Marston wanted boys and girls of all ages to learn the joys of submission to a good woman-to find out how much fun it is to be stood on your head and then, maybe, how much fun it is to switch and make that princess/mistress stand on her head herself. The comics weren't centered on violent battle, but on bondage play. The original Wonder Woman comics were structured around Wonder Woman tying up and controlling bad guys (male and female Marston enthusiastically endorsed lesbianism) and then being tied up and controlled in turn. The lasso, then, was supposed to be a yonic symbol-and the use of the lasso was intended to be a form of erotic play. Marston described the lasso as “symbol of female charm, allure, oomph, attraction,” and of the power that “every woman has … over people of both sexes.” In his (very idiosyncratic) psychological writings, Marston, who believed women were destined to rule over a peaceful matriarchy, talked very explicitly about women's “oomph” as sexual in his academic writing, he described intercourse as the vagina engulfing and controlling the penis. But the magic lasso of command was absolutely central to the original Wonder Woman stories, and to Marston's original vision of the character. That change in power may seem like a minor fannish detail-no more important than the fact that Superman originally had the power of superjumping rather than superflight. The lasso doesn't have that power any more. But nowhere in the book does Wonder Woman command anyone to stand on his (or her) head. In Amanda Deibert and Cat Staggs' “Defender of Truth,” she trusses up some hunky centaurs. In Gilbert Hernandez's “No Chains Can Hold Her,” a broad-shouldered, very Amazonian-looking Wonder Woman lassos robots and cheerfully bashes them against the ceiling. In the first story in Sensation Comics, by writer Gail Simone and artists Ethan Van Sciver and Marcelo Di Chiara, Wonder Woman ties up all of Batman's villains with her rope and forces them to confront their deepest fears. Instead of being able to make anyone do anything, the lasso now just makes folks answer honestly-which is a lot less useful, and, not coincidentally, a lot less entertaining. Gradually, though, it was depowered until it only compelled truth-a transition solidified in the popular '70s television show starring Lynda Carter. In the original comics by the psychologist, polyamorist, and crank William Marston and artist Harry Peter, the lasso compelled obedience. That's because over the years, Wonder Woman's magic lasso has been depowered.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |