Most interesting to me in this reading was the idea of storytelling’s strange progression as part of the culture industry and then the revival of true storytelling again. As I watched Wonder Woman, the progression of the character of Wonder Woman was a beautiful example of storytellers tossed between the culture industry machine and people desiring a return to the old ways of folk tales.
Zipes describes folk tales as oral storytelling of tales that united a community and gave it hope for a more utopian society. In other words, they were stories that were achievable and made the people want to be better. Unfortunately, many of the characters from these folk tales of old have been radically altered from their original motives and given more profitable images and motives. Wonder Woman was created with little preconceived motives in mind other than to have more representation of heroines in comic books. The creator was not trying to accomplish any political agenda by making Wonder Woman. Yet, as we follow the evolution of her character we see almost a revival of this folk tale mentality. Zipes remarks that the oral folk tales of old were property of the community as a whole. The story would be told and retold based on the needs of the people and the message the storyteller wanted to get across. In the same manner, girls and woman that viewed Wonder Woman material were inspired and sought after the unifying factor of storytelling once more.
Wonder Woman becoming the poster girl for feminism is, to me, an example of people fighting against the culture industry. Whether it is a conscious effort or a natural instinct, the groups that utilized Wonder Woman were taking back the communal part of storytelling and taking away the power of the culture industry. In the documentary Wonder Woman one of the women’s rights activists described her push against the commercialization of the character of Wonder Woman. When the company in charge of Wonder Woman decided to take away her powers, make her a shop owner, and basically strip the character of all her “wonder” this activist woman who wanted to use Wonder Woman as the poster girl for her movement constantly called, wrote, and protested the telling of Wonder Woman’s story. Eventually she won out and the writers decided to give back her powers and go back to the old way of telling the story.
When I was reading Adorno’s essay on the culture industry I remember a distinct feeling of no hope. I felt there was nothing that could be done to fight the machine that is taking over the world, but this reading has revived my faith in change. People want to unite behind a cause, and storytelling is the grounds on which this battle takes place. The rise, fall, and recovery of Wonder Woman’s character is an example of hope that we can return to the days of folk tales and continue storytelling in a manner that promotes change and unity in our communities.
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