Wonder Woman Unbound (43 page)

“
Oh, how I hate Clark Kent …
”
Superman
#3 (Winter 1939).

only to steal her big revelation …
Ibid.

recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross …
Sensation Comics
#18 (June 1943).

Robin, the Boy Wonder

Batman saved her from the clutches …
Detective Comics
#32 (October 1939).

called off the engagement …
Detective Comics
#49 (March 1941).

stop chasing the villain to tend to …
Batman
#8 (December 1941/January 1942).

dispatch a group of thugs …
Batman
#5 (Spring 1941).

allow himself to be captured …
Batman
#7 (October/November 1941).

“
You reckless young squirt …
”
Detective Comics
#38 (April 1940).

“
Well doggone! All I can say …
”
Detective Comics
#39 (May 1940).

Catwoman

Information concerning femme fatales came from Jack Boozer’s “The Lethal Femme Fatale in the Noir Tradition” in
Journal of Film and Video
51, no. 3/4 (Fall 1999); and Elisabeth Bronfen’s “Femme Fatale—Negotiations of Tragic Desire” in
New Literary History
35, no. 1 (Winter 2004).

Catwoman first appeared as the Cat …
Batman
#1 (Spring 1940).

she was called Cat-woman or Cat Woman …
Batman
#10 (April/May 1942).

a beautician named Elva Barr …
Batman
#15 (February/March 1943).

she became Selina Kyle in 1952 …
Batman
#62 (December 1950/January 1951).

“
I’ll bet you bumped into me …
”
Batman
#1 (Spring 1940).

“What a night! A night for …
”
Batman
#3 (Fall 1940).

Catwoman’s kiss left Batman …
Batman
#10 (April/May 1942).

“
It’s too bad she has to be a crook!” …
Batman
#3 (Fall 1940).

The Inverted World of Wonder Woman

“
not even girls want to be girls …
” Marston, “Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics,” 42.

3. Amazon Princess, Bondage Queen

A Note on Charts and Numbers

Starting in this chapter, and throughout the rest of the book, I use a lot of charts and numbers to talk about things. The full, raw data for any number I use in the book is available online somewhere at
http://thanley.wordpress.com
, and you can see how I arrived at my various percentages and figures there.

A Staggering Amount of Bondage

Robbins points out that because Billy …
Robbins,
The Great Women Super-heroes,
13.

Bondage and the Coming Matriarchy

“
Will war ever end in this world …
” Richard, “The Women Are Our Future.”

“
as the greatest—no, even more …
” Ibid.

“
nature-endowed soldiers of Aphrodite …
” Ibid.

“
boys, young and old, satisfy their wish thoughts …
” Ibid.

“
the subconscious, elaborately disguised desire of males …
” Ibid.

“
The only hope for peace is to teach people …
” William Moulton Marston, letter to Max Gaines, February 20, 1943.

At Christmastime, the Amazons celebrated Diana’s Day …
Wonder Woman
#3 (February/March 1943).

“
Oh yes, we love it!” …
Wonder Woman
#6 (Fall 1943).

“
Bind me as tight as you can …
”
Wonder Woman
#13 (Summer 1945).

“On Paradise Island where we play …
”
Sensation Comics
#35 (November 1944).

“
You weel regret zis …
”
Wonder Woman
#26 (November/December 1947).

“
Horsefeathers! You’ll end up loving …
” Ibid.

“
These bonds feel wonderful! Keep me here …
”
Sensation Comics
#22 (October 1943).

“
I shall make you tell the truth …
”
Sensation Comics
#20 (August 1943).

“
dramatized symbol of her sex …
” Richard, “The Women Are Our Future.”

“
woman’s charm is the one bond that can be …
” Ibid.

“
Daughter, if any man welds chains …
”
Sensation Comics
#4 (April 1942).

“
Aye weep, captive girl …
”
Wonder Woman
#2 (Fall 1942).

rip her spirit from her body …
Wonder Woman
#5 (June/July 1943).

