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Wonder Woman

superhero appearing in DC Comics publications and related media
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Wonder Woman is a fictional character and superhero, also known as Diana, princess of the Amazons, and as Diana Prince. Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston, debuting in All Star Comics #8.

I'm an Amazon, Steve. We're prepared from birth to give our lives in battle. I knew what the consequences were going in to this mission. I bet you would have acted differently, if I were a man. ~ Wonder Woman (2009 film)
See also:
Wonder Woman (2017 film)
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Catch phrases

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Great Hera!
Merciful Minerva!
Suffering Sappho!
Athena's Shield!
All-Wise Athena!
Aphrodite Aid me!
Tell the truth!
Merciful Minerva!
Great Hera!
Suffering Sappho!
Athena's Shield!
All-Wise Athena!
Aphrodite Aid me!

[1]

All Star Comics #8 (Introducing Wonder Woman)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
At last, in a world torn by the hatred and wars of men, appears a woman to whom the problems and feats of men are mere child's play. A woman whose identity is known to none, but whose sensational feats are outstanding in a fast-moving world. With a hundred times the agility and strength of our best male athletes and strongest wrestlers, she appears as though from nowhere to avenge an injustice or right a wrong! As lovely as Aphrodite- as wise as Athena- with the speed of mercury and the strength of Hercules - She is known only as Wonder Woman, but who she is, or whence she came from, nobody knows!
In the days of ancient Greece, many centuries ago, we Amazons were the foremost nation in the world. In Amazonia, women ruled and all was well. ~ Hippolyta
Narrator: At last, in a world torn by the hatred and wars of men, appears a woman to whom the problems and feats of men are mere child's play. A woman whose identity is known to none, but whose sensational feats are outstanding in a fast-moving world. With a hundred times the agility and strength of our best male athletes and strongest wrestlers, she appears as though from nowhere to avenge an injustice or right a wrong! As lovely as Aphrodite- as wise as Athena- with the speed of mercury and the strength of Hercules - She is known only as Wonder Woman, but who she is, or whence she came from, nobody knows!
Wonder Woman: A man! A man on Paradise Island!
Hippolyta: In the days of ancient Greece, many centuries ago, we Amazons were the foremost nation in the world. In Amazonia, women ruled and all was well.

Wonder Woman (news strip)

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June 16, 1944

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Written by William Moulton Marston

Wonder Woman: In Amazonia I'm a Doctor!

Wonder Woman (comic)

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Wonder Woman #5 (The Battle for Womanhood)

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Written by William Moulton Marston

Marva Psycho: Submitting to a cruel husbands domination has ruined my life! But what can a weak girl do?
Wonder Woman: Get strong! Earn your living --join the WAAC's of WAVES and fight for your country!

Wonder Woman #7

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Written by William Moulton Marston

Steve Trevor: You cruel, power-mad tyrant! You're not a real woman! (223)

Sensation Comics

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Sensation Comics #1

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Your leg--it's broken!
Steve Trevor: My leg does seem bent a bit--but I'm glad of it. At least it shows you care.

Steve Trevor: Listen Diana! You're a nice kid, and I like you. But if you think you can hold a candle to Wonder Woman you're crazy! (30)

Sensation Comics #4

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Aphrodite: Twice thou failed to take command of people who need forming. First thy reformandos - Paula made thee commandress against thy will! Thoday thou refused to send Paula's slave to reform island.
Wonder Woman: I'm sorry Goddess!

Sensation Comics #7 (The Milk Swindle)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: It can't be legal to deprive poor children of milk!

Sensation Comics #8 (Department Store Perdify)

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Great girdle of Aphrodite am I tired of being tied up!
Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Great girdle of Aphrodite am I tired of being tied up!

Sensation Comics #9 (The Return of Diana Prince)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: How thrilling! I see you're chaining me to the cookstove. What a perfect caveman idea! (134)

Sensation Comics #19 (The Unbound Amazon) Jul 1943

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I'm not weak - I'm too strong. The bracelets bound my strength to good purposes - Now I'm completely uncontrolled! I'm free to destroy like a man!
Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: I'm not weak - I'm too strong. The bracelets bound my strength to good purposes - Now I'm completely uncontrolled! I'm free to destroy like a man!
Wonder Woman: Power without self control tears a girl to pieces! (34)
Wonder Woman: I can make bad men good and weak women strong! (100)

Sensation Comics #27 (The Fun Foundation)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Gay: Ely didn't want me-my last hope was gone. So I decided to die.
Wonder Woman: Poor child! You've lived a terrible life- gloomy. tragic. You're fun starved! You must learn to play!

