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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Alumna explores Wonder Woman's suffragist backstory

2015-02-25-Jill-Lepore2
Tufts Alumna Jill Lepore lectures on the significance of Wonder Woman on Feb. 26, 2015.

 Award-winning author Jill Lepore (J '87) delivered a guest lecture about her New York Times bestselling book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014), in the Sunny M. Breed Memorial Hall yesterday, Feb. 25 at 4:30 p.m. The event was hosted by the Office of the Provost, the American Studies Program and the Departments of History, Psychology and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Lepore, a history professor at Harvard University, commented that while uncovering the history behind the comic character, she found it “hilarious to find out that it actually revolved around Tufts and Harvard.”

She explained that throughout her research, she tried to focus in on the deceivingly simple question of the true identity behind Wonder Woman.

Superman is clearly derived from science fiction, while Batman is clearly derived from detective fiction,” she said. “These comic book heroes have obvious antecedents, but where does Wonder Woman come from?”

Lepore delved back in time, investigating the superheroine's creator William Moulton Marston’s life events in conjunction with the women’s suffrage movement in the 1910s and Wonder Woman’sdebut in 1942.

While she may look like a standard “1940s pin-up girl,” Wonder Woman is actually the pinnacle of a suffragist, Lepore said. She explained that Wonder Woman, through her stories, fought for campaigns similar to equal pay and birth control rights.

During Marston’s first year at Harvard University, British militant and suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst was invited to campus by the Harvard Men’s League for Woman Suffrage. She spoke in Harvard Square after being forbidden by the Harvard administration to speak on campus.

“What Marston saw was the most violent political activism since the fight to end slavery,” Lepore explained in regard to the protests in response to the incident with Pankhurst.

Other aspects of Marston’s Harvard education are also reflected through Wonder Woman comics, Lepore explained, noting the similarities between the Harvard psychology lab and Dr. Psycho, Wonder Woman's nemesis.

Later, while teaching at Tufts, Marston fell in love with one of his students, Olive Byrne (J '27), daughter of Ethyl Byrne and niece of Margaret Sanger, co-founders of the birth control movement.Lepore explained that Byrne was an “extraordinary radical,” and acted as the supplier of birth control on campus during her time at Jackson.

Lepore explained that Wonder Woman’s behavior can be seen in these early suffragists.

“She’s always doing what Emmeline Pankhurst did,” Lepore noted. “Climbing over walls to try to get an education, to gain the right to vote.”

According to Lepore, Wonder Woman was the most controversial character of the 1940s, constantly being chained, tied or dragged in almost every story. She said the imagery mirrored the constant role of chains in the women’s suffrage movement, noting that Marston might have chosen cartoonist Harry G. Peter as the first artist for the comic because of his role as a suffrage cartoonist.

“I have to tie her up all the time,” she said, paraphrasing Marston. “She’s an allegory for the struggle for women’s might … She needs to emancipate herself.”

Lepore explained that Wonder Woman used her powers of logic, extracting truth and beauty to serve as a positive female role model, a character that fought fascism at her time of introduction.

“She was specifically designed to counter the critics,” Lepore said.

Lepore quoted Marston as saying, “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.”

Marston, one of the creators of the first lie detector test, himself is reflected in Wonder Woman through her lasso, which forces captives to speak the truth, she explained.

“[Marston's] really willing to do about anything to bring his psychological theories about women to the world,” Lepore said.

According to Lepore, Wonder Woman also reflects elements of several different women: Marston's wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Sanger and especially Byrne, with whom Wonder Woman shared a matching bracelet and earrings.

When Marston died in 1947, Lepore said, Wonder Woman was constrained throughout the 1950s with a new writer. Over time, however, Wonder Woman continued to remain a symbol of feminine strength, especially with the legalization of contraception in 1965.

The evolution of Wonder Woman since then has been significant, both in appearance and mission, Lepore explained. She explained the changes, from new boots based on an Esquire Magazine pornographic centerfold, to her role in fighting rapists in the 1970s, to the manifestation as a Barbie in 1999.

She noted the change to a “weaponized” character in recent adaptations.

“She used to be essentially a pacifist,” Lepore reflected.

Wonder Woman serves as a wonderful “bridge” for the long distance covered since her original conception in the events of the 1910s, Lepore noted.