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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Superb! I thoroughly enjoyed this. A great overview of Wonder Woman, along with micro histories of the suffragettes, feminism, academia, psychology, and comics. I found it entertaining and informative.
Painstakingly researched, at the end when they were saying how everything stayed a secret for so long they never disclosed how this author for this book figured it all out. Maybe once everyone had died the family was more open about everything and it made it easier. Um, definitely interesting and I learned a lot about a lot of different things. I found the focus on the men tedious and frustrating although I know that's just the parameter of the project, it was still annoying and depressing. Also kind of funny to learn that things I thought were stupid and un-feminist actually are stupid and un-feminist, that it's a men's feminism from a time when thinking women deserved any humanity was celebrated and rare. Idk I'm annoyed. Glad to know I suppose. But also he just seems like someone I would hate and that made listening to 9 hours and 31 minutes of his life sort of unpleasant, as you can imagine.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Academic nonfiction is often slow-going for me — this flew by. I loved it
The book was FASCINATING. Wonder Woman turns out to be both more feminist and less so than one might have thought, and while she was started as a feminist character, her creator had some dubious thoughts about women (or, rather, actions toward them) and submission. Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in Wonder Woman or superheroes in general.
One minor caveat--and this is not the fault of the book, more the available resources. It would have been nice to have a more defined answer as to whether or not Marston actually wrote the scripts, or to what degree Huntley, Halloway and Byrne/Richards were involved. Lepore has a journalistic way of handling the subject, but seems to suspect (and hint to the reader) that Marston's habit of taking credit for others' work (especially for women's work) may have carried over into the comics.
One minor caveat--and this is not the fault of the book, more the available resources. It would have been nice to have a more defined answer as to whether or not Marston actually wrote the scripts, or to what degree Huntley, Halloway and Byrne/Richards were involved. Lepore has a journalistic way of handling the subject, but seems to suspect (and hint to the reader) that Marston's habit of taking credit for others' work (especially for women's work) may have carried over into the comics.
The title of this book would leave you to believe that this is a historical look at Wonder Woman, the superheroine and it is in part, but not the main part and not until the last third of the book. This book is a biography of Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston. It is about the people and events of his life and the events of the world around him that inspired the comic book icon. Marston grew up in the age of women's suffrage, the early feminist movement, and the fight for birth control. He was a lawyer, a psychologist, and the inventor of the lie detector test (before the polygraph). He was once an esteemed faculty member at many colleges, including Harvard. He carried out tests on lie detection during his tenure as a student and professor. Eventually, he was labeled a bit of a kook and had trouble keeping a job. He married a suffragette, named Elizabeth Holloway who really became the family breadwinner. They also had a very secret life behind closed doors that was kept for their entire lives. After marrying Holloway, Marston met Olive Byrne, the niece of birth control activist Margaret Sanger. It was Sanger who helped build what is today Planned Parenthood. Marston took Olive Byrne in as his mistress (and his wife's), having quite a three-some type marriage. They also included another woman as part of their family, Marjorie Wilkes Huntley, however, she appeared to be just a companion and not a sexual partner of anyone's.
Now how does Wonder Woman fit into all of this? Marston also wrote plays, to earn money during his college years. He used those connections to help get him into the movie business when his career as a college professor floundered. Universal Studios, during the 1930s, was looking for a psychologist to help them make editing decisions based on how certain movie scene elicit emotions from the audience. Using his super duper lie detection test, Universal hired Marston as an advisor and he went to work on experiments with audiences.
Yes, I'm getting to Wonder Woman. Those movie connections also led him to the work of comics and superheroes. Inspired by all (and I mean ALL) of the women in his life, Marston set out to create a female superhero to rival Superman and Batman. Pulling theme ideas from the suffrage and feminist movements that his ladies were involved in, Wonder Woman became the epitome of a strong, independent superhero that is not tied down or pushed into submission by a man. Wonder Woman's roots come from the Amazonia Island of Pleasure where women ruled and men were not allowed.
The first 2/3rds of the book are really the biography of Marston and his family, with a history lesson in suffrage and the early feminist movement. Interspersed in these chapters is some foreshadowing of Wonder Woman comic strip themes, with pictures of the comic panels showing how some of the real-life events of the Marstons show up in future editions of Wonder Woman. The last third of the book details the actual history of the comic strip itself, from inception through the popular series with Lynda Carter.
Don't miss reading the Afterwards. All those secrets that were kept behind closed doors at the Marston house are revealed. All those years, the secret of the family trio was not even revealed to the children of Marston by both of his loves. They all lived as one family, but everyone, including the children, believed Olive to be a dear friend or former housekeeper and each child was told a different story.
This was an exhaustive but very interesting look at so many different subjects that surprisingly are all interrelated. Lepore does an excellent job of weaving it all together. I wasn't so sure about this at the beginning because the Wonder Woman references were sparse, but it is those tidbits that kept me engaged until the full secret of the strange tryst began to be unveiled. It is an obscure but fascinating look at the beginning of the feminist movement. Anyone who remotely considers themselves a feminist or is interested in the history of women's suffrage needs to read this one.