Sensation Comics #35 (The Saga of Girls Under the Sea)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Men chained my bracelets together! By Aprodite's decree, my Amazon strength is gone!
Wonder Woman: You asked for plenty big girl, and I'm not going to disappoint you.
Wonder Woman: Bonds of love never make the wearer weaker - they give him greater strength!

Sensation Comics #58 (The Bog Trap)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Never mind Olive, you'll do better next time.
Olive: I'm just as good as those nasty ol' mean boys.

Sensation Comics #60 (The Ordeal of Queen Boadicea)

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When you live history it's exciting--'specially the parts about women hero's like Boadicea an' you, Wonder Woman!
Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Women seem like sissies because you don't know their true strength.
Wonder Woman: Well Bif, do you like history now?
Bif: You bet--I'm keen about it! When you live history it's exciting--'specially the parts about women hero's like Boadicea an' you, Wonder Woman!

Comic Cavalcade

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Comic Cavalcade #8 (The Amazon Bride)

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Aphrodite forbids us Amazons to let any man dominate us. We are our own masters.
Wonder Woman: Aphrodite forbids us Amazons to let any man dominate us. We are our own masters.

Wonder Woman

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Wonder Woman #6, Fall 1943

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Priscilla’s hobby is collecting chains – mine is breaking them!
Marston, Peter
  • Wonder Woman: Priscilla’s hobby is collecting chains – mine is breaking them! (111)

Wonder Woman vol.1 #7

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At the school of Athena, Amazon children are taught to concentrate on their studies by kneeling before their books at rigid attention. They are permitted to move only one hand to turn a page.
At the school of Athena, Amazon children are taught to concentrate on their studies by kneeling before their books at rigid attention. They are permitted to move only one hand to turn a page.

Wonder Woman vol. 2 #170 (She's a Wonder)

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If it means interfering in an ensconced, outdated system, to help just one woman, man or child…I’m willing to accept the consequences.
By Joe Kelly, Phil Jimenez
  • If it means interfering in an ensconced, outdated system, to help just one woman, man or child…I’m willing to accept the consequences.
  • If the prospect of living in a world where trying to respect the basic rights of those around you and valuing each other simply because we exist are such daunting, impossible tasks that only a superhero born of royalty can address them,then what sort of world are we left with? And what sort of world do you want to live in?"

Wonder Woman (TV series)

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All the world's waiting for you,
and the power you possess.
In your satin tights,
Fighting for your rights
And the old Red, White and Blue.
Now the world is ready for you,
and the wonders you can do.
Make a hawk a dove.
Stop a war with love.
Make a liar tell the truth! ~ Wonder Woman TV series
All our hopes are pinned on you
And the magic that you do.
Stop a bullet cold,
Make the Axis fold,
Change their minds,
and change the world.
  • Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman.
All the world's waiting for you,
and the power you possess.
In your satin tights,
Fighting for your rights
And the old Red, White and Blue.
Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman.
Now the world is ready for you,
and the wonders you can do.
Make a hawk a dove,
Stop a war with love,
Make a liar tell the truth.
Wonder Woman,
Get us out from under, Wonder Woman.
All our hopes are pinned on you.
And the magic that you do.
Stop a bullet cold,
Make the Axis fold,
Change their minds,
and change the world.
Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman.
You're a wonder, Wonder Woman.

Unsourced

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Written by William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman: Bullets never solved a human problem yet! The Secret History of Wonder Woman, (2014) by Jill Lepore.

