Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘Wonder Woman’ Hurts People Of Color? That’s ‘Patronizing Stupidity’

On June 2, the Forward published a piece by Noah Berlatsky entitled, “Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman Is White — Let’s Not Pretend Otherwise.” Below, Chloé Valdary responds to the article.

I finally read the stupid piece and can confirm its pretty stupid. Like if this piece was a box of fries it would be labeled extra salty. To cut to the chase: We all love the movie because it speaks to virtues deep within us all that have nothing to do with skin color or notions of privilege or whatever other word this author felt like repeating just to sound like Judith Butler. No, wonder woman did not have a message that “hurt people of color.” All the black women, myself included, who sat and watched Wonder Woman destroy German soldiers in WWI were not sitting in the theater fixated and insecure about the fact that Wonder Woman has white skin. We were cheering her on, as human beings do for other human beings that they see themselves and their potential in. To suggest otherwise is patronizing stupidity to the dumbest degree. Plus the author actually had the nerve to complain about Gal Gadot playing a role that wasn’t Jewish aka wasn’t who she actually is aka what we call the definition of what it means to be an actress. Im done, I cannot with this foolishness. Wonder Woman is the best film of the summer, go see it.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.