“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?
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
+copy.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
