Wonder Woman as a feminist role model and a short history of her costume

 “Righting wrongs, defending America from the enemies of democracy and fighting fearlessly for downtrodden women and children, in a man-made world, Wonder Woman wins all hearts and leads the youth of America to victory over evil.”

You may not see these lines in the New 52 reboot, but this is how every episode of Wonder Woman series would start in the ‘70s. That’s because back than Wonder Woman was more than a sexy heroine. She was a role model. 

Created during the World War II era, Wonder Woman, the first female superhero, was a unique character in many ways. She was a feminist, a brunette in a blond-obsessed USA and she wouldn’t kill the bad guys she came across. Created as a reaction to “blood-curdling masculinity” that pervaded the comics of the time, she fought injustice by turning villains from violence. That’s really something only a woman can think of!

Well, ok, maybe not only a woman. After all, her character was created by a psychologist who saw a great potential in comics as a mean of educating children, WilliamMoulton Marston (also known as Charles Moulton). Although he was influenced by his wife, Elizabeth, who was a feminist herself. They wanted a new role model for girls, someone strong and independent, but still feminine, and so the Wonder Woman was born - one who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love. In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston wrote:

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.

And it worked! Ever since December 1941 and All Star Comics #8 (published by DC comics), the warrior princess of Amazon has been putting bad guys in their place and hope in parents’ hearts world-wide that their daughters won’t end up with abusive husbands. So.. who is this woman again?

Diana of Themyscira (her real name) is a Goddess from a Paradise Island inhabited by Amazons- a nation of all-female warriors. Her mother Hippolyta formed her from clay and prayed to Olympian gods to animate her with life.  She was given different powers from each of them, such as speed from Hermes, ability to communicate with animals by Artemis and healing through the power of the planet by Gaea. Like other Amazons, her strength is of the highest level, in the same range as Superman and Captain Marvel. Just in case all of that wasn’t enough, she owns a Lasso of truth, an invisible plane, razor sharp Royal Tiara and Victory Bracelets; because what’s a woman without her accessories?

She would probably spend a pretty carefree life playing with her powers around the island and stuff like that if it wasn’t for Steve Trevor — a United States intelligence officer whose plane had crashed on the Amazons' isolated homeland. One man (in uniform!) falls from the sky and all the wonderful women start fighting over him (no, this doesn’t sound like a teenage boy fantasy at all). Diana won the right to return him to “Man’s World” and all she got was to fight crime and evil of the Nazis. Not to mention that he kept getting kidnapped and what not, so she had to save him from trouble all the time. But she’s Wonder Woman, so it wasn’t that hard, really.

Let's take a look of how her costume and her character changed over last 70 years of her existence through a couple of examples of her outfit. Here’s a poem she wrote, just to get an impression of who she was in the beginning, regardless of how she looked.

HERO'S DESIRE

YES we are STRONG!
We live outside MORTAL BOUNDS!!
We bear HELLISH PAIN
And RISE to HEAVENLY GLORY!!!
We DANCE with DEATH
And LAUGH at the DEVIL
And yet ---
And yet we have MORTAL DESIRES,
Still we PRAY for a SIMPLE PEACE---
The QUIET JOY of a PORCH SWING
And the MURMUR of CONVERSATION
On a STARRY EVENING.  

Costume #1
Year	1942
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a golden eagle
Lower body	Culottes
Footwear	Pointy red high-heeled boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Lasso of truth

This is the first version of Wonder Woman. It might not make much sense for an Amazon warrior to wear something that reminds so much of an USA flag, but there is an explanation- allegedly, her costume was inspired by the colours and symbols of a World War II airplane flown by Steve Trevor’s mother.

Even though it looks like a skirt in this image, she’s actually wearing culottes- feminine, but won’t be in her way while fighting. She looks strong and beautiful at the same time. She’s not only a feminist superhero, she’s a feminist ideal.

Her energy reminds of Rosie the Riveter and We Can Do It! Poster. A strong woman, doing the right thing. There’s some physical resemblance, too.

Costume #2
Year	1947
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a golden eagle
Lower body	Shorts
Footwear	Duck-billed high-heeled boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Lasso of thruth

This was the year when Marston died and Robert Kanigher took over. She became less

feminist, suffering because of Steve Trevor. But she did get the Invisible Plane, earrings that gave her power to breathe in outer space and her tiara became an unbreakable boomerang. So maybe she didn’t suffer that much.

