The Secret History of Wonder Woman

During the past week, I've heard various interviews about the new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. At first it reminded me of Allison and her homage to Wonder Woman on her desk and Shari with her fierceness in the Optimistic Divorcees and Sarah with her early employment and loyalty to Planned Parenthood. Though repetitive, the interviews of the author Jill LePore connected more dots.

Watching the traditions and hearing the conversations in our office surrounding two women getting married fascinate and disturb me. The role of wife and the meaning of marriage seem to be pre- suffragist or maybe not considered at all. Last week, I bluntly (and probably too directly) asked someone I’d just met who said she was getting married, why she would change her name. She said, "tradition." Not mine, I thought.  The guy in the room, also a Boomer, said his wife didn't, nor did many of my close friends. We were in our 20s and 30s in the '70s then.

In those days, I wore suits, ties, clunky wing-tip Bass shoes and custom men's shirts with darts to fit and show my female parts. I had my own little WW on my desk to motivate me. We were supposed to dress up like the 70s for our Halloween festivities this year. I chose not to wear what we really wore then… it no longer fit.

My ex husband Lee teased me and the women we hung with, by calling us "80s Ladies" after the song by KT Oslin. 80s Ladies tells the story perfectly of what made us who we were then. "More than our names got changed… Been educated, got liberated and complicated matters with men… We said I do and signed I don’t and swore we’d never do that again… We burned our bras and we burned our dinners and we burned our candles at both ends…. There ain’t much these ladies ain’t tried."

Jill LePore reminds me that there were many women who came before, both real and illustrated who led their own lives, not in the reflection of nor in service to men. The Secret History talks about the women who innovated “Birth Control” and founded and sustained Planned Parenthood to give women an opportunity to follow their dreams and build lives for themselves with or without a partner. Wonder Woman as originally drawn was the embodiment of a woman of self destiny and power. Later generations of her story-tellers relegated her to less than.

Some conversations around the office make me think that stories of fierce women aren’t known and the possibilities don't seem possible. The media, gaming and entertainment industries still show women in subservient, objectified positions. Recently a Hooters knock off opened near where I live - Twin Peaks. I’m floored, horrified even, that no one (including me) has cried foul.

All this is to say, I am very interested in a discussion about how woman are viewed today and more important how we view ourselves. Are we who we want to be? Are we dressing for our selves, in reflection of someone else or someone's ideals. With the prevalence of selfies, I am fascinated by the poses... I want to know who are they for and what's the outcome wanted? We need to talk.

The lyrics of the 80s Ladies song tells my story exactly. I was in my 30s in the 80s right along with KT Oslin’s song, (the video shows high school graduation as 67, we were 69.) I’d like to write the lyrics for the subsequent decades as 90s, oughts and ought-teens. I’d also love to hear how my women friends would write their lyrics.

Links:

An interview at the end of the Colbert Report with Jill LePore author of The Secret History of WonderWoman http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/full-episodes/ft09kr/october-29--2014---jill-lepore.The interview prior to her is about Gamergate - women looking to de objectify women in video games like Grand Theft Auto. 

About Jill LePore http://scholar.harvard.edu/jlepore/home

New Yorker Article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/last-amazon