“
My Wonder Woman often lets …
” Richard, “The Women Are Our Future.”

The Bondage Battle

This section owes a great deal to Les Daniels’s
Wonder Woman: The Complete History
as well as the collection of Marston’s papers available via the Smithsonian Institution.

“
this feature does lay you open …
” Josette Frank, letter to Max Gaines, February 17, 1943.

“
My impressions confirmed those of …
” W. W. D. Sones, letter to Max Gaines, March 15, 1943.

“
I am one of those odd, perhaps unfortunate …
” US Army sergeant, letter to Max Gaines, September 1943.

“
this is one of the things I’ve …
” Max Gaines, letter to William Moulton Marston, September 14, 1943.

“
Miss Roubicek hastily dashed off …
” Ibid.

“
I have the good Sergeant’s letter in which …
” William Moulton Marston, letter to Max Gaines, September 1943.

“
the fact is, it was a runaway best-seller” …
Sheldon Mayer, quoted in Daniels,
Wonder Woman,
61.

“
the strip is full of significant sex …
” Josette Frank, letter to Max Gaines, January 29, 1944.

“
normal men retain their childish longing …
” Richard, “The Women Are Our Future.”

“was writing a feminist book, but not for …
” Mayer, quoted in Daniels,
Wonder Woman,
33.

“
the unique appeal of the erotic actress” …
William Moulton Marston, “Sex Films Great Moral Aid,”
Indiana Weekly Messenger,
September 26, 1929, along with several other newspapers across the country.

Sex with Marston

“
the husband is sometimes like an orang-outang …
” Havelock Ellis,
The Psychology of Sex: A Manual for Students
(New York: Emerson Books, 1938), 284.

these manuals espoused sexual harmony for married couples …
See Michael Gordon, “From an Unfortunate Necessity to a Cult of Mutual Orgasm: Sex in American Marital Education Literature, 1830–1940,” in
Studies in the Sociology of Sex,
ed. James M. Henslin (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971), 53–80; and M. E. Melody and Linda M. Peterson,
Teaching America About Sex: Marriage Guides and Sex Manuals from the Late Victorians to Dr. Ruth
(New York: New York University Press, 1999).

repressive ideas about women and sex …
For critiques of early sexologists, see Margaret Jackson, “‘Facts of Life’ or the Eroticization of Women’s Oppression? Sexology and the Social Construction of Heterosexuality,” in
The Cultural Construction of Sexuality,
ed. Pat Caplan (London: Tavistock Publications, 1987), 52–81; Kathleen Barry,
Female Sexual Slavery
(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1979); Margaret Jackson, “Sexual Liberation or Social Control? Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Feminism and the Social Construction of Knowledge in the Early Twentieth Century,” in
Women’s Studies International Forum
6, no. 1 (1983): 1–17; and Ruth Bleier,
Science and Gender: A Critique of Biology and Its Theories on Women
(New York: Pergamon Press, 1984).

so researchers looked to the animal kingdom …
Havelock Ellis,
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume III: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse
(New York: Random House, 1942; orig. publ. 1903), 69.

her unconscious self had actually consented to the act …
See Susan Brown-miller,
Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape
(New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1975), 315.

“compatible with a high degree of general …
” Havelock Ellis,
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume I: The Evolution of Modesty, the Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity, and Auto-Erotism
(New York: Random House, 1942; orig. publ. 1900), 166.

“
however much dominant resistance the …
” Marston,
Emotions,
337.

“
the male becomes a constant attendant …
” Ibid., 332.

the woman should initiate all of the movements …
Ibid., 335.

“
normal males get the maximum of love …
” Marston to Gaines, March 20, 1943.

“
abnormal extreme” and arguing …
Marston,
Emotions,
385.

“
the enjoyment of other people’s actual …
” Marston to Gaines, February 20, 1943.

Venus with Us,
Marston’s Ancient Roman Sex Romp