Wonder Woman Quotes (0-)

“A significant reason Wonder Woman became verboten soon after she debuted was her then-implicit bisexuality, having come from a land populated solely by women.”

“She does not believe that Wonder Woman tends to masochism or sadism. Furthermore, she believes that even if it did-you can teach either perversion to children-one can only bring out what is inherent in the child. However she did make the reservation that if the woman slaves wore chains (and enjoyed them) for no purpose whatsoever, there would be no point in chaining them.”

“I never really thought of Wonder Woman as a super-racy character. She wasn’t out there being predatory. She was saying: “You have a problem with a strong woman? I am who I am, get over it.” I never played her as mousy. I played her being for women, not against men. For fair play and fair pay.”

“In 1968, under Denny as scripter and Mike Sekowsky as editor, they'd taken away Wonder Woman's powers and sexy costume to remain in "Man's World" rather than accompany her fellow Amazons back to Paradise Island, in Denny's words to me, "to solve the Superman problem," that is: if she can deflect bullets with her bracelet and tie up criminals with a magic lasso and fly around in a magic transparent plane, you run out of stories pretty fast—as well.”

“Wonder Woman failed to challenge the long-standing prejudice that the feminine ideal was white. Not only were Wonder Woman and her sister Amazon's all fair skinned, the Wonder Woman comic books reinforced racism by debasing minority characters. While the grotesque and evil "Jap" enemies that populated Wonder Woman's adventures were the most frequent illustration of this racism, the comic book was rife with other degrading characterizations, like the dim-witted African American porter and duplicitous Mexican "hussy" who make an appearance in Wonder Woman #1, (Summer 1942) (187). Hateful depictions of Asian, African American and Mexican characters reinforced the racist association of "white with "right". This inherint racism undercut Marston's message of women's freedom and empowerment and would have required minority readers to negotiate some serious obstacles in accepting or rejecting, his comic book superheroine as a feminist role model. On top of this racism, Marston's view that women deserved to be in power because that were intrinsically virtuous and would use their power to bring about peace and happiness further complicates Wonder Woman's feminist claims. Although Marston aimed to elevate women, arguments that base women's right to power on a set of assumptions about "the female character" ultimately reinforce the idea that women must adhere to the standards identified by the dominant culture as appropriately feminine. Those women who fail to meet society's expectations, whether by circumstance or by choice, risk being denied the rights that "acceptable" behavior would presumably earn them. For such individuals, Marston offered a rather unsympathetic solution: conform.”

“Intentionally or otherwise the strip is full of significant sex antagonisms and perversions. Personally I would find an out-and-out striptease less unwholesome than this kind of symbolism.”

“The idea was to make the character of Wonder Woman the face of a U.N. social media campaign to promote women's rights via tweets and facebook callouts. Women's rights advocates exploded in outrage, and nearly 45,000 people signed a petition against the decision. "It's an insult, frankly," said Anne Marie Goetz at the time. Goetz, a professor of global affairs at New York University and a former adviser on peace and security issues to the United Nations agency, U.N. Women, said a big issue was the timing.”

“It was the Amazon Princess' origins in wartime, though - the critical moment of her arrival - that have helped to give her the staying power she has shown as a character. Because her appearance coincided with a moment in history when women were called upon to take on duties, responsibilities, and aspects of gender identity formerly in men's domain, her demonstration of "masculine" qualities was seen as appropriate for the times. Further, she was held to the same standards of female behavior as the World War II women she inspired and represented: her masculinity and power over men were managed, and she maintained her femininity no matter the circumstances. From her inception, beyond merely being entertainment for children, Wonder Woman represented a vision of women's qualities that were equal to or greater than men's and exemplified a mix of gender qualities that adult women and men recognized as necessary to the Allied effort. Wonder Woman rode a wave of wartime feminism that permitted her to show that her greatest qualities were ones that helped win the war. Those same qualities enabled her use as an image of strength, self-reliance and self-belief that were the basis of the Second Wave, pushing women further up the shore to equality.”

“We look at the strong, healthy character for some of the same reasons recent psychologists now charge psychology with a criticism her creator made long ago. Too much of psychology has focused on that which is abnormal without exploring that which is normal-hence Marston's classic book, Emotions of Normal People. Whereas other psychologists and other fictional characters might views humankind pessimistically, William Moulton Marston and Wonder Woman look for the best in us all and hope for our world. In the twenty-first century, a psychologist best known for studying the causes and consequences of learned helplessness promotes positive psychology on the belief that psychology has overemphasized the worst parts of human nature to the neglect of trying to understand the best.”

“Wonder Woman isn’t only an Amazonian princess with badass boots. She’s the missing link in a chain of events that begins with the woman's suffrage campaigns of the 1910s and ends with the troubled place of feminism fully a century later. Feminism made Wonder Woman. And then Wonder Woman remade feminism, which hasn’t been altogether good for feminism. Superheroes, who are supposed to be better than everyone else, are excellent at clobbering people; they’re lousy at fighting for equality.”

“...exhorted women to become physically and mentally strong, promoted paid female employment, and critiqued over-masculinized aspects of American culture.”

“Wonder Woman breaks the bonds of those who are slaves to evil masters but she doesn't leave the freed ones free to assert their own egos and uncontrolled self-gratification. Wonder Woman binds the victims again in love chains - that is, she makes them submit to a loving superior ... Wonder Woman is trying to show children - who understand this far better than adults - that it's much more fun to be controlled by a loving person that [sic] to go ranting round submitting to no one.”

“Oh yes, but not until women control men. Wonder Woman – and the trend toward male acceptance of female love power, which she represents, indicates that the first psychological step has actually been taken. Boys, young and old, satisfy their wish thoughts by reading comics. If they go crazy over Wonder Woman, it means they’re longing for a beautiful, exciting girl who is stronger than they are. These simple, highly imaginative picture stories satisfy longings that ordinary daily life thwarts and denies. Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaboratedly disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them.”

“Normal men retain their childish longing for a woman to mother them. At adolescence a new desire is added. They want a girl to allure them. When you put these two together, you have the typical male yearning Wonder Woman satisfies.”