations, but the
house also has a staircase leading
directly into the river that flows
underneath and which was a raging
torrent when we visited. Brilliant
for dispatching pesky drunken
guests to whom you could wave
goodbye (forever) as they disap-
peared over the waterfall, but a
nightmare for parents of young-
sters. It is also a forerunner of leaky
homes, with 52 leaks, some of
which have been there since it was
built some 80 years ago.
When the original owners
moved in and almost immediately
rang to say there was a leak, Wright
said, “Put a bucket under it.” This
is consistent with the thinking of
the man who also designed the
Guggenheim Museum and said
afterwards that if the paintings
didn’t fit, they should be cut in
half. Perhaps you can create master-
pieces only by being single-minded,
but arrogance is an unattractive
trait that compromises rather than
enhances projects.
Still, it was great to see and be
inside these houses and interesting
to be in Pennsylvania, where sup-
port for God and Donald Trump,
though not necessarily in alliance,
was conspicuously visible. Polling
indicates that both are set to play a
lesser role in US public life after the
election. lBACK TO BLACK
JOANNE
BLACK
IN WASHINGTON DC