Wonder Woman, the Feminine Super Hero, Has Quietly Endured and Maintained Popularity

Our Book Club always impresses with the number of rugged readers who read the monthly selection, and many of us seem to feel that the books we read for our discussion are enriching. The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore, was a complex read, even though Wonder Woman is currently, and always has been, a pop-culture character. In presenting the book for our discussion, Amy gave us an organized summary of some of the themes of the book and directed us to consider specific quotes from the book about each theme. This organizational backbone helped our discussion to stay mostly on track and to cover a wide array of sometimes controversial topics from the book. Thanks to Amy for her efforts to help us share our opinions about this rousing book!

The themes were the following: Censorship, Birth Control, Feminism, Deviance, Family Arrangement, and Honesty & Lying.

The Family Arrangement at the heart of this book seemed weird, not wonderful, but it worked for the Marston family. Perhaps there has been more communal living than is usually considered, or perhaps the time of the beginning of Wonder Woman was also the beginning of the spread of more varieties of group living arrangements, as opposed to the traditional historical version of the nuclear family. New ideas are always impacting history, and they were during the years covered in this book. In the 1960s, a number of organized communes became famous. Marston had 2 wives: one to work outside the home, and one to raise the children. This seemed to be based on a good idea. I felt that Marston’s inability to hold a job was a specific trait unique to him, thus requiring his wife to use all her energy to work for money the household needed. Had Marston’s many attempts to latch onto a steady job or to become a respected and popular paid consultant in any of his various enterprises been more financially successful, perhaps family life would have been different. Cheryl noted that Marston had 3 women meeting his needs, and Joyce added that Marston spent a lot of time at home lying around having his needs met. Carla said Marston was someone to ”tolerate and ignore.” A further example of social evolution is Carla’s statement that in her daughter’s current education in psychotherapy, there is a trend toward “relationship therapy,” among other trends in relationships.

Covering a mixture of Deviance, Honesty & Lying, and Birth Control, our group had some comments about morality. Patty noticed that the Old Testament is no longer used as the main moral code for society. She said when her husband was writing on a new high school history textbook, the publishers asked for a moral code to be included, and that this was difficult. Cindy T. said that morality should be left out of politics. Carla said that morality cannot be legislated and that individuals should have the rights to make their own choices and perhaps make their own mistakes.

Wonder Woman’s history was dynamic, including a major reduction of Wonder Woman’s power and feminism around the 1950s. The implications of those changes made by the publishers, not under Marston’s control, was interesting in itself. Wonder Woman became the secretary of the Junior Justice Society, a group of super heroes, of which she was the only woman. Thus, she stayed in the office rather than going on heroic escapades. There was an opinion expressed in the book that perhaps the weakening of Wonder Woman during that time might have slowed the speed and power of the feminist movement in the United States.

We talked about the south, Morna saying that majority in the southern United States has been “against anything and everything.” Heather has noticed that in the “Bible Belt,” it is considered polite to open a conversation by asking someone about their religion. Heather and I both feel that religion should be treated as personal. Texas was mentioned a number of times in our discussion: Joyce said Texas could take better care of the greater population. Patty noted that religion is more important in general in Texas than in California, and that Texans are more conservative and more compassionate than stereotypical Californians. Cindy T. said that politicians tend to use religion to promote their views in Texas. Discussion about birth control opened with Joyce reading aloud the quintessential historical quote in the book about birth control, the statement that women should not engage in sexual activity unless they are willing to die in childbirth. China’s birth control policies of recent years were mentioned, as was sex education. Someone said that sex education is taught in the schools but not really, especially in schools where abstinence is emphasized. Cindy T. said that where the law prohibits birth control, the government should support Planned Parenthood and food stamps. Flo mentioned that there are hospital programs for lactation education in Round Rock. Adding to our numerous topics of conversation, Joyce reminded us that the German program of allowing more immigration is primarily because they need more population to take care of the aging and large Baby Boomer generation. Cheryl had read that in Afghanistan, all children were supposed to be boys, so they dressed girls as boys during their early life for a while and then allowed them to convert to women at puberty.

This book clearly covers a lot of territory, historically and socially. It seems to characterize how history works. Joyce’s statement sums it up: “We haven’t gotten much past the past.”