Quotes about Wonder Woman

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A significant reason Wonder Woman became verboten soon after she debuted was her then-implicit bisexuality, having come from a land populated solely by women. ~ Gabrielle Bellot
I never really thought of Wonder Woman as a super-racy character. She wasn’t out there being predatory. She was saying: “You have a problem with a strong woman? I am who I am, get over it.” I never played her as mousy. I played her being for women, not against men. For fair play and fair pay. ~ Lynda Carter
In 1968, under Denny as scripter and Mike Sekowsky as editor, they'd taken away Wonder Woman's powers and sexy costume to remain in "Man's World" rather than accompany her fellow Amazons back to Paradise Island, in Denny's words to me, "to solve the Superman problem," that is: if she can deflect bullets with her bracelet and tie up criminals with a magic lasso and fly around in a magic transparent plane, you run out of stories pretty fast—as well. ~ Samuel Delany
From her inception, beyond merely being entertainment for children, Wonder Woman represented a vision of women's qualities that were equal to or greater than men's and exemplified a mix of gender qualities that adult women and men recognized as necessary to the Allied effort. Wonder Woman rode a wave of wartime feminism that permitted her to show that her greatest qualities were ones that helped win the war. Those same qualities enabled her use as an image of strength, self-reliance and self-belief that were the basis of the Second Wave, pushing women further up the shore to equality. ~ Donna B. Knaff
We look at the strong, healthy character for some of the same reasons recent psychologists now charge psychology with a criticism her creator made long ago. Too much of psychology has focused on that which is abnormal without exploring that which is normal-hence Marston's classic book, Emotions of Normal People. Whereas other psychologists and other fictional characters might view humankind pessimistically, William Moulton Marston and Wonder Woman look for the best in us all and hope for our world. In the twenty-first century, a psychologist best known for studying the causes and consequences of learned helplessness promotes positive psychology on the belief that psychology has overemphasized the worst parts of human nature to the neglect of trying to understand the best. ~ Travis Langley
In the comic book — and now in the new movie — Wonder Woman is a princess of the Amazons of Greek mythology, living on an island where there are no men. That story, said Lepore, "comes not from science fiction but from feminist utopian fiction" popular with Sanger and other early feminists of the progressive era. ~ Jill Lepore as quoted by Nurith Aizenman
Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world. ~ William Moulton Marston
Men, (Greeks) were captured by predatory love-seeking females until they got sick of it and made the women captive by force. But they were afraid of them (masculine inferiority complex) and kept them heavily chained lest the women put one over as they always had before. The Goddess of Love comes along and helps women break their chains by giving them the greater force of real altruism. Were upon men turned about face and actually helped the women get away from domestic slavery - as men are doing now. The New Women thus freed and strengthened by supporting themselves (on paradise Island) developed enormous physical and mental power. But they have to use it for other people’s benefit or they go back to chains, and weakness. ~ William Moulton Marston
Wonder Woman breaks the bonds of those who are slaves to evil masters. But she doesn't leave the freed ones free to assert their own egos and uncontrolled self-gratification. Wonder Woman binds the victims again in love chains - that is, she makes them submit to a loving superior ... Wonder Woman is trying to show children - who understand this far better than adults - that it's much more fun to be controlled by a loving person that [sic] to go ranting round submitting to no one. ~ William Moulton Marston
If you need to stop an asteroid, you call Superman. If you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But if you need to end a war, you call Wonder Woman. ~ Gail Simone
Wonder Woman is physically very powerful, tortures men, has her own female following, is the cruel 'phallic' woman. While she is a freightening figure for boys, she is an undesirable ideal for girls, being the exact opposite of what girls are supposed to be. ~ Fredric Wertham
Marston set the foundation for what to expect from Wonder Woman comics in the early 1940s. Stories that take place after Marston' death carry the same elements, although not as overtly. Wonder Woman relies on inducement to lead others and fought against the practice of domination, sometimes in the form of corrupt regimes or abusive men. Compliance, including fear, is a cause of concern for Wonder Woman as she protects others. She approaches her enemies with inducement rather than domination, extending her hand when she can. Diana submits when appropriate, especially to her gods and her mother. Without Marston's theory of emotions laying the foundation for his superheroine, Wonder Woman would not embody the spirit of loving submission readers have seen over the decades. ~ Mara Wood
My favorite thing was the bracelets. I mean, the bracelets are cool, but how do I make that work? In the original comic book, they needed them because they fire guns on Paradise Island. I don't think I'm going there. ~ Bradford Wright
