Revisiting Lynda Carter
By Valerie Frankel
Let’s talk about Wonder Woman. Yes, the seventies show. As a child of the eighties, I never watched it. Older people talked glowingly and nostalgically about her spin change and action stunts, but I had a feeling that like many shows it wouldn’t stand the test of time, or third wave feminism, all that well. I was wrong.
Nowadays people smirk about the hokey theme music as Wonder Woman fights in star-studded “granny panties” or looks silly sitting in midair in her invisible plane. Nonetheless, the iconic television show (1975–1979) starring Lynda Carter remains the only Wonder Woman for many. Season One was set during World War II, then two and three were during the 1970s, with Steve Trevor Jr. (Lyle Waggoner) taking his father’s place at her side.
In many ways, she’s the classic comics character, striving to protect America from Nazi plots. Like the recent Captain America or Agent Carter, Wonder Woman was set in the past, in a world of clear-cut good and evil, American heroes and Nazi villains.
Wonder Woman debuted in 1941 as a reaction to the onset of World War II. With her star-spangled costume and crusade to crush the Axis powers, Wonder Woman represented America more than Superman and Batman did, and her comics carried more philosophical messages about the need to overturn oppression and domination in order to save the world. (Madrid 185)
Tim Hanley, author of Wonder Woman Unbound, calls the show’s pilot “a fairly faithful adaptation of Wonder Woman’s origin story from All Star Comics #8 and Sensation Comics #1. In what was probably not a coincidence, these were the two stories that opened up the Ms. Wonder Woman book” (219). This last was put out by Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine shortly beforehand, and Steinem did much to repopularize her childhood love.
The show’s pilot begins, like the original comic, as our heroine and her Amazon friends frolic on Paradise Island in skimpy dresses (short gauze on the show) until the pilot Steve Trevor crashes. Diana is sent to return him home, and she discovers the vital importance of the American cause against the Nazis in World War II. Upon arriving in Washington DC, she instantly becomes a respected superhero, without much worry from the public about her powers or intentions. By the end of the first episode, she’s also taken on the fake persona of Yeoman First Class Diana Prince, Steve Trevor’s secretary. In glasses and a suit, she goes unrecognized as Steve has her “take a letter” to the amazing, spellbinding Wonder Woman who saved his life and then left the instant danger had passed. The romantic plot is all set up.
Granted, today, having Wonder Woman play secretary seems demeaning — in the comics she was a US Army 2nd lieutenant working as the secretary to Colonel Darnell, the head of Military Intelligence. However, on their introduction Steve suggests they abandon rank and start on an equal footing as Steve and Diana. He and his boss General Blankenship listen thoughtfully to her contributions and agree that she’s quite clever. By the second episode, Diana Prince is going on investigations beside Steve. Meanwhile, in moments of danger, she sneaks off for an iconic spin-change and Wonder Woman saves the day. “Carter played her dual role with the same contrast as the Marston years. Her Wonder Woman was vibrant and bright, a brave and confident heroine, while her Diana Prince was a meek and dowdy wallflower. Carter captured both sides well” (Hanley 219). Wonder Woman pops in and out of Steve’s life as the mysterious stranger with all the power in the relationship. It’s a perfect parallel to the Superman-Lois Lane-Clark Kent triangle, though Wonder Woman appears quite content keeping Steve at arm’s length. Neither half of her moons helplessly, as Clark can be seen doing from adaptation to adaptation. Steve Trevor, for his part is strong, decisive and smart, unlike goofball male sidekicks Joxer or Xander in other feminist series.
On the show, Wonder Woman fights, but mostly hurls her opponents into pools and walls, rather than getting brutal about it. “Where I’m from we try never to hurt people,” she says smilingly after her new talent agent betrays her (1.1). A talented voice imitator and mistress of disguise, Wonder Woman uses her wits to aid in investigations. Her gauntlets, which maintained her strength in the comics, appear to do no more than deflect bullets, but she has a golden belt, symbol of Amazon supremacy. It maintains her Amazon powers, so that she loses her strength when the belt is taken. There’s also, as always, the lasso of truth.
