Just yesterday I was laughing at how all of my daughter’s friends seemed to be just as bossy as her. They are all about six years old; very sure of who they are and what they want. At first, I thought it was a compliment. But then I thought: Why the need to point these attributes as bossy? Would I have done this had my nephew and his friends behaved the same way? Through some more research, I came across a project that points out that the “bossy” adjective, is a loaded one.

“Calling a girl ‘bossy’ when she asserts her voice—a word we rarely use for little boys—sends the message that girls should not speak up,” reads Leadership Tips for Parents by LeanIn.org and Girl Scouts of USA. The downloadable PDF is part of an initiative by the two groups: Ban Bossy.

When telling our children that girls who speak up are bossy, this foreshadows the unnecessary future dilemmas for these children as women: don’t be too assertive, keep your voice down, stop being so sensitive. In other words, it teaches that leadership roles are not for girls and women. If speaking up is equated with bossy, and bossy is bad, the message becomes: don’t be bossy; don’t speak up. We see this play out in school all the time: the hands of girls stop going up in grade school, and sentences begin to start with, “I’m not sure, but.” Statements are posed as questions, so as to not appear too confident—too bossy—in what is being said.

As adults, we need to be careful with pushing this mindset: it is already promoted enough in the media, and we can’t be everywhere the kidlets are to fight against these stereotypes.

Gloria Steinem is quoted in saying, “If you and I [women],  every time we pass a mirror, downgrade on how we look or complain about our looks, if we remember that a girl is watching us, and that’s what she’s learning.”

This applies by how we speak and act as well. Women should not be afraid of asserting themselves: saying no to that extra volunteer project that there is no time for, sending bad food back at a restaurant, telling someone how they feel, asking questions.

The men in a young girl’s life are just as important. Ban Bossy’s booklet advises that dads and granddads be aware of their own words and actions: “They matter. Show respect for the girls and women in your life and in hers to help her develop high expectations of other men. Speak out against cultural messages that tell her to value her physical appearance above all else. Let her know you value her for who she is inside.”

International Women’s Day just passed, and we gave deserved nods to the women who fought for our rights and to give us the push to continue future work. By teaching our girls progressive values—letting them know they are valued—we are investing in a stronger future for women.

A former This intern, Hillary Di Menna writes Gender Block every week and maintains an online feminist resource directory, FIRE- Feminist Internet Resource Exchange.

An April 2013 Ryerson Journalism Research Centre report, Women in the Field: What Do You Know? A snapshot of women in Canadian journalism, says, “As women prosper in Canadian journalism, there are contradictory signs. For one, they may not have entirely escaped the confines of the ‘Women’s Pages.’ … influential beats such as politics and crime remain male-dominated, with women covering only a third of those stories.”

In an Aug. 22 Salon article, Anna North writes, “the pantheon of journalists whose name recognition and clout have made them cottage industries is overwhelmingly male.”

There is not much difference with mainstream broadcast journalism. In Jennifer Siebel-Newsom’s documentary Miss Representation, TV host Lisa Ling says, “I don’t ever see gossip columns or tabloids reporting on Brian Williams’s personal life.” Yet Katie Couric’s love life (USA Today: Katie Couric goes public with banker boyfriend), fashion (Katie Couric’s choice of a white jacket after Labor Day did not go unnoticed!) and legs (Katie Couric’s Legs Worship on YouTube) seem to have garnered more attention than the fact she is America’s first female TV news anchor.

According to the feminist activist group, National Organization for Women (Now) female journalists are underrepresented in print, radio and television news. While the low number of women journalists is stagnant, groups advocating for change are growing. “The IWMF [International Women’s Media Foundation] believes the news media worldwide are not truly free and representative without the equal voice of women,” says the website for the 23-year-old Washington based organization. IWMF is not unique: Women Action and the Media (WAM), Women in Journalism, Journalism and Women Symposium (Jaws) and other like groups work to network and support females in the journalism field.

The glass ceiling in any profession isn’t new, but it is still beyond frustrating. None of my male peers have had the Carrie Bradshaw comparison. And though the comment may seem harmless, we can do our part to not limit our idea of women in the news.  Important stories are being shared and shouldn’t be masked by 1950s notions and fictional portrayals. And if they have to be at least compare me to April O’Neil; I can relate more to turtle- and radioactive goo-based story lines than fancy shoes.

A former This intern, Hillary Di Menna writes Gender Block every week and maintains an online feminist resource directory, FIRE- Feminist Internet Resource Exchange.

Gold headband and matching bracelets. Go Go boots, booty shorts and a baby tee. A raven haired badass wearing shades and driving an invisible car (goodbye invisible jet) to track down the bad guy. This was the latest Wonder Woman appearance, aired on the Cartoon Network July 13 in an animated short. Her first appearance was in a 1941 December/January edition of All Star Comics.

“Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world,” said William Moulton Marston who created the heroine and penned her stories under the name Charles Moulton. The Harvard graduate and psychologist invented the lie detector test (Hey there, Lasso of Truth). When he spoke of creating a new hero, his wife Elizabeth Holloway suggested it be a woman. It was her and his other wife Olive Byrne (they had a polygamous marriage) who inspired the character.

Being the woman superhero that first pops to mind, for those not even interested in comic book culture, Wonder Woman is a feminist icon. And with anything feminist, female, and human, comes conflict. Both her story and costume have been revamped many times over the past 72 years. “[Wonder Woman’s] metamorphoses reflect nothing less than the confusion, fear, and constant reformation of American ideals about American women,” says crime fiction writer Kelli E. Stanley in a 2005 article on Wonder Woman’s cultural impact.

In the beginning, the story of Wonder Woman is rooted in Greek mythology. Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, molded Amazon women out of clay. After Hercules tried to enslave the women, Aphrodite took them to a place where men could not go, Paradise Isle. The earlier stories contain a lot of bondage and likewise imagery, “The ropes and chains are symbols of patriarchy and the drama is her ability to break the shackles of male domination they symbolize,” says Philip Charles Crawford in an article published on the School Library Journal. The stories were also around, Stanley points out in her article, during wartime and women were encouraged to join the workforce. After that the character got trapped in romance comics, being the domestic role model during a time when women were told to get back home and let the men have their jobs back.

Wonder Woman’s writers, origin, powers, weapons and gadgets have varied throughout the years. Sometimes her lasso is gone, others she has an invisible plane. She’s been a clay figure brought to life, she’s been an orphan in New York City. Gloria Steinem got involved in 1968 when writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Mike Sekowsky revamped the heroine’s image. She was stripped of her powers and instead learned martial arts and weapon mastery, from a man. The theory was her mortal identity, Diana Prince, could be more attainable than a mythological Amazon (or in some stories a demi-goddess) Steinem and other critics did not like seeing their icon lose their super power status, or her sudden need of male mentoring. When writer and artist George Perez took over the character, in 1987, he consulted Steinem in order to keep the feminism alive in the series.

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

The character has made television before, most notably from 1975 to 1979 with Lynda Carter playing the lead. A re-attempt was made in 2011, but was cancelled after the pilot. Animated series have been off and on since 1973. In 2009 there was a direct-to-video animated film.

Throughout all media, her costume has changed. Her original skirt has been altered to culottes. Her body has been covered up by the Comics Code Authority or by artists who thought too much skin didn’t measure up to the feminist ideals. The latter hasn’t been received well from feminists who do not want to be labeled as anti-sex. There is also the argument that Wonder Woman will be sexy no matter what since she is a strong, female lead. No matter what, the character will be complicated, like all great things are.

Picture from crunkfeministcollective.com