Wonder Woman: The Archetype We’ve Hungered For.
A few weekends ago I saw Wonder Woman and loved it.
- Wonder Woman As The Warrior Archetype:
- A Complex, Healthy Warrior Archetype:
- Why Wonder Woman Is So Important:
- And, on another level, Wonder Woman is energizing.
- Getting To Know The Warrior Archetype, The Wonder Woman Inside Of You:
- Wrapping Up.
- Resources
- What’s Running Your Life?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- References
A few weekends ago I saw Wonder Woman and loved it.
SUMMARY
The hunger for the Wonder Woman archetype — a woman who is both powerful and deeply relational, capable and compassionate, strong without needing to suppress her humanity — points to something real: a gap in the cultural stories women have been given about what full-spectrum strength looks like. This post explores what that archetype actually represents and why it resonates so deeply for driven, ambitious women.
Definition: Archetype
An archetype, in the Jungian psychological tradition, is a universal symbol, character, or pattern that recurs across cultures and time — representing fundamental aspects of human experience. Archetypes live in the collective unconscious and provide psychological templates for understanding identity, roles, and meaning. When a cultural figure like Wonder Woman resonates powerfully and broadly, it’s often because she’s activating an archetypal need that hasn’t been adequately met by the available cultural stories.
It was a moving experience for me. I laughed. Cried. I had goosebumps a lot. And in the weeks since it came out, I’ve seen so many friends and people I follow on social media posting about it and sharing their daughters’ responses about it. I’ve had clients talk about it and seen therapists chat about it online.
Clearly, this movie struck a big chord (grossing over $300 million in its first week alone!). I’m not sure if you’ve seen it yet, but I highly recommend you do.
Because, as a therapist and feminist, I have some thoughts about why Wonder Woman may matter so much to each of us as women particularly in this day and age.
Wonder Woman As The Warrior Archetype:
Relational trauma refers to psychological injury that occurs within the context of important relationships, particularly those with primary caregivers during childhood. Unlike single-incident trauma, relational trauma involves repeated experiences of emotional neglect, inconsistency, manipulation, or abuse within bonds where safety and trust should have been foundational.
“Psychologically … the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.”
– Carl Jung, MD
Wonder Woman, in my opinion, embodies the Warrior Archetype.
What’s an archetype?
An archetype is a recurring, universal symbolic pattern in literature, story, religion, or mythology. According to Jungian psychology, they can also be a collective symbol present in individual psyches (or souls).
Archetypes, in the therapeutic sense, are therefore thought to exist within each of us. As symbols of greater patterns in our personal history and also in our experience of humanity. Symbols which, when we come into contact with them, can help awake and spark awareness to certain aspects of ourselves. They can also help us navigate and better understand what it means to be human.
There are dozens and dozens of archetypes with varying degrees of definition. But the Warrior Archetype, generally speaking, represents physical strength and the ability to protect and defend oneself and others against “bad or evil” forces.
And yet, while this Warrior Archetype has typically been ascribed to men and to maleness, both history and mythology are littered with examples of women warriors. The Amazons, Joan of Arc, Frances Clayton, The Dahomey Amazons, Brunhild of the Valkyries, Nakano Takeko, the Briton Queen Boudica, Grace O’Malley, and basically this list here.
It’s not only possible for women to embody the warrior archetype. In my opinion, I think we all contain the warrior archetype to some extent.
Cinema and song have included more and more examples of female warrior archetypes recently. But Wonder Woman may represent a far different model of female warrior archetype than what we commonly see.
A Complex, Healthy Warrior Archetype:
“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”SIGMUND FREUD
“A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
So often when Hollywood attempts to showcase the female Warrior Archetype on screen today, she’s often portrayed as psychologically damaged, or bitter, man-hating, or isolatory, among other potentially “unhealthy” characteristics. Think The Black Widow, Lisbeth Salander, Beatrix Kiddo, etc..
Already the idea of women embodying the Warrior Archetype is a counter-stereotype, a cognitive dissonance, a suppressed archetype.
In other words, something that isn’t “normative” and that causes mental discomfort for some in challenging the “traditional” concept of femininity.