  • She does not believe that Wonder Woman tends to masochism or sadism. Furthermore, she believes that even if it did-you can teach either perversion to children-one can only bring out what is inherent in the child. However she did make the reservation that if the woman slaves wore chains (and enjoyed them) for no purpose whatsoever, there would be no point in chaining them.
  • I never really thought of Wonder Woman as a super-racy character. She wasn’t out there being predatory. She was saying: “You have a problem with a strong woman? I am who I am, get over it.” I never played her as mousy. I played her being for women, not against men. For fair play and fair pay.
  • I still have women at airports coming up to me saying: “Oh, you don’t know what it meant to me. That show got me through this difficult time, that difficult time.” That’s really where the fantasy became a reality, where Wonder Woman became something much more than a TV show or a comic book. And I’ll tell you this, when women recognize me in airports, I hold them in my arms and they cry. If a guy comes up and says, “Oh my God, I had such a crush on you when I was a teenager,” I say: “Talk to the hand. I don’t want to know".
  • Wonder Woman failed to challenge the long-standing prejudice that the feminine ideal was white. Not only were Wonder Woman and her sister Amazon's all fair skinned, the Wonder Woman comic books reinforced racism by debasing minority characters. While the grotesque and evil "Jap" enemies that populated Wonder Woman's adventures were the most frequent illustration of this racism, the comic book was rife with other degrading characterizations, like the dim-witted African American porter and duplicitous Mexican "hussy" who make an appearance in Wonder Woman #1, (Summer 1942) (187). Hateful depictions of Asian, African American and Mexican characters reinforced the racist association of "white with "right". This inherint racism undercut Marston's message of women's freedom and empowerment and would have required minority readers to negotiate some serious obstacles in accepting or rejecting, his comic book superheroine as a feminist role model.
    On top of this racism, Marston's view that women deserved to be in power because that were intrinsically virtuous and would use their power to bring about peace and happiness further complicates Wonder Woman's feminist claims. Although Marston aimed to elevate women, arguments that base women's right to power on a set of assumptions about "the female character" ultimately reinforce the idea that women must adhere to the standards identified by the dominant culture as appropriately feminine. Those women who fail to meet society's expectations, whether by circumstance or by choice, risk being denied the rights that "acceptable" behavior would presumably earn them. For such individuals, Marston offered a rather unsympathetic solution: conform.
    • Michelle R. Finn, The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joseph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", (2014), p.15.
  • Careful to show that women's strength and assertiveness did not unsex them, Wonder Woman adhered to the dominant standards of a acceptable femininity. Marston's Amazon princess was kind, nurturing and self-sacrificing; she was also quite beautiful. Wonder Woman was tall and svelte and had a womanly, if athletic body with "perfect modern Venus' measurements" (Marston and Peter, Wonder Woman #6, 139). She had long eyelashes, painted lips, and long, thick shiny hair. She was also very fashionable and knew how to accessorize with earrings, bracelets, a tiara and knee-high high heeled boots. This keen fashion sense undoubtedly came from her interest in shopping, which was one of the first things she did upon arriving in America (Marston and Peter, Sensation Comics #1, 20). Occasionally yielding to a "girlish impulse, "Wonder Woman could be caught dressing up and admiring her appearance from time to time. She even mooned over Steve Trevor, who was known in their comic world as "the strong girl's weakness" (Marston and Peter, Wonder Woman #6, 118) Rather than emasculate Steve with her incredibly strength, Wonder Woman often played the coquette, protesting for him to stop teasing her while thinking to herself "But I hope he won't!" (Marston and Peter, Sensation Comics #22, 166). Attractive, flirtatious and occasionally frivolous, Wonder Woman delivered a healthy dose of traditionally expected femininity.
    • Michelle R. Finn, The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", p.16.
  • Not only was Wonder Woman a more enduring character than Rosie, her contribution to the war effort was also more direct. Rosie's war job was to make planes, weapons and ammunition that would help men win the war. She was the quintessential woman behind the man behind the gun, Wonder Woman, on the other hand, fought alongside men on the front lines of battle; she was the woman who led the man who held the gun. Defying convention that relegated woan to the role of man's submissive helpmate, Wonder Woman fought not for men, but for liberty and freedom and all womankind!" (Marston and Peter, All Star Comics #8, 15).