Costume #3
Year	1958
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star (now bigger)
Upper body	Tight red top with a golden eagle
Lower body	Shorts (getting shorter)
Footwear	Pointy red sandals
Accessories	Victory bracelets

In 1954, Dr. Wertham wrote his infamous book Seduction of the Innocent, which is considered a start of the Comic Code Authority. This code banned graphic depictions of violence and gore, or any  presentation of "policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions  in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority." This neutered Wonder Woman for a while, but we as we can see here, the shaped bodice made a quick come back. Wish I could say the same for her feminism.

Costume #4
Year	1972
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star ( getting smaller again)
Upper body	Tight red top with a golden eagle
Lower body	Shorts (getting even shorter)
Footwear	Pointy red high-heeled boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Lasso of truth, Earrings

Here we can see Wonder Woman prepared to join the Justice League of America, with her shorts reduced to the size of hot-pants and the eagle that looks like a strangled chicken. Nobody wants Superman to feel threatened, right?

Costume #5
Year	1982
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a new =W= logo
Lower body	Shorts
Footwear	Pointy red high-heeled boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Lasso of truth, Earrings

After 40 years Wonder Woman gets a bit of her feminism back and a new trademark.

Costume #6
Year	1994
Headgear	Golden tiara with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a =W= logo
Lower body	Leggings with hot-pants over
Footwear	Thigh-high boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Earrings and some weird stick

Twelve years later, she looks more like a dominatrix than a strong, feminine role model she was created to be at the first place. Super long legs and thigh-high boots were probably meant to make her look sexier than before; instead it just took her initial sexy away and replaced it with a wrong kind of appeal. As originally portrayed, Diana Prince was sexy not because of her bare legs and large breasts, but because her personality wasn’t defined by them and her powers didn’t derive from looking perfect in order to attract men. Her looks were simply aside her incredibly strong personality.

Costume #7
Year	2002
Headgear	Upside down golden tiara with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a =W= logo
Lower body	Thong
Footwear	Um…
Accessories	Nobody cared to notice over the whole thong thing going on

  

Here we are with what is left of an ideal feminist. I’m going to let another comic speak for me in this case:

It’s like her clothes are rapidly shrinking, while at the same time her breasts keep growing. Whoever she used to be, this is how she looked in 60 years after being created. And we thought Cher was taking it too far…

Costume #8
Year	2010
Headgear	Golden hairband with a red star
Upper body	Tight red top with a stylized =W= logo, blue jacket
Lower body	Leggings
Footwear	Boots
Accessories	Victory bracelets, Lasso of truth

The New 52 is out and DC changes her costume radically with a fairly generic Urban Fantasy Chick design by Jim Lee, aka "Walmart Woman" (Christie Marston says she thinks WW fan Chris Hayes came up with the term), because you can outfit yourself there for Halloween in this suit without having to search for a WW-specific set. But that’s not the only radical change.

This is close-up of one of the guys Diana knocks out. The bracelets, when used together to bash someone with Amazon strength, will leave a "W" mark. Let’s think about this for a while. Look at how the bracelets' design goes around her wrist. Figure out what kind of move she'd have had to make to leave a tattoo of this kind on someone. It’s a no brainer that this move takes deliberate maliciousness and a LOT of power behind it. Actually it uses such force that would shatter the underlying skeletal structure. What happened to fighting the evil with love and peace, not fists?

Since when is Diana’s ego so big that she has to mark her victims?

There is no doubt that evolution of such an old character had to happen, but was it necessary for her to become like this? Maybe she’s just keeping up with the time, fighting fire with fire? Tomboys in children’s books were the only ones who challenged a traditional female role, but they always lost because they had to grow up. Wonder Woman never had to do that. Does that mean she won? And if so, is this how a victory of a feminist looks like?

I like to believe that she just wasn’t needed as a role model for girls any more. Over the time they got more real-life feminists around them to look up to, so the Wonder Woman retired and became one thing this world can never get enough- a teenage boy fantasy. This isn’t an end to her feminism, though. What helps women become more powerful than men who encourages them to be strong and independent?