Bulk, Breast, and Beauty - Negotiating the Superhero Body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman

Aug 27, 2026

This article examines how casting Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman negotiates between comic book fans’ bodily expectations and society’s gender schema. The analysis emphasizes Wonder Woman’s muscles and uses sports sociology frameworks, including edgework and feminist theorizing about women’s muscles. It explores how women manage boundaries between “emphasized femininity” and beyond, first outlining Wonder Woman’s origin, then applying edgework and bodywork, and finally discussing Gadot’s Wonder Woman body as feminist physique.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Gender schema and casting

Wonder Woman’s muscles and edgework

Feminist analysis of women’s muscles

Bodywork, edgework, and feminist physique

University of Southern Denmark Bulk, breast, and beauty negotiating the superhero body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman Schubart, Rikke Published in: Continuum DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2019.1569382 Publication date: 2019 Document version: Accepted manuscript Citation for pulished version (APA): Schubart, R. (2019) . Bulk, breast, and beauty: negotiating the superhero body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Continuum, 33(2), 160-172 . [https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2019.1569382](https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2019.1569382) Go to publication entry in University of Southern Denmark's Research Portal Terms of use This work is brought to you by the University of Southern Denmark. Unless otherwise specified it has been shared according to the terms for self-archiving. If no other license is stated, these terms apply: • You may download this work for personal use only. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying this open access version If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details and we will investigate your claim. Please direct all enquiries to [puresupport@bib.sdu.dk](puresupport@bib.sdu.dk) Download date: 26. Aug. 2026 Bulk, Breast, and Beauty: Negotiating the Superhero Body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman Rikke Schubart, University of Southern Denmark Author’s final accepted version. Online 29 January, 2019. Rikke Schubart,“Bulk, Breast, and Beauty: Negotiating the Superhero Body in Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman,” Continuum 33, 2 (2019) . ORCID Rikke Schubart [https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8885-6959](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8885-6959) ABSTRACT This article discusses how the choice of actress Gal Gadot to play Wonder Woman negotiates between comic book fans’ expectations and society’s gender schema. It has taken 75years for the industry to produce a movie adaption of Wonder Woman, perhaps due to the ‘problem’ of female muscles. This article focuses on the significance of Wonder Woman’s muscles using theoretical frames from sports sociology. One frame is edgework, coined by sociologist Stephen Lyng about dangerous activities that amateurs perform. The second frame is the feminist analysis of women’s muscles. Women navigate the boundary between what sociologist Shari Dworkin calls ‘emphasized femininity’ and what is beyond this femininity. The article introduces Wonder Woman’s origin, then presents theory of edgework and female muscles, third, it analyzes Wonder Woman as bodywork and edgework, and, finally, discusses Gadot’s Wonder Woman body as feminist physique. Keywords: Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, female superhero, muscles, gender, edgework Obvious, guys, we don’t want her to be huge, we don’t want her to be American Gladiator, why the hell would you want that? Yes, I know, boobs, Jezus guys, let’s get your head out of the gutter. Perverts! It’s okay, I like boobies too. TheFilmJunkee, April 1, 2014 This article discusses how the choice of actress Gal Gadot to play Wonder Woman negotiates between, on the one hand, comic books’ fantasy bodies and real ones, and how society’s gender schema applies to both. To put it in a nutshell: What can the body of Wonder Woman, adapted for live action blockbuster film in 2016, tell us about contemporary popular perceptions of female embodiment, power, and strength? The idea for this article took seed when I saw posters at my local cinema of Wonder Woman alongside posters with Batman and Superman, advertising Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016) . I was struck by the image of a battle-ready and athletic woman with a frown on her face and sword in her hand. It was a different Wonder Woman from the one I remembered from comics and also unlike innocent-and-cheerful-looking actress Lynda Carter who played Wonder Woman in ABC’s television show Wonder Woman (1975-79) .

FAQs

本文如何理解《神奇女侠》选角对观众期待的“协商”？

文章认为，葛尔·加朵饰演神奇女侠是在漫画迷对“身体”的期待与社会性别图式之间进行协商，而这种协商体现在对肌肉与身体形态的处理上。

文章使用了哪些理论框架来讨论神奇女侠的肌肉？

文章主要借助体育社会学的理论视角：其中包括社会学家Stephen Lyng提出的“边缘工作（edgework）”，以及对女性肌肉的女性主义分析框架。

文章如何描述女性在“强调的女性气质”与其边界之外进行身体调适？

文中指出，女性会在Shari Dworkin所说的“强调的女性气质（emphasized femininity）”以及超出该界限的身体呈现之间进行导航与调节，从而让身体呈现具有社会可理解性。

Aug 27, 2026

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