Truth, Justice and the Feminist Way
Wonder Woman is a daughter of suffragism. She is a sister of women’s liberation. She is a re-emerging icon of feminism today. In the recent film, while standing in the trenches of the war front in Belgium, Wonder Woman is told ‘this is no man’s land. That means no man can cross it … This is not what we came here to do’. To which Diana simply responds ‘No. But it’s what I’m going to do’. Since the character first fought her way onto the page, her status and popularity have moved in time with waves of feminism.
Fight is exactly what Wonder Woman has had to do since day one; trying to break into an industry with a history of female superhero flops such as Black Fury and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was no easy task. Wonder Woman broke into a man’s world in her starry blue skirt and eagle emblazoned top by appealing to the popular outcry for female empowerment.
Does the mainstream acceptance of feminism cause the popularity of Wonder Woman? Or has Wonder Woman contributed to the consistent rise and fall of feminism? Observing the history of the two, it’s impossible to say one over the other, neither leading the other, but instead both striding hand in hand.
Wonder Woman’s creator, eccentric psychologist and inventor of the first ‘lie detector test’ William Moulton Marston, based the warrior on several women in his life, many of whom were icons of the first wave of feminism. Mouton’s two partners, with whom he shared a secret polyamorous relationship, Olive Byrne and Elizabeth Holloway, were both staunch feminists and college-educated women from a time when accepting women into colleges was still an uncommon practice.
It was from Olive Byrne’s mother and aunt, Ethyl Byrne and Margret Sanger, that Marston drew much of his inspiration for the character. The sisters were referred to as ‘radical’ feminists and were pioneers of the birth control movement. In 1917 the sisters were arrested for opening the first birth control clinic in America and were both sentenced to a period of 30 days in Blackwell Island’s prison. Ethyl Byrne staged a hunger strike that lasted 185 hours in prison without food and water before being force fed in the first such incident with a female political prisoner. The sisters’ work in birth control continued after they were released and went on to become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America — although you won’t find much credit given to Ethyl, as her extreme activism was seen as bad for their public image.
Wonder Woman debuted to audiences in 1941 in All Star Comics #8 just as America was entering the second world war, and was received so positively that she went on to feature as the leading story in every issue of DC Comics’ new publication, Sensation Comics. As women took on a more active role on the home front, Wonder Woman inspired a generation of women to embrace this opportunity for independence. Audiences responded to a character whose driving force was achieving equality for women. The feminism of Marston’s time was written into every aspect of the character. Diana’s message of female empowerment could be seen from her predominantly female supporting cast, to her battle exclamations, like ‘great Hera!’ and ‘Aphrodite aid me!’
Hailing from an Amazonian feminist utopia known as ‘Paradise Island’, later called Themyscira, Diana Prince travelled to America to fight for truth and equality and to teach a deeply flawed patriarchal world that love is the greatest force of all. Wonder Woman’s power is tied to her freedom and as such she loses it if she allows her indestructible bracelets to be chained by a man. This limit to her power was known as ‘Aphrodite’s Law’. During the worst war the world had ever seen, Wonder Woman left her home with the answer to fascism: feminism.
Audiences went mad for Wonder Woman and she became, for a time, even a peer to Superman and Batman in terms of sales. In a 1942 reader poll to determine which superhero should next join the Justice Society of America, Wonder Woman prevailed with a landslide 81% of the vote. Embodying the modern feminist belief of the time, Wonder Woman thrived.
With Moulton’s death in 1947 the character of Wonder Woman was passed between many writers whose lack of understanding of her origins caused the character’s popularity to decline rapidly. Diana’s great insistence for independence was toppled overnight as she became desperate to marry her long time love interest, Steve Trevor. She was cycled through the roles of fashion model, babysitter and movie star before suffering the greatest indignity of all; Wonder Woman was stripped of her powers.
Diana Prince faded into near obscurity as she stood, a shell of her former glory, on the pages of The New Wonder Woman. The revamp of the character saw her fighting street crime with an advanced knowledge of martial arts while wearing mod couture. Glamorous, yes; wonderful, no.
At the height of the second wave of feminism in the early 1970s, pressure mounted for the character to return to her roots. Gloria Steinem, an iconic feminist journalist, was outraged that the world’s most iconic female superhero had been reduced to a man-chasing damsel. Many pioneers of the women’s liberation movement sought to bridge the gap between the waves of feminism through the cultural status of Wonder Woman, but in her depowered state she lacked the ability to do so.
Steinem placed Wonder Woman on the cover of the first issue of Ms., an American feminist magazine that she had co-founded. The cover depicted a gigantic Diana, back in her iconic costume, striding down a city street underneath the words ‘WONDER WOMAN FOR PRESIDENT’. Steinem stated ‘Looking back now at these Wonder Woman stories from the 40s I am amazed by the strength of their feminist message.’ It is interesting that Steinem would put Wonder Woman forward as an ideal candidate for president considering Marston himself stated ‘Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.’
The second wave of feminism brought with it the second wave of Wonder Woman, lasso, strength, invisible plane and all. In the hands of a female writer, Roubicek Woolfolk, the Wonder Woman of the Marston era returned. Diana, the ageless demi-goddess, was to many feminists the missing link between the eras of feminism. A symbol to activists both young and old.
With the success of the character in print came Lynda Carter’s portrayal of the character in the wildly successful Wonder Woman television adaptation. Lynda Carter’s portrayal gained icon status among fans of the genre akin to that of Adam West’s Batman or Christopher Reeve’s Superman. But while Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne saw reboot after reboot, Diana Prince’s on-screen career stagnated.
Comic book sales dwindled in the 80s as the second wave of feminism became the third. With reduced readers and a lack of on-screen appearances, Diana’s place in the public consciousness diminished. Attempts at a film adaptation started as early as 1996 but all failed to get off the ground.
Following the increased focus on queer women in the third wave of feminism came the announcement from DC Comics that Wonder Woman is bisexual. Writer Greg Rucka stated that
‘Amazon doesn’t look at another Amazon and say, “You’re gay.” They don’t. The concept doesn’t exist … are we saying Diana has been in love and had relationships with other women? … the answer is obviously yes.’
Only a year after this revelation Wonder Woman and her Amazonian sisters finally found their way to the big screen. The film opened to rave reviews and broke multiple box office records including the highest-grossing female-directed film and the highest domestic gross for a superhero origin film. Women-only screenings sold out, leading some men to accuse the theatres of discrimination against men. It would seem the Goddess of Truth may never be free of controversy.
Over the course of her existence, the greatest influence on Wonder Woman has been feminism. And in return she has empowered generations of women. If her history is any indicator, although her prominence may fade, she will always return to inspire all who identify with her message.
Diana was sculpted from clay and brought to life by Zeus to spread a message of love and equality to a man’s world. She was created by William Moulton Marston to be a hero to generations of women. But I need not tell you who the Princess of Themyscira is.
‘Of all people you know who I am. Who the world needs me to be, I’m Wonder Woman.’
