Wonder Woman Unbound (48 page)

“
It’s the only way I can really fight crime …
”
Detective Comics
#422 (April 1972).

“
Will they clean up the slums? Create …
”
Detective Comics
#423 (May 1972).

Emerald Empress

“
the most wanted female criminal …
”
Adventure Comics
#352 (January 1967).

the Empress blasted him out of the room …
Adventure Comics
#353 (February 1967).

the Empress separated the two …
Ibid.

the Empress handled Brainiac 5 …
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
#231 (September 1977).

hammered the Boy of Steel …
Superboy
#198 (October 1973).

encased him in a force field …
Ibid.

carried around a piece of Kryptonite …
Adventure Comics
#352 (January 1967).

9. Restoration and Re-creation

“
return our heroine to the feminism …
” Joanne Edgar, “Wonder Woman Revisited,”
Ms.
1, no. 1 (1972): 55.

“
the feminism and strength of the original Wonder Woman …
” Gloria Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972), 5.

The Liberal Feminism of Ms. Magazine

“
the most widely recognized publication …
” Rosemarie Tong,
Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction,
3rd ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2009), 46.

“
The purpose of NOW is to take …
” Betty Friedan, “The National Organization for Women’s 1966 Statement of Purpose,” available at National Organization for Women official website,
www.now.org/history/purpos66.html
.

“
self-esteem and independence” …
Mary Peacock, quoted in Amy Erdman Farrell,
Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 42.

based on the editors’ belief that …
Mary Thom,
Inside Ms.: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement
(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997), 46.

Originary Matriarchy

“
is defined and differentiated with reference …
” Simone de Beauvoir,
The Second Sex,
trans. H. M. Parshley (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957), xx.

“
the first males were mutants, freaks …
” Elizabeth Gould Davis,
The First Sex
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 35.

“
the previous age of peace and …
” Ibid., 135.

“
in the beginning, there was woman” …
Berta Eckstein-Diener [Helen Diner, pseud.],
Mothers and Amazons: The First Feminine History of Culture,
trans. John Philip Lundin (New York: The Julian Press, 1965) 1.

what he called “mother right” …
See J. J. Bachofen,
Myth, Religion, and Mother Right: Selected Writings of J. J. Bachofen,
trans. Ralph Manheim (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967).

the many inaccuracies behind originary matriarchy …
See Ti-Grace Atkinson, quoted in Judy Antonelli, “Atkinson Re-evaluates Feminism,”
Off Our Backs
5, no. 5 (June 1975): 19; or Sarah B. Pomeroy, “A Classical Scholar’s Perspective on Matriarchy,” in
Liberating Women’s History: Theoretical and Critical Essays,
ed. Berenice A. Carroll (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 223.

“
The true history of woman was rewritten …
” Rhoda Lerman, “In Memoriam: Elizabeth Gould Davis,” in Ms. 3, no. 6 (December 1974): 74.

Alpert believed that the maternal nature of women …
Jane Alpert, “Mother Right: A New Feminist Theory,”
Ms.
2, no. 2 (August 1973): 92.

The Amazon Connection

“
just one small, isolated outcropping …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
6.

an imagined meeting between herself, Diner …
Phyllis Chesler, “The Amazon Legacy,” in
Wonder Woman
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972), 1–2.

a battle over whether patriarchy …
Eckstein-Diener,
Mothers and Amazons,
105.

“
a step forward to a purer form of life” …
Bachofen,
Myth, Religion, and Mother Right,
105.

“many genuine Amazon and matriarchal …
” Chesler, “The Amazon Legacy,” 13.

“
Wonder Woman is an important symbol …
” Letter from Ann Forfreedom,
Wonder Woman
#212 (June/July 1974).

Revising Wonder Woman

“
her creator had also seen straight …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
1.

“
a glorified image of woman on which …
” Joanne H. Wright,
Origin Stories in Political Thought: Discourses on Gender, Power, and Citizenship
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 149.

“
The new identity being forged has little …
” Ibid., 149.

“
So the gr-reat Wonder Woman is-ss …
”
Wonder Woman
#6 (Fall 1943).

“
the distorted and villainized Nazis …
” Edgar, “Wonder Woman Revisited,” 55.

“
highly jingoistic and even racist overtones” …
Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
4.

“
Wonder Woman’s artists sometimes …
” Steinem, “Politics,” in
Wonder Woman
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972).

“
compared to the other comic book characters …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
4.

“
some of the Wonder Woman stories preach …
” Ibid., 3.

“
much of the blame rests with history …
” Ibid., 3.

She regularly ousted local leaders …
See
Sensation Comics
#18 (June 1943) and
Sensation Comics
#62 (February 1947).

“
all these doubts paled beside the relief …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
4.

“
Give them an alluring woman stronger …
” Marston, “Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics,” 43.

“
females were sometimes romanticized …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
3.

“
Is the reader supposed to conclude women …
” Ibid., 3.

“
rarely has the leisure to hint at what …
” Ibid., 3.

“
Who could resist a role model like that?” …
Edgar, “Wonder Woman Revisited,” 52.

“the comic also underlines the importance …
” Chesler, “The Amazon Legacy,” 14.

“
a version of the truisms that women …
” Steinem, introduction to
Wonder Woman,
2.

“
Strength and self-reliance for …
” Ibid., 3.

“
Wonder Woman’s final message to …
” Steinem, “Sisterhood,” in
Wonder Woman
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972).

“
With my speculum, I am strong …
” The cover of
Sister: The Newspaper of the Los Angeles Women’s Center,
July 1973.

Epic Comic Book Fail

“
like many of us, she went into a decline …
” Edgar, “Wonder Woman Revisited,” 52.

“
Dottie Cottonman, women’s magazine …
”
Wonder Woman
#204 (February 1973).

FN reports that Woolfolk’s outspoken feminism …
See interview with Jeff Rovin by Jon B. Cooke, “Rise & Fall of Rovin’s Empire,”
www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/16rovin.html
; and Alan Kupperberg, “Dorothy Woolfolk Remembered,”
www.alankupperberg.com/woolfolk.html
.

In Her Satin Tights, Fighting for Her Rights

“
a modern-day Lynda Carter” …
Inside cover of
Playboy
55, no. 2 (February 2008).

“
What bothered me more then …
” Heidi Meeley, “Lynda Carter She Ain’t! The Reaction Starts,”
Comics Fairplay
blog, January 11, 2008,
http://comicsfairplay.blogspot.com/2008/01/lynda-carter-she-ain.html
.

“
How exactly did Tiffany Fallon earn …
” Commenter “borrowedwings,” in response to Rachel Edidin, “No, It Really Is That Simple,”
Rachel
blog, January 16, 2008,
http://rachel-edidin.livejournal.com/72684.html
.

“
when [Carter] put on that uniform …
” Lisa Fortuner, “Just Past the Horizon: That’s Not Power,”
Newsarama,
January 11, 2008,
http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/01/11/just-past-the-horizon-thats-not-power/
.

“I grew up watching the TV show …
” George Khoury, “Beautiful Girl: An Interview with Tiffany Fallon,”
Comic Book Resources,
February 18, 2008,
www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=15771
.

“
If the Nazis win, the whole world would be …
” “The Feminum Mystique Part One,” in
Wonder Woman: The Complete First Season
(Warner Video, 2004), DVD.

“
I named this island ‘Paradise’ …
” “The New Original Wonder Woman,” in
Wonder Woman: The Complete First Season.