Sexual Hostility a Mile High
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Sexual Hostility a Mile High
Michelle L.D. Hanlon*
I. INTRODUCTION
On October 21, 2016, the United Nations designated the character of
Wonder Woman . . . as Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of
Women and Girls.' The irony was not lost on United Nations staff who
strenuously objected to the elevation and presumed adulation of a comic
book character who is most commonly depicted as a large breasted, white
woman of impossible proportions, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring
body suit with an American flag motif and knee high boots-the epitome of
a 'pin-up' girl.2 Sadly, it seems in the eyes of the global community, a
fictitious caricature of a woman is more inspiring than, for example, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg
Whitman,3 any of the diverse group of sixty women who have flown in
space, or, for that matter, a middle-class working woman like a flight
attendant, who trains arduously to assure the safety of the flying public. And
just like that, the United Nations ignores a wealth of inspirational women
and encourages an entire generation of girls to aspire to the woefully
* Michelle L.D. Hanlon is a partner at 6Clat Law, LLP. She earned her J.D. magna cum
laude from the Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. in Political Science from
Yale College. She has been in private practice for more than twenty years. Focused on the
relationship between law and emerging and evolving technologies, she is currently pursuing
an LL.M. in Air and Space Law at McGill University.
1. Stand Up for the Empowerment of Women and Girls Everywhere, UNITED NATIONS
(Oct. 21, 2016), http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wonderwoman/ [hereinafter
Stand Up].
2. Petition to Reconsider the Choice of Wonder Woman as the UN's Honorary
Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, CARE2PETITIONS, http://www.
thepetitionsite.com/741/288/432/reconsider-the-choice-of-honorary-ambassador-for-the-em
powerment-of-women-and-girls/ (last visited Apr. 10, 2017). Thankfully, the United Nations
rather unceremoniously dropped Wonder Woman as an ambassador two months later
without, of course, publicly admitting any error in judgment. Alice Ross, One Less Woman in
Politics: Wonder Woman Loses Job as UNAmbassador, THE GUARDIAN (Dec. 13, 2016, 3:15
PM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/12/wonder-woman-un-ambassador-gen
der-equality.
3. For more information on these women, and to review ninety-seven other woman who
could have been considered, see The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, FORBES,
http://www.forbes.com/power-women/list/ (last visited Apr. 10, 2017).
HASTINGS WOMEN'S LAW JOURNAL
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