WASHINGTON – Actress Lynda Carter, the original Wonder Woman, called for some female senators to be added as members of the Senate healthcare reform working group that is currently crafting an Obamacare replacement.
Carter also said there should be “no conversation” about gender politics until America is “gender neutral.”
“That there are 13 men on the health panel and no woman is a goddamn shame. I have to say that maybe people don’t understand that I worry about my father. I worry about my brother. I am at an age where I see people who need help and we are half the world. You need the voices of women,” Carter said on Friday following a discussion at the Library of Congress as part of their “Library of Awesome” exhibit.
“If women outlive men, I think we need the voices of women,” she added. “And I would really hope the president and these people on this panel would have some reason and some intellect behind their decisions here and put some women on there.”
The new Wonder Woman film starring Gal Gadot is breaking records at the box office after grossing almost $600 million since it opened on June 2. The discussion with Carter revolved around her experiences working on the Wonder Woman TV series and the roles women play in American society today.
“We’re half the world. We are the mothers of all mankind. Hello? This is about, if you are thinking of a family, and you are thinking we all agree that raising a family, you really want to have two parents, you want to have a mother and a father, but you want to have co-parenting and you want to have the ying and the yang, why is it that we think that’s not purposeful and important in our government?” Carter said.
“It’s a supportive and another point of view, you know, because women are, I think, much less about hierarchy and more about community in general – that’s maybe an overstatement, but we don’t ask how big is it? I couldn’t help myself,” she added.
Carter was asked if she had Wonder Woman advice for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“Slippery slope – I have to say that we don’t want to be men, we just don’t want men telling us how to be women, that’s kind of the bottom line, isn’t it? How do you know how to be a woman? You know nothing about being a woman or what it’s like to have to deal with the things we deal with and you can’t legislate it. You need the ying and the yang,” she replied. “People talk about family values – we need two parents, we need this, but you think you can legislate without another voice, the voice of women. You cannot legislate without the other voices of half the nation of, you know, maybe they just don’t understand we really are the mothers of all mankind, that means you, in the nicest way.”
Carter shared her opinion of the Hollywood Reporter article “The Complex Gender Politics of the ‘Wonder Woman’ Movie,” discussing the most expensive movie to be directed by a woman.
“In other words, the big question mark hanging over Wonder Woman isn’t whether a female director can make a successful superhero event movie; it’s whether a female superhero can upend that long-standing formula and do something that the male ones haven’t accomplished: expand the female base,” the article states.
Carter called “gender politics” absurd and crazy because men and women are not “50/50” right now.
“Gender politics is so absurd. I think gender politics is crazy. I am not even, I am stunned that gender politics and Wonder Woman would even be put in the same – it’s really stunning because if it were 50/50, if it were gender-neutral and it was skewing the other way, well, you could have a conversation about that, but at this point there is no conversation. Let’s get it gender-neutral first,” Carter said.
During the onstage discussion, Carter elaborated on the ways her Hispanic heritage influenced her adult life.
“I loved it,” she told the audience. “What I take from it is a great amount of understanding and love for hardworking immigrant families.”
She mentioned the deportations being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without specific examples.
“People yanking people off the streets like is happening with ICE right now – it’s just scary stuff,” she said.
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