Now how does Wonder Woman fit into all of this? Marston also wrote plays, to earn money during his college years. He used those connections to help get him into the movie business when his career as a college professor floundered. Universal Studios, during the 1930s, was looking for a psychologist to help them make editing decisions based on how certain movie scene elicit emotions from the audience. Using his super duper lie detection test, Universal hired Marston as an advisor and he went to work on experiments with audiences.
Yes, I'm getting to Wonder Woman. Those movie connections also led him to the work of comics and superheroes. Inspired by all (and I mean ALL) of the women in his life, Marston set out to create a female superhero to rival Superman and Batman. Pulling theme ideas from the suffrage and feminist movements that his ladies were involved in, Wonder Woman became the epitome of a strong, independent superhero that is not tied down or pushed into submission by a man. Wonder Woman's roots come from the Amazonia Island of Pleasure where women ruled and men were not allowed.
The first 2/3rds of the book are really the biography of Marston and his family, with a history lesson in suffrage and the early feminist movement. Interspersed in these chapters is some foreshadowing of Wonder Woman comic strip themes, with pictures of the comic panels showing how some of the real-life events of the Marstons show up in future editions of Wonder Woman. The last third of the book details the actual history of the comic strip itself, from inception through the popular series with Lynda Carter.
Don't miss reading the Afterwards. All those secrets that were kept behind closed doors at the Marston house are revealed. All those years, the secret of the family trio was not even revealed to the children of Marston by both of his loves. They all lived as one family, but everyone, including the children, believed Olive to be a dear friend or former housekeeper and each child was told a different story.
This was an exhaustive but very interesting look at so many different subjects that surprisingly are all interrelated. Lepore does an excellent job of weaving it all together. I wasn't so sure about this at the beginning because the Wonder Woman references were sparse, but it is those tidbits that kept me engaged until the full secret of the strange tryst began to be unveiled. It is an obscure but fascinating look at the beginning of the feminist movement. Anyone who remotely considers themselves a feminist or is interested in the history of women's suffrage needs to read this one.
Not interested in the man who wrote her versus her pop cultural history
Interesting book, the backstory of the creator of Wonder Woman definitely merits a read. What was pretty depressing was just how many of the discussions about women's rights are still where they were almost a hundred years ago.
History and intrigue. Then the ending kinda dropped.
I have not seen the movie adaptation of this history of the man who is credited with creating Wonder Woman, and the women in his life, but probably will after reading this book. (I do wonder if those women wrote more of it than the author was able to credit them for). This is the guy whose ‘lie detector’ was the bogus science the Supreme Court agreed could not be admitted as evidence in the Frye case, a fun tidbit for fellow lawyer readers. He led a polygamist lifestyle, though that isn’t what it is called in this book, and he and the women he lived with kept secrets about the family makeup from the world and their own children. I’m curious how a book that is so much about lies and deception to hide taboo topics was adapted for Hollywood and how much of the more taboo elements of this real person’s life were excluded from that version, once again allowing the manufactured story to reign.
The context of the history of Wonder Woman is the history of suffrage and women’s rights from the late 19th century into World War II (when she is created) and beyond. The author wrestles with Wonder Woman’s feminist themes in the original comics, but also the sadism that the creator insists isn’t there, his seeming feminist beliefs but also a family structure that he sees as modern and feminist but absolutely demonstrates his control and manipulation of the women in his life. There are also close connections between his family and the women’s movement, and there is a lot of time dedicated to Margaret Sanger and her sister Edith.
Wonder Woman also changes when other writers take over and I would have liked a more in depth analysis of the meaning of those changes, and how they both reflect and create culture, rather than simply writing this off as the chauvinism of the new writer (also a product of his culture). Of course this is a history and not a literary criticism, so I’m really just wishing it was a slightly different book. Overall, I found the story fascinating, and will have to see what, if anything, the author has written about the new DC movie Wonder Woman, since that came out after this book’s publication.
The context of the history of Wonder Woman is the history of suffrage and women’s rights from the late 19th century into World War II (when she is created) and beyond. The author wrestles with Wonder Woman’s feminist themes in the original comics, but also the sadism that the creator insists isn’t there, his seeming feminist beliefs but also a family structure that he sees as modern and feminist but absolutely demonstrates his control and manipulation of the women in his life. There are also close connections between his family and the women’s movement, and there is a lot of time dedicated to Margaret Sanger and her sister Edith.
Wonder Woman also changes when other writers take over and I would have liked a more in depth analysis of the meaning of those changes, and how they both reflect and create culture, rather than simply writing this off as the chauvinism of the new writer (also a product of his culture). Of course this is a history and not a literary criticism, so I’m really just wishing it was a slightly different book. Overall, I found the story fascinating, and will have to see what, if anything, the author has written about the new DC movie Wonder Woman, since that came out after this book’s publication.