The Adventures of Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC character which first made her appearance in 1942. She quickly took over as one of the most influential DC characters, and has made numerous appearances in the her own comic corpus and series like justice league. Wonder Woman’s origin story begins on paradise isle. Her mother was blessed with strength and power from the goddess Aphrodite. When her mother wanted a child, Aphrodite granted her wish and gave her Diana. Skip forward to Diana’s adulthood and Aphrodite needs a warrior from paradise isle to fight in the man’s war. So begins, the adventures of Wonder Woman.
One purpose of this post is to use Roland Barthes’s techniques to analyse the cover of the very first adventure of wonder woman. According to Barthes analysis tools the connotation and denotation of the cover first issue of Wonder Woman uses Diana as a signifier and the sign. Overall, Wonder woman is seen as the hope for American women in their contribution to the war efforts. This can be signified as she rides into battle on a horse with no armor and only a lasso for safety. Angry all male soldiers below her scowl as there is no way to stop her from barreling past them. Her American flag outfit is also used to as a tool which signified Diana’s greatness and godliness as she signifies the great country of America fighting for freedom in World War II. Overall she portrays a sign for all American women who dare to fight in the war, whether it be staying home and holding down the home front or fighting in battle Wonder Woman proves that American Women are strong, brave, and unconquerable.
However as one continues to read it is clear that this Comic issue was written in the 1940’s as there is a clear distinction of gender roles. Even Wonder Woman falls victim to the scrutiny of man, as no one believes that she could have been a contributor to the rescue of the lost soldier. However, Wonder woman uses her lucrative gender role to slide under the radar and enter the United States Army. In her first mission, she is accompanied by a sidekick who also exploits the current societal gender roles. Even being accompanied by Wonder Woman he sidekick seems helpless. Constant jokes are made regarding her weight and un-atractiveness. Wonder Woman even needed to carry her from danger as she could not keep up. However, despite her helpless civilian female sidekick, Wonder Woman remains a sign of American dominance held by a all powerful woman.
I think that it would make an interesting research topic to identify the role of Wonder Woman in the war as the series continues. I am curious to see if those who surround her begin to accept her as a strong female lead. It would also be interesting to compare how Wonder Woman is seen in earlier issues to what she signifies in the later issues of her rebirth. How is she represented? How often is she objectified? It may even be interesting to see how the role of all women present in the Wonder Woman comics changes through the feminist movement of the 60’s. Is there a noticeable difference in women’s roles within the superhero comics? Does Wonder Woman always need to save her female tag-alongs, or will women in general be represented as a more powerful group? I may decide to continue this research and look at a compilation of Wonder Woman comics from the corpus of before and after the wave of feminism in the 1960’s. From this corpus I will be able to analyse if there is a change in the representation of women in Wonder Woman comics using interpretation, connotation and denotation of certain issues.