    Whereas Rosie suggested that women work in order to help men, Wonder Woman encouraged women to work because it enabled their independence from men. When misogynistic Dr. Psycho hypnotizes his wife, Marva, and forces her to help him in his plot to enslave American women in Wonder Woman #5 (Jun./Jul. 1943), Marva bitterly laments: "Submitting to a cruel husband's domination has ruined my life! But what can a weak girl do?". Wonder Woman of course, has the answer: "Get strong! Earn your own living- join the WAACS or WAVES and fight for your country! Remember - the better you fight, the less you'll have to!" Because Marston believed that women's economic independence was a necessary step towards their empowerment, he used Wonder Woman to encourage women and girls to pursue work outside of the home for the sake of their own autonomy and personal fulfillment. In doing so, his character directly challenged traditional gender roles in a way that Rosie did not.
    • Michelle R. Finn, The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joseph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", p.17.
  • Intentionally or otherwise the strip is full of significant sex antagonisms and perversions. Personally I would find an out-and-out striptease less unwholesome than this kind of symbolism.
    • Josetta Frank, member of Child Study Association of America and initial Wonder Woman advisory board, as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948 p. 18 by Noah Berlatsky; and in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda" by Michelle R. Finn, p.12.
  • The idea was to make the character of Wonder Woman the face of a U.N. social media campaign to promote women's rights via tweets and facebook callouts. Women's rights advocates exploded in outrage, and nearly 45,000 people signed a petition against the decision.
    "It's an insult, frankly," said Anne Marie Goetz at the time. Goetz, a professor of global affairs at New York University and a former adviser on peace and security issues to the United Nations agency, U.N. Women, said a big issue was the timing.
  • "It's frivolous, it's fatuous and it reduces an extremely serious human rights problem experienced by half of the world to a cartoon," she said.
    And not just any cartoon, added Goetz. Wonder Woman in her view was tantamount to a Barbie/Playboy pinup. Like most female comic action figures, she has big breasts bursting out of a skimpy outfit and an impossibly tiny waist.
    "The message to girls is that you are expected to meet a male standard in which your significance is reduced to your role as a sexual object," said Goetz.
  • It was the Amazon Princess' origins in wartime, though - the critical moment of her arrival - that have helped to give her the staying power she has shown as a character. Because her appearance coincided with a moment in history when women were called upon to take on duties, responsibilities, and aspects of gender identity formerly in men's domain, her demonstration of "masculine" qualities was seen as appropriate for the times. Further, she was held to the same standards of female behavior as the World War II women she inspired and represented: her masculinity and power over men were managed, and she maintained her femininity no matter the circumstances. From her inception, beyond merely being entertainment for children, Wonder Woman represented a vision of women's qualities that were equal to or greater than men's and exemplified a mix of gender qualities that adult women and men recognized as necessary to the Allied effort. Wonder Woman rode a wave of wartime feminism that permitted her to show that her greatest qualities were ones that helped win the war. Those same qualities enabled her use as an image of strength, self-reliance and self-belief that were the basis of the Second Wave, pushing women further up the shore to equality.
    • Donna B. Knaff, "A Most Thrilling Struggle Wonder Woman as Wartime and Post-War Feminist" in "The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times", edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.28.
  • We look at the strong, healthy character for some of the same reasons recent psychologists now charge psychology with a criticism her creator made long ago. Too much of psychology has focused on that which is abnormal without exploring that which is normal-hence Marston's classic book, Emotions of Normal People. Whereas other psychologists and other fictional characters might views humankind pessimistically, William Moulton Marston and Wonder Woman look for the best in us all and hope for our world. In the twenty-first century, a psychologist best known for studying the causes and consequences of learned helplessness promotes positive psychology on the belief that psychology has overemphasized the worst parts of human nature to the neglect of trying to understand the best.
    • Travis Langley, "Introduction" in Wonder Woman Psychology: Lassoing the Truth, edited by Travis Langley and Mara Wood, Sterling, New York, (2017), p.36
  • Wonder Woman isn’t only an Amazonian princess with badass boots. She’s the missing link in a chain of events that begins with the woman's suffrage campaigns of the 1910s and ends with the troubled place of feminism fully a century later. Feminism made Wonder Woman. And then Wonder Woman remade feminism, which hasn’t been altogether good for feminism. Superheroes, who are supposed to be better than everyone else, are excellent at clobbering people; they’re lousy at fighting for equality.
    • Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Borzoi, New York, (2014).
