Wonder Woman: A Comic Book Character Shows the Way

by Linda Stein

from On The Issues Magazine

How does Wonder Woman do it? She is able to stop the bad guys—even convince them to reform—without ever killing. Her gender-bending strength and power is matched only by her compassion, as she fights for freedom and “thwarts the evil machinations of these destroyers of civilization.”

What can we learn from her? Can she be our contemporary role model in a world overwhelmed by violence? Can she help us confront sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry and oppression? What would she say about our world today?

You protest, reader, because you know she had those magic wrist bracelets to deflect bullets and we mere mortals don’t have this defensive accessory, at least not in the literal sense.

Nor do we have her magic lasso to “convert” the bad guys. This she received from Aphrodite and Athena, who explain: “Having proved thyself bound by love and wisdom, we give the power to control others! Whomsoever thy magic lasso binds, minds obey thee.” Wonder Woman responds, “With its great gift, I can change human character; I can make bad men good, and weak women strong.”

And let’s not forget her invisible plane.

The themes underlying the Wonder Woman spirit were “Protection/Parity/Peace.” As an artist, these are ideas that I have often incorporated into my work. So perhaps it was inevitable that I would be drawn to Wonder Woman, and found myself referencing her in my art.

Created by William Moulten Marston in 1941, Wonder Woman was the “invincible enemy of injustice.” She was my role model as a kid, the only female superhero of the day, arriving a bit before I was born. I felt empowered by her strength and courage and inspired to be kind to my friends.

Marston, writing under the pseudonym of Charles Moulton, said “there isn’t enough love in the male organism to run the planet peacefully. What women presently lack is the dominance or self assertive power to put over and enforce her love desires. I have given (Wonder Woman) the dominant force but have kept her loving.”

Continue reading at On The Issues Magazine …