As a little girl, I loved watching Wonder Woman’s adventures on TV, but I had no idea how controversial she’d been in her earlier years. Originally known for themes of bondage and lesbianism, outraged mothers influenced politicians and educators to pressure DC Comics into toning down the erotic elements. Wonder Woman was reinvented and the feminist icon became another ‘vanilla’ superhero.

The creator…

William Moulton Marston (psychologist and lawyer) was the inventor of the systolic blood pressure test, which became a component of the modern polygraph, or lie detector, with the help of his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston.

He was also radical feminist. Having served in the first world war, Marston introduced Wonder Woman to the world during the second world war, in 1941, and she was initially depicted fighting Axis military forces. “He believed that the only way to save the world from war was for women to rule the world and for men to become more like women. Marston was, among other things, a noted psychological researcher and an enthusiastic bondage fetishist; he believed comic books were a great form for educational, anti-patriarchy propaganda. Wonder Woman was designed to bring the world to matriarchy through confronting abuse and modelling girl power, genderfucking, bondage play, and erotic mind control.” Continue reading →