  • Marston was a scholar, a professor, and a scientist; Wonder Woman began on a college campus, in a lecture hall, and in a laboratory. Marston was a lawyer and a filmmaker; Wonder Woman began in a courthouse and a movie theater. The women Marston loved were suffragists, feminists, and birth control advocates. Wonder Woman began in a protest march, a bedroom, and a birth control clinic. The red bustier isn’t the half of it. Unknown to the world, Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century, was part of Marston’s family.
    • Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Borzoi, New York, (2014).
  • In the comic book — and now in the new movie — Wonder Woman is a princess of the Amazons of Greek mythology, living on an island where there are no men. That story, said Lepore, "comes not from science fiction but from feminist utopian fiction" popular with Sanger and other early feminists of the progressive era.
  • "A lot of people started to say, 'Why is she the symbol of women's power? She's just so obviously made for men to look at and ogle,'" said Lepore. So it's no surprise that she continues to raise conflicting feelings to this day. "Part of the richness of this character is that there are many layers to understanding her. Wonder Woman is always going to have a mixed legacy."
  • ...exhorted women to become physically and mentally strong, promoted paid female employment, and critiqued over-masculinized aspects of American culture.
    • McClelland-Nugent, Ruth. "The Amazon Mystique: Subverting Cold War Domesticity in Wonder Woman COmics, 1948-1965." In Comic Books and the Cold War: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns, edited by Chris York and Rachel York, 115-128. Jefferson, NC:McFarland, 2012; as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", in Containing Wonder Woman: Fredric Wertham's Battle Against the Mighty Amazon by Craig This, p.30.
  • Wonder Woman breaks the bonds of those who are slaves to evil masters but she doesn't leave the freed ones free to assert their own egos and uncontrolled self-gratification. Wonder Woman binds the victims again in love chains - that is, she makes them submit to a loving superior ... Wonder Woman is trying to show children - who understand this far better than adults - that it's much more fun to be controlled by a loving person that [sic] to go ranting round submitting to no one.
    • William Moulton Marston, "Letter to W.W.D Soes" as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda" by Michelle R. Finn, p.13.
  • A male hero, at best, lacks the qualities of maternal love and tenderness which are as essential to a normal child as the breath of life. Suppose your child's ideal becomes a superman who uses his extraordinary power to help the weak. The most important ingredient in the human happiness recipe still is missing-love. It's smart to be strong. It's big to be generous. But it's sissified according to exclusively masculine rules, to be tender, loving affectionate, and alluring. "Aw, that's girls stuff!" snorts our young comics reader. "Who wants to be a girl?" And that's the point. Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.
  • Wonder Woman and her sister Amazons have to wear heavy bracelets to remind them of what happens to a girl when she lets a man conquer her. The Amazons once surrendered to the charm of some handsom Greeks and what a mess they got themselves into. The Greeks put them in chains of the Hitler type, beat them, and made them work like horses in the fields. Aphrodite, goddess of love, finally freed these unhappy girls. But she laid down the rule that they must never surrender to a man for any reason. I know of no better advice to give modern women than this rule that Aphrodite gave the Amazon girls.
  • As to chains and bonds - my whole strip is aimed at drawing the distinction in the minds of children and adults between love bonds and male bonds of cruelty and destruction."
    • William Moulton Marston, "Letter to M.C. Gaines. Feb.1, 1944; as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda" by Michelle R. Finn, p.12.
  • I have given Wonder Woman this dominant force but have kept her loving, tender, maternal and feminine in every other way.
    • William Moulton Marston, "Letter to Coulton Waugh 1945 as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda" by Michelle R. Finn, p.15.
  • Oh yes, but not until women control men. Wonder Woman – and the trend toward male acceptance of female love power, which she represents, indicates that the first psychological step has actually been taken. Boys, young and old, satisfy their wish thoughts by reading comics. If they go crazy over Wonder Woman, it means they’re longing for a beautiful, exciting girl who is stronger than they are. These simple, highly imaginative picture stories satisfy longings that ordinary daily life thwarts and denies. Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaboratedly disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them.
    • William Moulton Marston As quoted in Olive Richard Bryne's, "Our Women Are Our Future" Family Circle, (August 14th, 1942).
  • This my dear friend is the one truly great contribution of my Wonder Woman strip to moral education of the young. The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound--enjoy submission to kind authority, wise authority, not merely tolerate such submission. Wars will only cease when humans enjoy being bound.
  • Wonder Woman was from the start a character founded in scholarship.
  • Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.
    • William Moulton Marston The Secret History of Wonder Woman, The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014) by Jill Lepore.
