REALity Volume XXXVI Issue No. 3 March 2017
The UN has made a number of weird decisions over the years. The most recent one was in October 2016, when it appointed the comic book heroine Wonder Woman as honourary ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. Wonder Woman’s image was to be used on social media platforms to promote not only women’s empowerment, but also fuller participation by women in public life, and to raise awareness of gender-based violence.
It apparently didn’t occur to the bureaucratic minds at the UN that a voluptuous Caucasian woman wearing a clinging, cleavage revealing, high thigh outfit (she only had the one outfit) with an American flag motif, complete with knee high boots, wouldn’t exactly resonate with women from Asia or the Middle East, as well as with observant Catholic, Jewish and Muslim women who customarily wear somewhat more demure attire.
After the appointment of Wonder Woman, an online petition, started by UN staffers, was signed by nearly 45,000 people, who requested that Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, reconsider the appointment, saying the message the UN was “sending to the world with this appointment is extremely disappointing”. Objections were also made by those outside the UN establishment.
Consequently, the UN decided in December, scarcely two months after the appointment, to relieve Wonder Woman of her status.
The decision by the UN to appoint Wonder Woman as an honourary ambassador joins other bizarre decisions by the UN, such as issuing three homosexual stamps in February 2016. Such decisions demonstrate the deplorable state of the UN.