By P. Kristen Enos
The Secret History Of Wonder Woman (Book, 2014)
By Jill Lepore
Summary
The story behind the creation of the comic book heroine Wonder Woman in 1941 by William Marston Moulton (a professor of psychiatry and the inventor of the lie detector), his wife Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, and their additional domestic partner Olive Byrne.
Warning: Big Old Spoilers Ahead!
My Intro
Though this book was released in October 2014, I wasn’t interested in reading it until the “aftermath” of the Wonder Woman movie in June of this year.
To best summarize my relationship with Wonder Woman the character, as a child of the 70’s, I grew up in the generation after the Women’s Lib movement. Starting at age six, I was a comic book reader, my choice publisher being DC comics, which produced MY original trinity of Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl.
I watched the TV version with Lynda Carter, lived through the comic reboot in the ‘80’s spearheaded by George Perez, her appearances in TV animation, and then the “New 52” (which I detested and quickly stopped). Prior to the release of the movie, I hadn’t read a WW comic since “New 52,” which had since been replaced by “Rebirth.” (Sigh.)
With all of that, and claiming that I am a fan, it never occurred to me to ever read her original comic strips. Partially because I was already familiar, via general discussions, of her poor treatment and portrayal for most of her run, and therefore just assumed she had always been portrayed like that.
So, fast-forward to the panel “LGBTQ Geek Year In Review” at San Diego Comic-Con in July, a panel which I created and moderated. And one of the topics my panelists and I agreed to explore was the idea of Diana being bisexual in her various incarnations.
The panel is structured so that each guest panelist would present one of our pre-chosen topics, give their overview, and then open up for cross-discussion. Mike Ciriaco had the WW topic and in his overview, he mentioned how her original creator William Moulton Marston was in a non-conforming relationship as well as bondage. Because of this, Mike said it would make sense that her original character would be open to relationships with women.
Now the bondage thing didn’t pique my curiosity, but the “non-conforming relationship” comment certainly did. And I immediately thought “How did he know that?” though I never got around to asking him.
After SDCC, I started hearing about the upcoming movie “Professor Marston And The Wonder Women.” So, I followed enough internet rabbit trails to lead me to this book “The Secret History Of Wonder Woman.”
Since I’m a compulsive multi-tasker, which I can’t do when reading text, I was glad to see that there was an audiobook version. So that was the final nudge that caused me to check this book out.
General Review
Full disclosure: I am a documentary junkie. Of almost every type: history, crime, art, science, etc. I once watched a multi-part British series about the evolution of the English language and thought it was fascinating. So, with a wide range of topics, I have developed personal standards of what I need for each one to be interesting for me.
Lepore managed to use all of the narrative tools and tricks to make listening to the book an interesting experience for me. With the introduction of every new event or person, Lepore provided a lengthy background to help provide greater context to their importance into what is a very complicated story. I felt like I was learning about a lot more than just the main story because, frankly, they were important to know in their own right.
And because her subject was the comic creation of Wonder Woman, she uses this fact by interspersing commentary about specific WW storylines or imagery at the right moment to explain how they may have come out or reflected what was going on with Marston & Co. at the time.
If I have any real complaint about the experience of this book was Marston himself (if portrayed accurately by Lepore) was pretty much the epitome of arrogance and self-importance. I had to constantly remind myself not to skip ahead, even for a little bit, if to spare me being exposed to an incredible ego of someone I wouldn’t have in my group of friends. But at the same time, I kept thinking “this is the man who was responsible for us having Wonder Woman?!” On top of feeling sorry for his family.
Because of Marston, I was reminded that you can still be a feminist and have a big, obnoxious ego. And no, I purposefully don’t define that as being a “male” ego because I know a hell of a lot of egotistical females (myself included.)
When I was finished, I was glad to have checked out the book in its audiobook format but I realized that given it was about a visual subject, there were supporting pictures and images that would have helped the experience. Still, I highly recommend the book to anyone who has the remotest interest in understanding WW’s tie to feminism as well as her roots from a non-conformist family, and continued treatment by her publisher DC Comics.
I wasn’t sure if I was up to watching the movie “Professor Marston And The Wonder Women” when it comes out. But after being prepared with another perspective of their story via this book, I felt more willing to give it a chance, especially since the director is a woman. (Yes, interesting how my personal motives all just tie together.)
The Feminist Standard: A Reflection Of Her Time Puppet-Master Of The Moment
One thing that this book makes very clear is that there is too much evidence of suffragette and feminist influence in her creation and stories by Marston. The book is also a reminder that there have always been many different types of feminists, which should not be surprising. Just like there are just as much variation in people’s views of religion and patriotism. (Remember, not all Christians are the same.)