So when Hollywood portrays female Warrior Archetypes in a spectrum of unhealthy or “shadow” characteristics, it robs us all of the possibility of a “healthier,” more integrated female warrior archetype to take root in our minds and hearts.
HOWEVER, Wonder Woman gives us an example of what it might look like to be a healthy, integrated female warrior archetype — one who loves babies, ice cream, takes a lover (but doesn’t need him to survive physically or emotionally) and also kicks ass on the proverbial battlefield. Not because she’s out for revenge, not because she’s psychopathic, but because she feels a duty and calling to serve and to protect. In the name of love and in the name of humanity.
Why Wonder Woman Is So Important:
“There is a potential heroine in every woman.” – Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
Wonder Woman is important both on a permissive and on an energizing level.
Permissively, the fictional character of Wonder Woman in all her integrated glory challenges the concept of femininity and offers up a more complex narrative of what it is to be a woman in this world. Wonder Woman models for us the message that you don’t have to choose to be one or the other — joyful and loving or fierce and tough. You, as a woman, get to be both.
We women NEED to see what Wonder Woman embodies: this duality, this both/and way of being as a woman exist whether it’s onscreen or in our own personal lives. Because, since time immemorial, we as women have implicitly and explicitly often been told what it means to be a woman, what’s permissible, what’s possible. We’ve been told and taught what it means to be “feminine.”
Wonder Woman not only speaks to the warrior archetype we contain within us, but she gives us a kind of psychic permission to rewrite what it means to be “feminine”, what it means to be a woman. She’s a complex, healthy, integrated archetype that perhaps many of us feel inside ourselves and yet so rarely see on the big screen. She gives us a kind of digital permission slip to be more of who we internally feel ourselves to be.
And, on another level, Wonder Woman is energizing.
She may spark and ignite the part inside of us that needs to be called forth for external or internal battles in our own lives.
Whether you’re a young woman struggling with recovery from an eating disorder; or a woman facing sexism in the workplace; or someone who struggles to live each day with your anxiety or depression; whether your battles are internal or external, tapping into the energy of Wonder Woman and and all she embodies may be the symbol so many of us intrapsychically need to feel our strength, to move forward in recovery, to call out bullying, misogyny, bigotry, sexism, racism, and ill treatment of others and to ground more fully into our power and stand for love, for fairness, for what’s right and what’s good. Showing up for healing and love in our own lives and also in the world outside.
Wonder Woman is an example of a kind of mental and emotional touchstone young girls and women can embody when they feel challenged by their own negative, critical inner voices.
She allows us all to ask the question, “WWWWD?” (What would Wonder Woman do?) when our shame attacks us from the inside or when we’re attacked from outside. She becomes a healthy, functional voice that we woman can begin to internalize to support our own healing in the world.
And that is really important.
Getting To Know The Warrior Archetype, The Wonder Woman Inside Of You:
“The Warrior archetype is just as connected to the female psyche as to the male… In today’s society, the Warrior Woman has emerged in its glory once again through women who liberate and protect others, especially women and children who need vocal and financial representation.” – Carolyn Myss, Ph.D.
You may be thinking I’m going a bit over the top about a fictional character but if you’ve been following my blog for any time, you know I’m a big believer in cinematherapy to help guide, instruct, and bring healing to our lives.
Wonder Woman is fictional, for sure. And she has flaws (still hypersexualized, heteronormative, cis, and white — in other words, not as diverse and inclusive as I’d like to see heroines represented) but what she represents is clearly still so important for many girls and women among us: permission to be a woman who is strong, brave, independent and who fights for what’s right in the name of love and humanity.
So I’d like to offer up a list of inquiries to help you get in touch with and to better understand your own Warrior Archetype — your own inner Wonder Woman — in the hopes that this may benefit you and your healing.
Inquiries:
- Do you know this part — the Warrior Archetype — in yourself?
- What messages have you received (consciously or unconsciously) about being a woman in this world?
- Growing up, were you taught that it’s okay for a woman to be strong, fierce, and to use her physical strength?
- Or were you taught that being strong, bold, and independent was not okay on some level?
- How did your mother, if at all, embody the Warrior archetype? What did you learn from her about being a strong woman in the world?
