Psychology has spilled over into pop culture in many ways throughout the years.
For instance, in 1911, one psychologist saved Coca-Cola by conducting rigorous studies into caffeine’s effects on cognition and sensory and motor abilities.
In 1929, another inspired his nephew’s successful public relations campaigns, which linked smoking cigarettes with female empowerment, if you can believe it.
Since 1895, other psychologists were directly involved in advertising, using surveys and other new ploys to get us to buy their products. (You didn’t need toothpaste to clean your teeth; you needed it to make you sexier.)
One psychologist even changed the comic book world and influenced an entire movement (that would be the feminist movement).
In the early 1940s, Harvard psychologist William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947) created Wonder Woman.
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I have always loved Wonder Woman! I spent many, many happy hours drawing from comic books as a kid, and she was my favorite (Supergirl was cool, but she had to share the spotlight with Superman…) Wonder Woman, with her special all-girls island and powers had the action/adventure of the other DC comics, plus it was a “girls comic” that didn’t revolve around romance and getting boys to like you! (like Betty & Veronica)
I had read that he also had one of the women, the student i think, wear wonder woman-like bracelets that were welded onto her wrists. did you come across this in your research? is there a definitive biography? i always thought he was an interesting enough character that there should be one.
@ psf, interesting! I actually didn’t find that tidbit in my research. I wasn’t able to get a hold of a biography (I didn’t see one through Google or on Amazon.com), but I feel like there has to be one for sure.
I’VE researched that angle, and found that that’s not true. The student you’re probly thinking of was Olive Byrne, who was his student assistant, and lover (one of the 2-3 women he had a polyamorous relationship with). She wore Arabian metal bracelets out of choice, and BEFORE Wonder woman was invented. William Marston saw those bracelets on her and that inspired him to create the Bracelets of Submission on Wonder Woman, which she uses to deflect bullets.
Wonder Woman is the greatest superhero of all time. Hollywood is just sexist. That’s why they don’t make a Wonder Woman movie, or a tv show.
Actually Alex, WW was on tv in the ’70s. In 1976 ABC aired 3 1-hour shows that led to a weekly series running from October ’76 to November ’77. CBS picked it up in 1977 and it ran 2 more years. Also, in 1972 Gloria Steinem put WW on the front cover of the first stand-alone issue of Ms. Magazine.
I always liked the character, I think people over-rate comic book characters as role models, I can recall reading more than one essay by women who said they were inspired by WW when they were girls. I sincerely hope DC will put a good writer at the helm of her books, she’s one of their best characters and deserves to be treated better.
As “A Psychologist and A Superhero” by Margarita Tartakovsky notes, Wonder Woman was successful because she embodied the elements of femininity that Marston illustrated were necessary in a female character, while also possessing the incredible strength and power typically limited to male superheroes of the time. Wonder Woman, therefore, became “a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” The reasoning for the combination’s success, I suppose, is that such a character would inspire and excite female audiences, but also attract and then hold the interest of male audiences. This is just a rough guess of course, but no matter the precise reason for it, it has become obvious that this mixture of traits is key when constructing superheroines. As a result, more and more films have attempted the winning combination of qualities that worked for Wonder Woman. “The culture over the last ten years is really invested in an idea of strong women, as long as they conform to certain types, as long as they’re still young and sexually desirable.” But is this really the best dynamic for the superheroine archetype? After all, it clearly implies that no matter how “serious and capable” or “bad-ass” heroines are, in the end “being pretty is really really important.”
Honestly though, I don’t think such a negative perspective on this “Wonder Women Formula,” if you will, while interesting and possibly provocative, is as important as the positive effects of the trait combination. First of all, each heroic woman embodying some form of this formula tends to own her looks by playing on them as just additional tools in her arsenal to distract and destroy enemies with. These women also take advantage of the weaker feminine traits they might be associated with by using them against presumptive males, “reclaiming the vulnerable, emotional woman stereotype as a point of power for women.” Both of these superheroine maneuvers that turn traits conventionally viewed as weaknesses into strengths are changing the traditional image of women and female qualities. The second positive effect the “Wonder Women Formula” has is one of character advancements that reflect what women actually want. Marston was appealing to the psyche of girls when he created the Amazonian princess/superheroine of Wonder Women. I believe he understood that girls have two halves: a princess half and a hero half, and that when they are young they therefore subconsciously aspire to possess the traits of both. While the amount of desired princess and hero emulation varies in doses from girl to girl, so does it also vary in the “Wonder Women Formula.” This recipe has been played with consistently over the years as people try to find the balance that appeals to the greatest audience. And since cinematic endeavors made with this formula are measured in success by the size of their audience approval and support, it is clearly the audience that is driving the continuous readjustments to this formula that began in the 40s. For example, versions of the formula that produced negatively viewed characters and films and were each a, “total bomb in every meaning of the phrase,” like Elektra, have disintegrated. Meanwhile, successful forms of the formula that produced well-received characters and films such as Black Widow in the recent film The Avengers have caused fans to crave and demand more similar types of heroines and hero films. Therefore, based on the box office failures and successes that drive different versions of the heroine archetype to either be discontinued or further developed, I would say the “Wonder Woman Formula” Marston created can only benefit the progression of the archetype. Wouldn’t you agree?
(Just in case the links I embedded in this comment for the sources of my quotes and information do not show up, here they are below in addition:)
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/05/17/a-psychologist-and-a-superhero/
http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2011/07/has-dc-been-getting-wonder-woman-wrong.html
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/the-cat-and-the-spider-comic-book-movie-heroine-evolution
http://www.hollywood.com/news/tv/39141406/why-we-need-wonder-woman?page=all
http://entertainment.time.com/2012/11/09/fighting-flirting-feminism-the-bond-girl-evolution/
http://thescriptlab.com/features/main/878-evolution-of-the-disney-princess
http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=superhero.htm
http://themovieblog.com/2005/director-talks-about-why-elektra-failed/
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/05/18/marvel-girls-on-film-female-avengers-list/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman_(TV_series)