Something for the girls
Something for the girls |
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Page 9 of 17  Covers to a selection of Bunty copyists, none of them very inspired: Jinty (IPC, 1379); Tracy (DC Thomson, 1979); Tammy (IPC, 1979): and Mandy (DC Thomson, 1970). The dominant genre in American comics at this time, superheroes, started off as a resolutely male preserve. That is, until 1941, when a character who made her debut in All Star Comics (National Periodicals, 1940), overturned the trend in spectacular fashion. She was to gain worldwide fame as Wonder Woman. Given her own title in 1942, this female riposte to the success of Superman was designed specifically with girls in mind, and embodied feminist politics in a way that was unprecedented. Yet at the same time, the comic also managed to appeal to boys due to its undisguised eroticism. Created by William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman was revolutionary in a psychological sense. Indeed, Marston had previously had a distinguished career as a doctor of psychology: he discovered the blood-pressure device that would later lead to the invention of the lie-detector test. His theory at the time was that women were more honest than men, and he turned to writing comics as a way of expressing this and other ideas about the female mind. Wonder Woman would be the bearer of the message that women should realize their potential, should fight for equal rights and that a feminized society would be more caring than the prevailing patriarchy. She would be concerned not so much with the punishment of crime, but with the re-habilitation of criminals. Above all, she would only use force as a last resort, if the appeal of reason failed. |