Um.

[Content Note: Antifeminism; dehumanization; disablism.]

So, earlier this week, David Finch, one of the people tapped to take on the Wonder Woman franchise, along with his collaborator (and wife) Meredith Finch, gave an interview to Comic Book Resources, which ended with this rather incredible quote:

David: And for my part, I'm excited to be drawing Meredith's story and to be drawing such an icon. That's something — since I've been at DC, it's been an incredible privilege to be able to draw characters like Batman, and to the limited degree I've had, to draw Superman, and now to get into Wonder Woman. I think she's a beautiful, strong character. Really, from where I come from, and we've talked about this a lot, we want to make sure it's a book that treats her as a human being first and foremost, but is also respectful of the fact that she represents something more. We want her to be a strong — I don't want to say feminist, but a strong character. Beautiful, but strong.

Which, frankly, was bad enough. But then he took to Twitter to clarify, and posted this gem:


To be abundantly clear, Finch just treated "feminist" and "human being" as mutually exclusive categories.

I would say that I can't imagine what would cause a man to casually set "feminist" in opposition to "human being, fallible and real," except that I know exactly why.

Whether it's treating feminist women as extreme, hysterical, mentally ill outliers or treating feminist women as impenetrably strong and impervious to harm, or any one of a number of stereotypes in between, feminist women are routinely dehumanized, because dehumanizing us is what allows people to harm us without piquing their consciences, and because dehumanization provides the necessary justification for the people who ignore the harm done to us.

We are othered, in order that we might be harmed without pushback.

It's easier to harm someone, or ignore harm done to someone, whom you see as something other than a human being, other than real.

Depressing that a man tasked with taking on a fictional female hero who fights harm done to others would be promulgating the very narratives that allow harm done to real women.