The book also captures how WW’s portrayal in comics and TV were completely at the hands of the creative team for their perceived target audience, which is usually not as a role model for girls and women as a standard of self-worth and independence. So, when she’s being controlled by non-feminists, she’s not going to be doing feminist things. But as long-time fans know, sometimes you should keep faith that what you don’t like at the moment will eventually change for the better, you hope.
Unfortunately, as the book also points out, Marston’s personal obsession with bondage very much clouds his presentation of WW during his own run, giving very valid ammunition for those who considered the character inappropriate and obscene. I’ve occasionally seen images of WW in bondage and dismissed them as fan fetish art. There were moments in this book where I started to realize that maybe those images weren’t fan-created after all and it makes me kind of wince.
To be clear, I personally don’t have any issues with bondage if that is your thing and you’re participating with consenting adults. I believe feminists can be into bondage.
However, it does make discussions a little more challenging when interacting with people who default to negative assumptions. For the sake of WW, I would rather the two concepts not be intertwined.
To Marston’s credit though, according to the book, he never backed off from insisting WW be portrayed in all other activities with anything less than a feminist ideal (by his own definition, of course.)
Clues & Puzzle Pieces: The Challenges Of Researching Queer History
Despite hearing of a “non-conforming relationship,” I had serious doubts that there would be enough content in the book that would justify a review on the BFA website, which is devoted to Queer Women’s Entertainment. Well, now that I’ve completed the book, I realized I had a few key comments to make about queer content after all.
The primary focus in the book is the relationship that is established by Marston, his wife Holloway, and one of his former students Olive Byrne. Now, on the surface it would be easy to dismiss the idea of an apparently male-centric arrangement is just being male-wish and fantasy fulfillment. But I was just as focused on “what the women get out of this?” “Were they truly willing participants?”
To summarize from the book: Marston and Holloway had known each other since they were teenagers and married in college, but they did not yet have children. They were both focused on their separate (but sometimes mutually supportive) professional careers. Then Marston met Byrne and their affair started. It reached the point where Marston asked Holloway to accept the addition of Byrne or grant him a divorce. Holloway thought it over and accepted the terms on the condition that she would continue working professionally and Byrne would raise their future children. Also, Holloway and Byrne continued their own relationship for decades after Marston died.
A handful of my closest friends have been in long-term polyamorous relationships. I can’t remember a time being at all bothered by it or questioning their validity as partners or family. So, the idea of a relationship (in fairly America and outside of Utah) involving three or more adults is not a concept that I struggle to wrap my mind around.
Plus, I’m not a believer that all relationships must have a sense of “equality” to be long-lasting and solid. Even among members of the same gender. There are many people who are happy to be supportive and in the background so that their partner can have the spotlight. And there are relationships where the spotlight focus may shift over time or circumstances.
The relationship formed among Marston, Holloway and Byrne was a closely guarded secret for obvious reasons, especially when Marston and Byrne also had children. They created a fictional husband for Byrne who died shortly after fathering said children. And according to the book, this secret was maintained at Byrne’s insistence, even from her own children though they could see their resemblance to Marston. The book states that Marston and Holloway were eventually willing to at least include the children in on the truth but Byrne demanded silence upon threat of suicide.
Lepore also explores the impact this non-conforming family had on the children, which sounds very familiar to anyone with awkward family secrets.
When I contemplate these circumstances of this household, I feel that their story should be included in queer history, where their relationship, which has very strong bisexual components, needed to be hidden. It reminded me of historical famous figures that would be claimed by LGBTQ+ Activists based on analyzing their lifestyles or clues left behind (diaries, love letters, etc.) These people may even openly identify as queer in some capacity, but historians and biographers may cover up or exclude those details, purposefully or not. I’m certain many of the past of the U.S. Census records list a lot of legally single (or not) adults that could otherwise be identified as queer if they could be flagged as such.
I know there’s a common criticism among deniers of queer history that “too much” is read between the lines, that we’re projecting something that isn’t there. Like the idea of seeing patterns when none really exist. And I know there are even queer people who refuse labeling someone as queer because they wouldn’t accept anything less than a clear, concise statement directly from that person.
I land on the side of “give me an explanation that makes sense.” I agree that not EVERYONE who trigger a blip on the gaydar is queer. But when you live a lifestyle where you do have to search for clues to find others of your kind (definitely before the time of the internet), it’s a valid way to look at people, past and present.
Yet, in the case of this particular family, what solidifies its queer validity for me was that Holloway and Byrne stayed together for the rest of their very long lives. This was not a relationship that was only for the man’s benefit.
Oh, and do I think this book lends credibility that Marston envisioned Wonder Woman herself as being at least bisexual? Like I said before, reading between the lines, I would say “yes.”