Title: The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Author: Jill Lepore (White woman, professor at Harvard)

Genre: Nonfiction

Book published: 2014 and Read: Summer 2026

There's so much I could say about my experiences with this book, starting with the fact that I get the vibe the author is a little fatphobic, due to her mentions of Marston's weight, and portraying it as a bad quality of his. Aside from that, this book is actually available at my College's library. I remember reading it in said library on one of my first nights on-campus during my first year. I guess I wasn't all that intrigued by it, since I then forgot about it for a year, and have absolutely no idea what got me interested again this time around. Whatever the reason, I'm happy I picked it up again. First I read it through Libby, then decided to get a physical copy from the library, and finished with my own copy that I bought from a bookstore. Perhaps what sparked my interest is something that I have yet to talk about on this website, although I read them constantly, DC comics. However, this book isn't really about Wonder Woman as a character- even though she's a great character. This book is about the feminist movement, the early comic industry, and William Moulton Marston.

William Moulton Marston, as Lepore explains, was one of the creators of Wonder Woman (alongside Charles Gaines). He was a student and then professor at Harvard. He invented the first lie detector, and was very interested in psychology. He thought women should rule the world, and was a huge feminist that advocated for their rights. He was a narcissist. He was often divorced from reality. He was investigated for fraud. He probably had a bondage kink, due to how much bondage he insisted be put in the Wonder Woman comics, and how much detail he put into describing his visions for said bondage to the artist. He had two wives, one of which- stubborn and loud Elizabeth Holloway- made the money, the other of which- Olive Bryne, who absolutely adored him- raised the children. The three of them lied to everyone about this, including their own children. Olive was ten years younger than Marston and also one of his students while he was teaching. Olive, instead of a ring, wore two large bracelets on either arm once she and Marston got married. They had threesomes- and sometimes foursomes when their longtime and mysterious friend Marjorie Wilkes Huntley came to visit. It is all so very intriguing

The feminist movement is incredibly tied to Wonder Woman, and learning about her relationship to it actually gives me a lot of hope, knock on wood. In the original Wonder Woman comics, written by Marston and co., she was constantly fighting villains- such as Professor Psycho- who thought women were inferior to men. Her character is inspired by Amazons, and her expressions are specifically cries of greek goddesses rather than gods ("great Hera!", "suffering Sapho!"). She refuses to marry Steve Trevor. If she is bound by a man she loses all her power. Her comics included a section in the middle called 'Wonder Woman of history', which explained the history of real life influential women. She became president at a time when that was unthinkable for girls. She was also one of DC's most popular characters, got her own newspaper strip, and was featured prominently on comic book covers. After reading this I saw an article online about how the old Wonder Woman comics didn't give her agency because she left Paradise Island over her love for Steve and I had to hold back a laugh because it's obvious the poster of that blog only read that cherrypicked section, and not the part of the comics where she marched in the streets for cheaper milk for women and higher wages- both things that happened during the actual feminist movement. The part that gives me hope however isn't all these incredible things she did in her comics, it's the backlash she faced. When she was added to the Justice society of America, the writer of that comic delegated her to the role of secretary, and wrote her out of any adventure. After Marston passed away, the new writer of her comic made her a babysitter and fashion model who wanted to marry Steve. Her boots get replaced with dainty slippers. The Wonder Woman of history section gets replaced with something about marriage. She was criticized for not having enough clothes.

And today? Today her outfit still shows a lot of skin, she remains one of the core members of the Justice League, she is regarded as one of the strongest characters in-universe, and I'd like to say that almost everyone in the Western World knows who she is. Yes Feminism still has a long way to go, but after reading about Wonder Woman I don't think I can say that gender equality is a hopeless battle. We've made so much progress on women's rights, and I think we are bound (get it?) to make even more. Also, this book taught me who feminist Margaret Sanger (Olive Bryne's aunt) was.