via daily.gay.com
Ok so I read this little article on daily gay and I was excited because Wonder Woman is one of my all time FAVORITE Comic book Characters!! You may be thinking but why??? A fair question considering the pile of garbage I would call the last 25 years or so of her incarnations in the DC universe. My answer is part nostalgia and part true origin of the character. Let me stop here and say you can read the piece in its entirety here and please do!
I'm a child of the 1970's and early 80's and my brother and I spent our summers playing outside and getting to watch the cheesy TV versions of Comic Book Super Heroes. My two favorites were Spiderman and Wonder Woman (don't judge I was a kid) and I HATED The Hulk, ugh that show was terrible even as a kid and embodied a very angry, violent and domineering male character who you were always waiting to see if he would explode (domestic violence anyone?) yeah it didn't sit well with me.
Linda Carter!
Anyways I digress, I would sit in my Wonder Woman underoos and watch this woman kick butt on TV and as a girl drowning in pink, barbie and whiny princesses this was EXCITING for me!!! I felt strong, I felt powerful, I felt equal to my brother who's hero's were always cooler than mine! The toys too, I'm still scarred by how much better boys toys were, and She-ra was cool but her toys SUCKED...SUCKED...I once threw a bunch in the trash in an angry outrage at how LAME they were and then played he-man, she-ra doll free. At the time, I didn't get how sexually provocative the TV show was or I wouldn't even say that I guess just how anti-feminist and sexualized it was, I was just a kid, with my bad ass underoos and a chick on TV being fierce!
I really wish they still made these, hello!!! All my underwear would be superhero, how cool would that be...ok maybe just to me but still!!! It's very gender neutral too!
so coo! I mean they made these guys briefs at target that were super heroes and I got the transformers ones I like those but still it be cool to have a matching tank and/or sports bra!
I've been a Comics fan since I was a kid but in High School I was introduced to small press comics and Action girl which was an awesome anthology book by the amazing Sarah Dyer which was all by female artists and writers, I LOVED it and books like Girl Hero by Megan Kelso a more hardcore book, I still have my signed copies that I was almost to chicken to get...NERD! In mainstream comics however it was another story especially during that period of time the 1990's and early 2000's what I called the T & A period. I was really involved in comics, had a mini comic with 2 friends and ended up partnered with someone who became a very successful mainstream artist. It was all comics all the time. When I rediscovered mainstream Wonder Woman, I threw up in my mouth a little and then became completely outraged as a woman (how I identified at the time) a feminist and a human being. Stuff like the above picture just pissed me off and it was just the way she was often drawn it was the writing, it was TERRIBLE, they turned her into an idiot. I wrote a paper about it in school and it was through this journey of trying to reclaim the feminist icon of my youth that I discovered the true extreme feminist, homoerotic and bondage origins of my beloved character who was decades ahead of her time! That just pissed me off more because people were just crapping all over the remarkable work of her creator William Marston who was poly-amorous by the way um awesome! It's completely fascinating really, so I was really excited to see it on daily gay.
So check it out, you might fall in love with her, I know I did! Now if only someone could write her decently today! I'm not going to totally blame the writers, let me tell you the reality of writing for a character in the DC Universe is kind of a nightmare, I sure as hell wouldn't want to do it! The history, and storylines, logistics, costume and DC controls EVERYTHING, so if they don't like it, it's not going in and then if there is fan backlash, yikes! It's weird like every detail, once my ex drew Superman with too much bulge and it had to be changed...yep you read that right...meanwhile Wonder Woman and Cat woman are running around half naked giving themselves black eyes and back problems with their gigantic ta ta's...wow I can't believe I just typed ta ta's...I did it again! Anyways, hypocrisy much??? My point is they have an actual reference guide for how big his bulge can be...creepy. So writers don't have a lot to work with and DC isn't exactly keen on re-focusing on the feminist controversial beginnings of the character and honestly I don't think a lot of people who have written for her understand it and if they do they are being forced to tone it down. How cool would it be if she was re-imagined as a poly queer feminist warrior??? A queer can dream right?
I have these first two hardcover volumes I wish I had more!
