Something like that, at least it has already appeared. But, in fact, the name of the creator of wonder woman is her smallest secret.
Wonder woman is the most popular female superhero of all time. Except Superman and Batman, no character in an ic book can live this long. In wonder woman, generations of girls take sandwiches to school in lunch boxes. Like other superheroes, wonder woman has a secret identity. Unlike other superheroes, she also has a secret history.
In one episode, a newspaper editor named Brown, desperate to discover wonder woman's past, assigned a group of reporters to hunt her down; She can easily escape their pursuit. Brown was half mad and was sent to the hospital. Wonder woman disguised herself as a nurse and brought him a scroll. "This piece of parchment seems to be the history of the girl you call the witch!" She told him. "A strange woman wearing a veil left it for me." Brown jumped out of bed and ran back to the desk in the city, holding parchment in his hand and shouting, "Stop squeezing! I have a history of amazing women! " But the secret history of magical women is not written on parchment. Instead, they are buried in boxes, cabinets and drawers, and thousands of documents are stored in libraries, archives and collections all over the United States, including the personal documents of the creator maston Document Company. No one outside the meston family had seen these documents before I saw them. Wonder woman's 70-year history conceals an important story about ic books, superheroes, censorship and feminism. As meston once said, "Frankly speaking, wonder woman is a new type of psychological propaganda for women, and I believe it should rule the world.
Wonder woman's secret history, a fascinating historical exploration work, reveals the origin of one of the most iconic superheroes in the world, hidden in a fascinating family story and the key history of feminism in the 20th century, wonder woman.
Buying comic books more or less 1933 was invented by Maxwell Charles Gaines, a former primary school principal, who later discovered all American comics. 1938, Superman jumped into a tall building for the first time. Batman began to lurk in the dark on 1939. The children read in piles. But when the war raged in Europe, ic books were praising violence, even sexual violence. 1940, Chicago daily called ics "national humiliation". The literary editor of the newspaper wrote: "These sexual horror series sell 6.5438+million copies every month, calling on parents and teachers to ban ics unless we want a generation to be more ferocious than now."
1940, Gaines hired meston as a consultant to oppose his critics. He explained: "Dr. meston has been advocating the correct type of ic magazine for a long time. Meston holds three degrees from Harvard University, including a doctorate in psychology. He leads what he calls an "experimental life". He used to be a lawyer, a scientist and a professor. It is widely believed that he invented the lie detector test: he was obsessed with uncovering other people's secrets. He used to be a psychological counselor at Universal Pictures. He has written plays, novels and dozens of magazine articles. Gaines read about meston in an article in Family Circle magazine. 1940 In the summer, Olive Richard, the writer of this magazine, went to maston's home in rye, new york, and asked him for an e-mail asking experts' opinions on ics.
"Some of them are full of torture, kidnapping, abuse and other cruel transactions," she said.
"Unfortunately, this is true," meston admitted, but "when a lovely heroine is tied to a bet, followers of ics will definitely get help at the right time." . The reader's wish is to save the girl, not to see her suffer. 1942 ic, she plays baseball; In other plays, she played ice hockey and tennis, and even established a series of health clubs. (Smithsonian Library) maston, who is generally regarded as the inventor of the polygraph, is the secretary of his law firm at 192 1. In the book Victory at Sea in March 1943, Steve Trevor proposed to give Diana Prince a lie detector test. She is a mysterious woman. (Smithsonian Library) maston (far right) asked a female subject to take a polygraph test, and Oliver Bourne (far left) recorded the answer. (Smithsonian Library) meston insists that in almost every story, magical women are chained or bound. (Smithsonian Library) "The Enchantment of the Witch" echoes the portraits used by early feminists (cartoons of far-right Lou Rogers) and margaret Sanger (right-wing, censored). (Corbis/ University of Michigan) Dorothy Roubicek proposed a gentler way to restrain magical women "without chains". (Smithsonian Library) Although wonder woman started from the feminist era, she once again became a symbol of women's empowerment-even in the lunch box above (1977). (NMAH) 1972, her founder put her on the cover of the first issue of the magazine. The cartoonist David Levin described margaret Sanger as a magical woman in 1978. (David Levin) The cover of Sisters magazine published by the Los Angeles Women's Center in July, 1973 shows a magical woman waving a mirror. In this episode, the witch plays another role, Biff, who proves with time that history, especially the history of women, is not boring. (Smithsonian Library) meston insists that integrated circuit books are a lofty literary form and an illusion of "touching the hotbed of universal human desires and aspirations". "Oliver Richard" is the pseudonym of Oliver Bourne. She didn't go to maston where he lived. She is also the niece of margaret Sanger, one of the most important feminists in the 20th century. 19 16, Sanger and her sister, Ethel Bourne, the mother of Oliver Bourne, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. They were all arrested for illegally distributing birth control pills. 19 17 In prison, Ethel Bourne went on a hunger strike and almost died.
