Raybon Kan: The ethics of watching Wonder Woman

Mixing up the politics. Israeli star Gal Gadot as Diana in the action adventure Wonder Woman. Photo / Supplied

Getting tricky to be ethical. Is it OK to use Uber? You think you're getting a ride, but suddenly, you're watching video of how the CEO behaves.

Is it OK to be on Facebook, if we enrich Peter Thiel, a Trump advisor? Come to think, is it OK to be on Facebook or Twitter at all, when fake news, launched from these platforms, gave us Trump? (Unless Putin did: details TBA.)

I even wonder whether it's OK to buy a Tesla, given that Elon Musk supported Trump right up until he left the Paris accord.

Meaning, Elon Musk was fine with the wall against Mexicans, the ban against Muslims, and every other thing that Trump did or caused to happen, including the catastrophes named Eric, Ivanka and Donald Jr.

And in showbiz, Wonder Woman.
A feminist milestone - the first big budget superhero film, to be directed by a woman. Great.

But on the other hand, Wonder Woman herself, is played by a former Israeli soldier, who, since her compulsory service, has expressed support for Israel on contentious issues to do with settlements.

I assume you have an opinion on the Middle East already. Broadly, the Middle East is proof of what you can get away with if you're really, really rich. (If you're a star, they let you do it.)

It's the region with the glowing orb of money. In some countries, women can drive, but only in the privacy of their own garage.

In some countries, free speech comes at the price of imprisonment, whipping or execution. Think the Middle Ages, complete with death for apostasy, but with five-star hotels.

Officially, NZ is against settlements, in line with a UN resolution, passed six months ago, which echoed the Geneva Convention.

Or to put it another way, facty-fact sentence, Palestine, multi-syllable words, one after another, Gaza, Golan Heights, each of which has its own Wikipedia entry, which at best I Google-glanced at, 1967, Six-Day War, West Bank (not a spoonerism,) Two State solution, only to give up, daunted, by the dense, dry and unending Dead Sea scroll of text.

Unlike Jared Kushner, I don't think I can sort the Middle East straight away, so let's jump ahead.

So was it OK to watch Wonder Woman or not?

Lebanon, a country which shares fences with the uncomplicated, carefree neighbours of Syria and Israel - what could possibly go wrong - banned Woman Woman from cinema screens, under its general ban on Israeli products.

A Hollywood movie, Wonder Woman is technically an American product, but it contains an Israeli ingredient, so there you go.
Then again, I guess we shouldn't be surprised: Wonder Woman comes from an all-woman island, so she's more Lesbanon than Lebanon, am I right?
(Some have asked whether Lebanon would screen Superman, given that his creators, Siegel and Schuster, were the children of Jewish immigrants to the US. But the ban is about Israel, as distinct from Judaism.)

Let's say Israel is in the wrong regarding settlements. (This is what NZ and the UN said in that UN resolution.) If Israel is wrong, and the actress playing Wonder Woman is part of that, well then, should we personcott? Is this like Woody Allen/MJ/Bill Cosby, where the artist is the art?

Minus these thoughts in my head, I totally enjoyed Wonder Woman, right up until I saw the producer credit for Stephen Mnuchin, Trump's Treasury Secretary. At once, my heart sank and my stomach lifted, causing an internal organ collision, at the very thought of putting money into his pocket.

What have I done? And historically, by buying the Seinfeld collection on DVD, I enriched Steve Bannon. Talk about conflict: does being a fan of Seinfeld count as supporting Jewish people or not?

What if you go see Wonder Woman, buy an ice cream at the movie, and thereby cause damage to the environment via the dairy industry? And what if it's a choc top, and the Bolivian cacao farmer was ripped off?

How much of the film does Gal Gadot have to be in? Can we still watch any Fast and Furious movies?

From the feminist point of view, should the film have been called Wonder Person? We didn't call that movie, Ghostbustresses. Is it discrimination to notice gender?
When you buy craft beer from a female bartender, is she a hipstress?
When you order coffee from a female server, is she a baristrix?
(I ask questions, because exclamation marks might be regarded as phallic and therefore patriarchal.)

@RaybonKan
www.raybonkan.com