Wonder Woman Lynda Carter Mistakes ‘Fat Bear Week’, Bears Respond With Love

Everybody’s favourite Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, got charmingly confused over Fat Bear Week.

Carter, TV’s original Wonder Woman, whose most recent appearance on the big screen was as Asteria in Wonder Woman 1984, made the perfectly honest mistake of thinking that Fat Bear Week was a “celebration of body positivity” for gay bears!

“I kept hearing about Fat Bear Week and thought it was a celebration of body positivity within a gay subculture. It turns out it is about actual bears! Either way, I am here for it. ????????️‍????,” Carter tweeted.

I loved you when I was 12, and this is why I still love you now.

— A Life of Michael 🏳️‍🌈 (@HoganBCMJ) October 2, 2021

Fat Bear Week is actually an annual competition that celebrates the bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska – with people voting for the fattest bear. This year, Fat Bear Week was celebrated between September 29 and October 5.

Carter’s shoutout though, thrilled gay bears and cubs across the world. They responded to the 80’s symbol of explosive girl power and shiny gold bling with a whole bunch of online lovin’.

Lynda Carter – A Gay Icon!

Many thanked her for her acknowledgment and acceptance of all body types and some expressed admiration and surprise that Wonder Woman was even aware of the Bear subculture!

In the 70s and 80s, I had closeted gay-boy love for you because you *were* Wonder Woman as far as I was concerned…and you were beyond fabulous.

In 2021, I love you a hundredfold more because you know about gay bears, body positivity, and aren't judgey about any of it. :) <3

— Fat Matt (Cutter), the suburban beast 👣🏳️‍🌈 (@BarefootedBeast) October 2, 2021

One fan marvelled that she knew “how to “speak gay!”. Carter responded: “It’s a required language when you’re training to be Wonder Woman”.

It’s a required language when you’re training to be Wonder Woman 💫 https://t.co/d7lddzEnh8

— Lynda Carter (@RealLyndaCarter) October 3, 2021

Before she took up the golden lasso in the late 70’s, Carter had been busy singing her way around America, touring extensively with her band. A brief stint as Miss USA in 1972 led to an acting career and then to the role that made her one of our icons – Wonder Woman.

For decades now Carter has been a gay icon and for good reason. She gave many little gay boys and girls from the 70’s and 80’s a reason to spin into their power in front of the television every Saturday and Sunday afternoon.   

But she didn’t even know she was a gay icon until the 90’s!

Carter told outwire757 in 2018 about the revelation. “It was a female interviewer for Out Magazine in the early 1990s. She walked in, and I had my newborn daughter with me. She said, “You’re just such an icon!” And I said, ‘I am?” And she said, “You don’t know?” And I said, “Oh my God, that’s so great!” 

“Because the LGBTQ story is the story of everything I believe in. It is the odd duck. It’s the person that’s the tallest. It’s the person who’s different. I was tall and had huge feet. I dealt with the mean girls and all that stuff,” said Carter.

Singer, Actor, Pride Marshal

Carter has previously been the grand marshal for several pride events, including in New York and Washington. When asked by outwire757 what it was that she thought made Wonder Woman appeal to the oppressed, she replied “It’s a two-fold thing. I think it is our secret desire to be seen, and that we know on some level that we are strong.” 

 

“Wonder Woman is not a victim. She gives, and when you give, that feeling is so fulfilling. It’s almost a guilty pleasure. She has this part of her that is very complex, but her main drive is that she is not going to stand for bullying or people taking advantage of others,” Carter said in the interview.

As the rumors of Wonder Woman being bisexual built up, especially in the years since Carter gave up the keys to the invisible jet in 1979, the character’s  bi-sexuality was officially confirmed in 2016. Since then, the coming out of LGBTQI superheroes have been a slow trickle at best!

Carter has also in recent times come out in support of trans rights. Talking about it to Freedom for All Americans in 2020, Carter said, “You hear these arguments all the time, about how transgender people are somehow a threat to others, especially when people start talking about the issue of bathrooms. This is the truth — it is so much more dangerous to force a transgender person to use the bathroom they’re not comfortable in, not to mention traumatizing.”

She really is a wonder, Wonder Woman!