News
Jill Lepore reveals “secret history” of Wonder Woman
By Kirsty Warren ’18
October 1, 2015
Jill Lepore, a professor of American History at Harvard University and author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman, discussed the iconic superhero’s connections to suffrage, Planned Parenthood and World War II in her Sept. 24 lecture. The event, held in the packed Science Center auditorium, was the second part of the Fall 2015 Highlighting the Humanities lecture series, which centers around issues of memory and identity. Following the lecture, Lepore answered questions and signed copies of her book.
Calling herself an “archive rat,” Lepore detailed Wonder Woman’s creation in 1941 and delved into the personal life of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston. At the height of his career, Marston was a celebrated psychologist, professor and inventor of the lie detector test during his time at Harvard. His future wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, attended Radcliffe College and was active in the suffrage movement. When Marston taught at Tufts University, he fell in love with his student Olive Byrne, who happened to be the niece of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Marston, his wife and Byrne would go on to have a polyamorous marriage and raise children together.
Lepore’s lecture centered around the way the lives of William and Elizabeth Marston, Byrne and even Sanger manifested themselves in Wonder Woman’s imagery and plotlines. For example, Wonder Woman is frequently depicted in chains, which recalls political cartoons of suffragists who chained themselves during public demonstrations. Wonder Woman also opposed traditional matrimony, as Marston did. Her trademark “Lasso of Truth” calls to mind Marston’s lie detector test and in each comic book, Wonder Woman always faced deceitful villains who opposed equality for women.
Lepore traced Wonder Woman from her suffragist roots and World War II creation onwards to her renaissance during the 1960s and 70s. Wonder Woman made the cover of Ms. magazine in 1972 and was featured in the popular show starring Lynda Carter. Lepore criticized the fact that today, Wonder Woman is depicted as the daughter of Zeus and the girlfriend of Superman.
Lepore discussed the complexities of a feminist superhero created by a controversial man. The explicit purpose of Wonder Woman was to set up a standard that women were equal to men, which was fairly radical for the 1940s. Over time, Lepore said, Wonder Woman’s connection to suffrage was rendered completely invisible.
“Calling it a wave movement is a complete misunderstanding of the durability and continuity of that movement [of feminism]. There were no waves; it was more like an ongoing river,” Lepore said.
Professor of Classics Barbara Gold said that Lepore was chosen for the Highlighting the Humanities lecture series because her work fits so well into the overarching topic of identity. “She delves back into odd events and characters in history and brings them into focus now,” Gold said. Gold went on to say she was surprised by how deeply Lepore managed to explore into the unknown history of the first female superhero.
To research for the book, Lepore investigated the academic records of William and Elizabeth Marston as well as Olive Byrne. She noted the substantiality of college records, claiming she could track what Marston did every day of his time at Harvard. Discussing her writing process, Lepore compared it to her other projects, set in the seventeenth century. “If you find one tiny scrap of paper, it’s like ‘I found something!’ I found things in private correspondence from the twentieth century [for The Secret History of Wonder Woman] that people didn’t even have words for in the seventeenth century.”
William and Elizabeth Marston as well as Olive Byrne. She noted the substantiality of college records, claiming she could track what Marston did every day of his time at Harvard. Discussing her writing process, Lepore compared it to her other projects, set in the seventeenth century. “If you find one tiny scrap of paper, it’s like ‘I found something!’ I found things in private correspondence from the twentieth century [for The Secret History of Wonder Woman] that people didn’t even have words for in the seventeenth century.”