  • Normal men retain their childish longing for a woman to mother them. At adolescence a new desire is added. They want a girl to allure them. When you put these two together, you have the typical male yearning Wonder Woman satisfies.
    • William Moulton Marston as quoted in Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, (Oct 12, 2004), by Gerard Jones.
  • Men, (Greeks) were captured by predatory love-seeking females until they got sick of it and made the women captive by force. But they were afraid of them (masculine inferiority complex) and kept them heavily chained lest the women put one over as they always had before. The Goddess of Love comes along and helps women break their chains by giving them the greater force of real altruism. Were upon men turned about face and actually helped the women get away from domestic slavery - as men are doing now. The New Women thus freed and strengthened by supporting themselves (on paradise Island) developed enormous physical and mental power. But they have to use it for other people’s benefit or they go back to chains, and weakness.
  • When Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston died in 1947, they got rid of the pervy elements, and instantly sales pummeted. Wonder Woman should be the most sexually attractive, intelligent, potent woman you can imagine. Instead she became this weird cross between the Virgin Mary and Mary Tyler Moore that didn't even appeal to girls.
  • Ong has no quarrel with the old-style comics like Mr. & Mrs., The Gumps, Gasoline Alley, and he seems to have a sneaking admiration for Li'l Abner ("sexy and synthetic pastoralism" done with "manifest cleverness.") But, he says, "there seems to be nothing in the good comics which keeps readers from liking the others." He saves his sharpest slings for Superman's female counterpart, a four-year-old character named Wonder Woman, who is described by her creator as "the girl from Paradise Isle, beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, stronger than Hercules and swifter than Mercury." Wonder Woman swears "By Zeus!" and regularly prays to Aphrodite—which Ong says is Hitlerite paganism.
  • Wonder Woman is only a female Superman, preaching "the cult of force, spiked, by means of her pretentiously scanty 'working' attire, with a little commercial sex. . . . When not in her outré 'working' clothes she habitually wears a suitcoat and tie among the jeweled guests at luncheon parties and at formal evening affairs."
    Walter Ong finds Wonder Woman sexy, but "this is not a healthy sex directed toward [marriage]] and family life, but an antisocial sex, made as alluring as possible while its normal term in marriage is barred by the ground rules."
  • Developed as a frank appeal to male fantasies of sexual domination.
    • Richard Reynolds as quoted as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948, (January 2, 2015), p. 19
  • Some heroes get tied up more than others.
    • Trina Robins as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948 (January 2, 2015), p. 19
  • Throughout the [Marston] period...she accomplished her remarkable feats without any apparent definition in her biceps or thighs. Her calf muscles, highlighted by the red boots, are developed only to-but not beyond-the point required for "nice legs" in the pinup sense.
    • Lilian Robinson Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superhero's p.62 as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics 1941-1948, p. 208 by Noah Berlatsky.
  • [Wonder Woman's] creator has...seen straight into my heart and understood the secret fears of violence hidden there. No longer did I have to pretend to like the "pow!" and "Crunch" style of Captain Marvel or the Green Hornet. No longer did I have nightmares after reading ghoulish comics filled with torture and mayhem, comics made all the more terrifying by their real-life setting in World War II....Here was a heroic person who might conquer with force, but only a force that was tempered by love and justice.
    • Gloria Steinem, Introduction to Wonder Woman 1972, as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948 p. 94 by Noah Berlatsky
  • If we had all read more about Wonder Woman and less about Dick and Jane the new wave of the feminist revolution might have happened less painfully and sooner.
    • Gloria Steinem, 1972 as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, p.7 in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda" by Michelle R. Fin,
  • Wonder Woman emerged in the 1940s just as American entered World War II. As women entered the war production in various capacities, the image of Wonder Woman spoke to the promise of the future for women strong, independent and career-minded. When the war ended, Fredric Wertham fought to contain that image of the strong, independent, career-minded woman or he felt it threatened the American family and American society. His attempts to contain Wonder Woman forced her, like so many women during the 1950's, to struggle with the tension between family and career. In the end, Wertham may have contained the symbol of the 1940s Wonder Woman - strength and independence - but the 1950s Wonder Woman - having to choose between marriage and career - spoke to and inspired another generation.
    • Craig This, The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", in Containing Wonder Woman: Fredric Wertham's Battle Against the Mighty Amazon, pp.39-40.
  • The iconic Wonder Woman fictional character was named an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls on 21 October 2016, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