Oliver Bourne met meston when he was a senior at Tufts University in 1925. He is her psychology professor. Meston married a lawyer named Elizabeth holloway. When meston and Bourne fell in love, he gave holloway a choice: either Bourne could live with them or he could leave her. Bourne moved in. From 1928 to 1933, every woman has two children; They live together as a family. Holloway goes to work; Bourne stayed at home to raise the children. They told the census takers and others that Byrne was meston's widowed sister-in-law. "People who are tolerant are the happiest," meston wrote in the magazine article 1939. "So, why not get rid of those expensive prejudices that hinder your progress? He listed "six most common prejudices". The sixth "prejudice against unconventional people and unconventional people" is the most important thing for him to eliminate prejudice. Bowen's son didn't find out that meston was their father until 1963, and holloway finally admitted it. Until she made a promise, no one would mention this topic again.
Gaines didn't know that The Woman in the Emergency Room could be pieced together from Bender's paper from Brooklyn College, Frank's paper from the University of Minnesota, maston's editor's letter and a set of original scripts from the Smithsonian Institution's Dibner Library. In his original script, meston described the scene of slavery very accurately. A story about Mars, the god of war, meston gave Peter a detailed explanation. In the group, the magical woman was imprisoned:
"Close-up, the whole body diagram of WW. Make some careful chains here. Martians are experts! Put a metal collar on WW, and a chain fell off the panel, as if she were locked in the prisoner's team. Hands on your chest, double rings on your wrist, an Amazon bracelet and another bracelet. There is a short chain in the middle, about as long as the handcuff chain, which is why Pell holds his hands tightly together. Then put a heavier and bigger chain on her wrist, and the chain goes around her knee in a long circle. There are a pair of arms and hands at her ankles, protruding from the panel and hugging her ankles tightly. The whole team will lose focus and ruin the story unless these chains are exactly like those described here.
At the back of the story, the magical woman is locked in a cell. She listened nervously to the conversation in the next room, and through the amplification of "bone conduction", she put the chain between her teeth: "WW Head and Shoulder Close-up. She bit the chain around her neck with her teeth. The chain was taut between her teeth and the wall and locked on a steel ring bolt.
Gaines referred Frank's complaint to meston. Meston doesn't think so. But then Dorothy Rubicek helped edit wonder woman, the first female editor of DC Comics Company, and also opposed the torture in wonder woman.
"I certainly don't expect Miss Lubitz to understand all this," meston wrote. "After all, I have devoted my life to formulating psychological principles. Miss R has only been in ics for about six months, hasn't she? But he told Gaines, "The secret of women's charm is that women like to be bound and obeyed. "
Gaines was depressed. Lubitz also studied Superman, and he invented kryptonite. She thinks superheroes should have weaknesses. She told Gaines that she thought wonder woman should be more like Superman, just as Superman can't go back to Krypton, and wonder woman shouldn't go back to Paradise Island, where the weirdest things often happen. Gaines then sent Lubitz to Bellevue Hospital to interview Bender. In a memo to Gaines, Lubitz reported that Bender "does not believe that magical women tend to be abused or abused." She also likes the way meston plays with feminism. Rubicek reported: "She thinks that Dr. maston handled what she called the whole experiment very wisely. She thinks that maybe he is asking the public about the real interests in the world (which she thinks may be the direct cause of the current conflict), that is to say, the difference between the two sexes is not a gender issue, nor a struggle for superiority, but a relationship between one gender and another. To sum up, it is: "Dr. Bender thinks this article should be ignored. "
Gaines breathed a sigh of relief, at least until September 1943, when he received a letter from john D Jacobs, the sergeant of the 29th1Infantry Regiment of the US Army stationed in Fort leonard wood, Missouri. Jacobs wrote: "I am a strange, perhaps unfortunate person." When I think of a beautiful girl, I have an extreme desire. She is wearing a chain, a chain, a mask, high heels, or boots with shoelaces. In fact, any kind of bondage or tension. " . He wants to know whether the author of wonder woman himself owns any items described in the story, such as "leather mask", or a wide iron collar from * * *, or handcuffs on Greek ankles? Or are you just dreaming about these things?
