Less than two months after the U.N. named the iconic DC Comics superhero an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls, the international organization has ended the campaign, which was intended to run through 2017.
A U.N. spokesman confirmed the news to Reuters, adding that past campaigns using fictional characters often ran for mere days or weeks. Past U.N. honorary ambassadors include Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell, and Angry Birds.
When the Wonder Woman campaign was first announced in October, some criticized the U.N. for choosing “an overtly sexualized” character instead of a real-life feminist role model, and almost 45,000 people have signed a petition asking the U.N. to reconsider. The U.N. itself has also faced increased criticism lately for its own lack of female leadership.
“Although the original creators may have intended wonder Woman to represent a strong and independent ‘warrior’ woman with a feminist message, the reality is that the character’s current iteration is that of 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,” the petition read. “This is the character that the United Nations has decided to represent a globally important issue — that of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.”
In October, on-screen Wonder Women Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot united for a U.N. ceremony honoring the character in her 75th year, with both actresses testifying about Wonder Woman’s cultural impact.
“In some magical and mystical way, there lies within each of us Wonder Woman,” Carter told the audience at the time. “She is real. She lives and she breathes. I know this because she lives in me, and she lives in the stories that these women tell me, day in and day out. I see it in the letters and in the stories. I read it on social media. I see it in the tears that fall from the eyes of the women who say it saved them from some awful thing that they endured — because they saw that they could do something great.”
