Wonder Woman isn’t just another comic book super hero now: she’s also an Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations.
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With a popular tv show long ago aired, a likely blockbuster movie coming soon and the comics doing better than ever, you think that it might be enough to keep her busy, but on an historic anniversary for the character, she’s being celebrated like no other comic book superhero has before.
Diana joins the Angry Birds as one of the honorary ambassadors for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Wonder Woman will be the UN Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.
At 75 — as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Cristina Gallach stated in her speech to the assembled Girl Scouts, DC creators, actors and press — Wonder Woman is older than the United Nations itself.
“I think it’s a great personification of what Wonder Woman means and has always meant,” DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson told ComicBook.com. “The reinforcement of the social development goals that the UN has outlined particularly number five, gender equality, is so in line with what Wonder Woman has always stood, for so we’re quite sure she’s going to be an effective tool to help them be more effective on the ground and reinforce what her attributes are for new generations.”
The designation was presented to Diane Nelson in a ceremony at the United Nations – she was joined by Wonder Women past and present, Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot.
TV’s Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, gave an impassioned speech for gender equality that captured the attention of the audience of young girls, several dressed in the warrior princess’s costume.
“All you women of all colors, all you children out there, never forget that Wonder Woman lives inside you,” Carter said. “You can be anything. I see these beautiful faces. Learn. Know. Be everything that you dream. Because unless you dream it…it can’t be done.”
Carter also spoke to her start as her defining character. “More than 40 years ago I had the honor of being cast…more than 40 years ago,” dropping her head into her hands at the podium. She then continued to speak how TV execs didn’t think that a woman could hold a television – until they started getting letters from women speaking to what it meant for Wonder Woman to be televised.
Gal Gadot followed “What an inspiration, right? Lynda – I think you should be the President of the United States with these values.” For that, the crowed roared its approval.
Of course, fans know that Carter actually will play the President of the United States on Monday’s episode of Supergirl. Last season, producers had teased that if the President were to appear on the show, it would be Carter — and later, they revealed that they had held off the President’s first appearance on the series until they could schedule something to line up with Carter’s availability rather than cast somebody else.
Godot will appear in a PSA for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal number five. DC will also produce a special comic book aimed at empowering women and girls. In a first for DC, the comic will be printed in the six official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
