Cultural impact of Wonder Woman

Impact of Wonder Woman in culture
appearances in traditional superhero entertainment

Wonder Woman is a character created for comic books in 1941, the medium in which she is still most prominently found to this day. As befitting an icon of her status, she has made appearances in other forms of media and has been referenced and meta referenced beyond the scope of traditional superhero entertainment. For several years in the 1950s, the only three superheroes to have their own comic book were Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The cultural impact of the character, once derided by psychologists and anti comic book crusaders as an anti male lesbian, has steadily increased over the years, having served as an iconic exemplar of the feminist movement and a continuing symbol of female empowerment. As such, she appears in numerous media, from cereal box covers and popular magazines to being referenced both directly and indirectly in film, animation and television programming. As a cultural icon, she is the subject of several homages and parodies in many forms of media.

Wonder Woman is the subject of a 1978 1979 video art piece by Dara Birnbaum, Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman. In this work she uses appropriated images of Wonder Woman to subvert the ideology and meaning embedded in the television series. Author T. J. Demos writes, "(the) opening with a prolonged salvo of fiery explosions accompanied by the warning cry of a siren, Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman is supercharged, action packed, and visually riveting throughout its nearly six minutes we see several scenes featuring the main character Diana Prince in which she transforms into the famed superhero.". The exhibit currently resides in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Wonder Woman's origin, the invention of the lie detector and the unconventional troika marriage between Dr. Marston, Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne are interwoven in a 2014 production, Lasso of Truth. The last act engages two current day characters discussing what Wonder Woman means to them individually, reflecting on her influence on society in general.

In Christine Jorgensen's nightclub act, she sang several songs, including "I Enjoy Being a Girl", and at the end made a quick change into a Wonder Woman costume. She later recalled that Warner Communications, owners of the Wonder Woman character's copyright, demanded that she stop using the character; she did so and instead used a new character of her own invention, Superwoman, who was marked by the inclusion of a large letter S on her cape.

At the 2001 Miss Gay Black America pageant, Tandi Iman Dupree and her dance partner Dee St. James performed a routine to the song "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler; during the performance, Dupree was dressed as Wonder Woman, with St. James dressed as Superman. Dupree notably entered the performance by dropping from the ceiling, landing on the stage in a split. In 2009, this video was uploaded to YouTube, where it went viral.

Images of and references to Wonder Woman abound in film. The apparent first appearance of the character was in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy wherein a little girl covers her face with a copy of DC Comics' Wonder Woman #178. Later appearances have female (and male) characters of all ages appearing in Wonder Woman's costume or T shirt representations of said costume. Wonder Woman entered the cultural lexicon, as characters were compared to Wonder Woman due to their athletic prowess, beauty and/or height. Cobie Smulders performed the voice for Wonder Woman in 2014's The Lego Movie. Wonder Woman reappeared briefly as a non speaking character in follow up The Lego Batman Movie (2017). The first live action theatrical film featuring Wonder Woman was 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The second was 2017's Wonder Woman. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a 2017 film about American psychologist William Moulton Marston, who created Wonder Woman. The film, directed and written by Angela Robinson, stars Luke Evans as Marston, Rebecca Hall as his legal wife Elizabeth and Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne, their lover and the third member of their closed polyamorous triad. However, in an interview with Mark Walters, William Moulton Marston's granddaughter Christie Marston stated that the film is historically inaccurate. She said that the creators of the film did not contact her family and that the “depiction of the family and Wonder Woman’s origins are made up”. She also posted a statement on Twitter saying that "the film is not a true story. It is based on someone's imagination not in any way related to my family." In another interview with Rob Salkowitz for Forbes, Marston argues against two aspects of the film. The first lies in the depiction of Elizabeth and Olive: “The relationship between Gram [Elizabeth Marston] and Dots [Olive Byrne] is wrong; they were as sisters, not lovers.” The second part revolves around the depiction of the origin of Wonder Woman, which has “William Moulton Marston presenting an idea for a female hero, and Elizabeth naysaying the idea, declaring that nobody would ever publish it.” Christie Marston states instead that when her grandfather was asked by his publisher to create a comic character, he “went home and discussed it with my grandmother. She said to go ahead and do it, but that it had to be a woman.” Marston further elaborates on Elizabeth and Olive by stating that she spent a lot of time with her open minded grandmother who never gave indication to her of a relationship with Olive. She also states that Elizabeth and Olive continued to share the responsibilities for bringing up the four children in the household after Marston's death because it was economically viable for both women.

In his book, Seduction of the Innocent, psychiatrist and anti comic book crusader Fredric Wertham wrote that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext to her character, a claim somewhat strengthened by the character's creator, William Moulton Marston having admitted as much. As well, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a lesbian, calling the "homosexual connotation of the Wonder Woman type of story is psychologically unmistakable", and considered Wonder Woman to be "Lesbian counterpart of Batman" This recollection by Harmon is disputed by comic book artist and writer, Trina Robbins. She notes that "although Wonder Woman is indeed seen hugging her friends and her mother in the pages of these comics (women do hug! ), she doesn't kiss them. She's never even depicted kissing her "boyfriend," Steve Trevor!" Robert Kanigher, who took over writing the comic in 1948 after the death of creator William Moulton Marston as well as later creating other female superheroines such as Black Canary, Lady Cop, Rose and Thorn and The Harlequin confided to Robbins in a telephone interview that the Amazons from her home, Paradise Island (where no men are permitted) were all lesbians. Prior to the more widely known Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series, Cathy Lee Crosby starred in a made for TV movie in 1974, playing the character as a blond in a star spangled red & blue costume, which featured a skirt & tights rather than the comic costume. She uses her powers to thwart an international spy ring headed by Ricardo Montalbán. Carter appeared on a 1976 Olivia Newton John Special as Wonder Woman wherein she deflects a bullet meant for Olivia. In 1980, she appeared in an episode of The Muppet Show, singing The Rubberband Man and Orange Colored Sky. During a skit, Miss Piggy becomes "Wonder Pig" in order to rescue her family from a giant sized chicken. Carter continues to be identified with the character thirty years after the portrayals. The Wendy Williams Show host Wendy Williams often drinks from various Wonder Woman coffee mugs (having the same initials of 'WW'). In 2010, when DC Comics revamped the character with a new costume, Wendy had a 10 minute segment discussing the change and explained why she didn't care for it. At Backlash, Nikki Bella dressed as Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman's image—along with that of Superman—was used in an AIDS awareness campaign by French organization AIDES. Posters depicting Wonder Woman wasting away in a hospital bed and attached to an intravenous drip were exhibited on billboards and in French subways, demonstrating that no one is beyond the reach of the disease. Concerned that the images could have an adverse impact on the public perception of the two superheroes, DC Comics demanded that AIDES withdraw the campaign.

Sociologist Susan Hopkins in her text Girl Heroes, juxtaposes the image of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman with Girl Power action heroines of the late 1990s. Academic Angelo Iannella (Course Coordinator and Lecturer) began a research paper entitled "From Wonder Woman to Xena: Reframing Greek Mythology", which reveals the development and significance of the superheroine in speculative fiction. The article was first published in The Advertiser in South Australia on December 7, 2001. The research paper attracted interviews on radio as well as interstate conferences at universities in Australia. This event was timed with Wonder Woman's 60th Anniversary who first appeared in 1941.