William Moulton Marston, the famed psychologist who created Wonder Woman in the 1940s, also invented the lie detector, leading many to see symbolic parallels. However, he said that he created Wonder Woman as a “dramatized symbol of her sex. She’s true to life — true to the universal characteristics of women everywhere. Her magic lasso is merely a symbol of feminine charm, allure, oomph, attraction every woman uses” (qtd. in Hanley 51). Thus as he fashioned his Amazons in service to Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, he made the lasso that signified attraction and force of personality for lovely Wonder Woman, a chain that all men would eagerly accept. The show leaves the lasso a symbol of power, not allurement. In some of the comics, it can penetrate the human soul, and TV’s Wonder Woman uses it to command and restrain people, as well as force the truth out of them. Though far different than a sword, this weapon is no less powerful. Further, it is a feminine weapon. “Goddesses traditionally use distance weapons — the bow of Artemis or the weather magic of the deadly Irish Morrigan” (Frankel 31). Hecate wields a long whip, as does Xena on occasion. String or cord is also a feminine symbol, like Ariadne’s ball of yarn unraveling through the labyrinth. It also symbolizes enlightenment and humanity’s interconnection — a clear message from this warrior for peace.
Villains include men and women, from Nazi Agents in the first season to corporate plotters, criminals, and even aliens. There are only a few adversaries from the comics, including Fausta Grabels, Morgana, Giganta/Gargantua and Baronness Paula Von Gunther. However, Wonder Woman’s pattern of encouraging Nazi villainesses to defect based on female solidarity makes strong points about the women taken for granted by war offices on both sides (the American “good guys” appear to treat their women far better).
Female friends and allies in the first season include Etta Candy (Beatrice Colen), now a WAC working in the War Department, and Wonder Girl (Debra Winger). Both help with the Bechdel Test and more — Etta, while given to sentiment, is not the pudgy, candy gulping mistress of the women’s college seen in the comics, but another respected professional in the war office. And Wonder Girl, though a young teen, is tough and competent like her sister. She’s also spunky and fun, delighting in ice cream and swing dancing with the wide-eyed naiveté that competent Diana barely displays. Meanwhile, Wonder Girl escapes the Nazis, warns Steve Trevor (who listens to her), and saves Paradise Island from Nazi attack…even though she’s not old enough to fly the invisible plane. When Steve Rogers listens to all the women’s warnings instead of dismissing them, he goes a long way toward establishing that every woman should be respected, not just one super-icon.
Certainly, there are some flaws. The show dealt with race by purging it completely –the only World War II enemies are Nazis, not Japanese, and Wonder Woman meets few people of any other race, even in contemporary America. The plots follow a similar pattern each time as Wonder Woman untangles Nazi plots, smiles at Steve, and departs. Meanwhile, the blonde and brunette bathing beauties called the Amazons appear a utopian race devoted to peace and naiveté, but display little of their warrior heritage in dress or activities as they wander the island garbed in lingerie.
Despite these few hang-ups, this show must be valued for its staying power and its depiction of the heroine. While Wonder Woman is generally in control and foiling frivolous crimes, rather than tested to her utmost and saving the planet in epic style, she maintains respect. She’s clever, brave, fearless, competent, in both her personas. Children love her, and while her speeches about gender equality and respect may be preachy, she keeps them short and direct. An awed Steve Trevor would never dream of disrespecting her, and he waits hopefully like Lois Lane for her to call. Though the plots may not be large enough for film, the character is. Even if she’s not literally a goddess on television, she’s a legend.
Works Cited
Frankel, Valerie Estelle. Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012.
Hanley, Tim. Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2014.
Madrid, Mike. The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines. USA: Exterminating Angel Press, 2009.
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