    The designation ceremony coincided with the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman's first appearance in a comic book in 1941. Wonder Woman has since then been depicted in movies and TV series. She is a global citizen and universally recognized for her commitment to justice, peace and equality and is seen as a model of strength, fairness and compassion becoming a symbol of empowerment for women and girls in much of the world.
    Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its potential. But today, gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress. In many parts of the world women endure physical and sexual violence, face barriers to opportunities for leadership and education and receive less pay than men for equal work among other forms of discrimination.
  • The homosexual connotation of the Wonder Woman type of story is psychologically unmistakable. The Psychiatric Quarterly deplored in an editorial the "appearance of an eminent child therapist as the implied endorser of a series...which portrays extremely sadistic hatred of males in a framework which is plainly Lesbian."
    For boys Wonder Woman is a frightening image. For girls she is a morbid ideal. Where Batman is anti-feminine, the attractive Wonder Woman and her counterparts are definitely anti-masculine. Wonder Woman has her own female following. They are all continuously being threatened, captured, almost put to death. Her followers are the "Holiday girls", i.e. the holiday girls, the gay party girls, the gay girls. Wonder Woman refers to them as "my girls".
  • Wonder Woman is physically very powerful, tortures men, has her own female following, is the cruel 'phallic' woman. While she is a freightening figure for boys, she is an undesirable ideal for girls, being the exact opposite of what girls are supposed to be.
    • Fredric Wertham as quoted in The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joeph J Darowski, in the essay "William Marston's Feminist Agenda", in Containing Wonder Woman: Fredric Wertham's Battle Against the Mighty Amazon by Craig This, p.30.
  • Fans know that she carries a golden lasso that compels anyone caught in it to tell the truth. But fewer realize that her creator, psychologist William Moulton Marston, also helped develop the first real-life lie detector. Marston, who earned his PhD from Harvard in 1921, and his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston (who earned a master's degree in psychology at Radcliffe), conducted the first research that linked systolic blood pressure to emotion—a key part of the modern polygraph.
  • Marston set the foundation for what to expect from Wonder Woman comics in the early 1940s. Stories that take place after Marston' death carry the same elements, although not as overtly. Wonder Woman relies on inducement to lead others and fought against the practice of domination, sometimes in the form of corrupt regimes or abusive men. Compliance, including fear, is a cause of concern for Wonder Woman as she protects others. She approaches her enemies with inducement rather than domination, extending her hand when she can. Diana submits when appropriate, especially to her gods and her mother. Without Marston's theory of emotions laying the foundation for his superheroine, Wonder Woman would not embody the spirit of loving submission readers have seen over the decades.
    • Mara Wood, "Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance: Throwing the DISC in Fact and Fiction", "The Golden Lasso: Force of Dominance or Inducement?", in Wonder Woman Psychology: Lassoing the Truth, edited by Travis Langley and Mara Wood, Sterling, New York, (2017), p.36
  • My favorite thing was the bracelets. I mean, the bracelets are cool, but how do I make that work? In the original comic book, they needed them because they fire guns on Paradise Island. I don't think I'm going there.
    • Bradford Wright as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948 p. 19
  • There was a lot in these stories to suggest that Wonder Woman was not so much a pitch to ambitious girls as an object for male sexual fantasies and fetishes.
    • Bradford Wright as quoted in Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter comics, 1941-1948 p. 19

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  • "Wonder Woman" was conceived by Dr. Marston to set up a standard among children and young people of strong, free, courageous womanhood; to combat the idea that women are inferior to men, and to inspire girls to self-confidence and achievement in athletics, occupations and professions monopolized by men....Since millions of young people are reading "wonder Woman" today, it is quite possible that their acceptance of this womanly ideal may alter our whole standards, as to what is admirable in women. Children who admire the heroic type of woman will no longer have any use for the timid, physically weak, dependent and emotionally possessive woman of the old school, and will model themselves on the self-reliant, strong comradely woman who can be honest and fearless because she is not dependent upon a man for her living.
    • "Noted Psychologist Revealed as Author of Best-Selling 'Wonder Woman', Children's Comic." MS, Wonder Woman letters, 1941-1945 SILDLHST
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  1. ↑ The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014) by Jill Lepore, p. 264.
  2. ↑ "The Queer Lierary Origins of Wonder Woman, Gabrielle Bellot, LitHub, (June 1, 2017).
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