- How — if at all -has the warrior archetype played out in your own life? Is it in your eating disorder recovery? Is it separating from your abusive relationship? Is it standing up to hateful, racist individuals in your local or wider community? Is it going back to school while raising your baby? Think through all the times you ground yourself in the spirit of love, duty, and strength. These are the moments you embodied your inner Warrior.
- How — if you want — can you nurture and honor this aspect in yourself more? Where could you embody more of the Warrior Archetype serve you in your life? Ask yourself, WWWWD?
Wrapping Up.
If you liked the film Wonder Woman and this article resonated with you, I’ve listed out just a handful of resources at the end of this article which, in my opinion, also speak to the female Warrior Archetype. I invite you to check them out if they feel helpful.
And now I’d love to hear from you:
Did you see the movie Wonder Woman? What did you think of it? As a woman, did you find it empowering and why do you think that is?
Leave a message in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
Here’s to healing relational trauma and creating thriving lives on solid foundations.
Warmly,
Annie
Resources
- This list of archetypes.
- Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.*
- Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.*
- Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.*
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Frequently Asked Questions
DISCLAIMER: The content of this post is for psychoeducational and informational purposes only and does not constitute therapy, clinical advice, or a therapist-client relationship. For full details, please read our Medical Disclaimer. If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
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References
- Box Office Mojo Staff (2017). Wonder Woman (2017) Box Office. Box Office Mojo.
- Jung, C. G. (1968). The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 9 (Part 1).
- Jung, C. G. (1959). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 9 (Part 1).
- Pearson, C. S. (1991). Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World. HarperOne.
- Levin, M. A. (1999). Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
- Estés, C. P. (1992). Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. Ballantine Books.
- Bolen, J. S. (1984). Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives. HarperOne.
- Myss, C. (1996). Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing. Harmony Books.
- Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Harvard University Press.
- Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press.
- Gerrard, B. (2013). Cinematherapy: Using Movies to Heal. Psychotherapy Networker.
- Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Dell Publishing.
- Bolen, J. S. (1989). Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman. HarperOne.
FREE QUIZ
The invisible patterns you can’t outwork…
Your LinkedIn profile tells one story. Your 3 AM thoughts tell another. This quiz reveals the childhood patterns keeping you running — and why enough is never enough.
TAKE THE QUIZToxic positivity is the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations. It involves dismissing or invalidating genuine negative emotions with platitudes like ‘just think positive’ or ‘everything happens for a reason.’ It can be harmful because it shames people for having normal human emotions and can prevent genuine processing and healing.
Genuine optimism acknowledges the reality of difficult emotions and situations while maintaining hope. Toxic positivity bypasses or dismisses the difficult emotions entirely. The key difference is whether the approach makes space for the full range of human experience or whether it shuts down authentic emotional expression.
You can gently but firmly assert your need to have your feelings acknowledged. Something like, ‘I appreciate you trying to help, but right now I need to feel heard rather than cheered up.’ Setting this boundary can help redirect the conversation toward genuine support. It’s also okay to simply limit your sharing with people who consistently respond this way.
To avoid toxic positivity, practice empathetic listening by first acknowledging and validating the other person’s feelings before offering any perspective or solutions. Ask what kind of support they need. Resist the urge to immediately ‘fix’ or reframe their experience. Simply being present with someone in their pain is often the most powerful form of support.
If you’re prone to toxic positivity, it might be worth exploring whether you’re also dismissing your own difficult emotions. The same impulse to ‘stay positive’ that you apply to others might be preventing you from fully processing your own pain. Developing a more compassionate relationship with all of your emotions, including the difficult ones, is key to genuine well-being.
Annie Wright
LMFT · Relational Trauma Specialist · W.W. Norton AuthorHelping ambitious women finally feel as good as their résumé looks.
As a licensed psychotherapist, trauma-informed executive coach, and relational trauma specialist with over 15,000 clinical hours, she guides ambitious women — including Silicon Valley leaders, physicians, and entrepreneurs — in repairing the psychological foundations beneath their impressive lives. Annie is the founder and former CEO of Evergreen Counseling, a multimillion-dollar trauma-informed therapy center she built, scaled, and successfully exited. A regular contributor to Psychology Today, her expert commentary has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, Inc., NBC, and The Information. She is currently writing her first book with W.W. Norton.
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