(For the record, Bourne maston, an 83-year-old retired obstetrician, is the son of meston and Oliver Bourne. He thinks that when meston talks about the importance of obedience, he only means metaphor. "I've never seen anything like it in our family," he told me. "He didn't tie the ladies to the bed. Gaines handed Jacobs' letter to meston, which said, "This is one of the things I have always been afraid of." Something must be done. Therefore, he attached a memo written by Rubicek for maston's use, which contained a "list of methods that can be used to restrict or close women without using chains". As I told you at last week's meeting, each project can be different in many ways, reducing the chain usage by at least 50% to 75% without affecting the sales of wonderful stories or books at all.
Meston immediately wrote back to Gaines.
"I have a good staff sergeant letter, in which he expressed his enthusiasm for women's chains, so what? He said that as a practicing clinical psychologist, he was not interested in it. He promised: "One day, I will list all the things about women for you. People know that different people are full of feelings about women's hair, boots, belts, silk, gloves, stockings, garters, * * * and bare back. "."In any form of novel, you can't have a real female role without arousing many readers' sexual fantasies. Very well, I said, "
Meston is sure that he knows what line can't be crossed. He said harmless sexual fantasies were terrible. He finally added: "This is where you must pay attention to those bad, harmful, destructive, pathological sexual stares, real sadism, killing, bleeding, torturing victims and so on." These are all 100% bad, and I won't have any parts. "1944, Gaines and meston signed an agreement to let wonder woman produce a newspaper serial composed of close-ups of the king. Busy with newspaper clippings, meston hired a student, Joey hummel, who is 18 years old, to help him write ic scripts. Joey hummel, now Joey Kelly, turned 90 in April this year; In June, she donated scripts and ic books that she had never seen before to the Smithsonian Library. Hiring her will also help solve meston's editorial problems. Her story is purer than his. She told me that she would type them out and give them to Sheldon Meyer, editor of maston magazine in Washington. He always finds me faster because I don't make my work so sexy. To celebrate the Union, Gaines asked his artists to draw a group. In this group, Superman and Batman appeared on the front page of a daily newspaper and shouted at wonder woman. Who will jump to this page? " Wow, wonder woman!
Gaines has another advantage. He asked Loretta Bender to replace Frank as a member of the editorial advisory board. In the close-up of an advertising king,
I went to persuade the newspaper to buy this series, pointing out that wonder woman already has "10 million loyal fans" and that "her name is written with rope", which hides this controversy.
It is one of the reasons for all these chains and ropes, which is related to the history of fighting for women's rights. Because meston kept his true relationship with Oliver Bourne a secret, he also kept his family's relationship with margaret Sanger a secret. Meston, Bourne and holloway, and even the artist Harry G Peter, who painted Wonder Woman, were strongly influenced by the right to vote, feminism and birth control movement. And every such movement takes the chain as the center of the portrait.
19 1 1 year, when meston was a freshman at Harvard University, emmeline pankhurst, a British feminist who once locked herself at the gate of Downing Street 10, came to the campus to give a speech. When Sanger was accused of indecency for explaining birth control in a magazine called Women, there was nothing cruel in the book: "All scenes of horror, bloodshed, bloody or terrible crime, degeneration, * * *, sadism and masochism are not allowed." This is not surprising: "illegal sexual relations can neither be implied nor described." Violent love scenes and sexual perversion are unacceptable. 1936, Oliver Bourne wrote in her Secret Diary: "The value of family and the sanctity of marriage should be emphasized in treating love stories. "
"The anniversary, we completely forgot." . In the years when she lived with meston and holloway, she wore a pair of bracelets instead of a wedding ring. Wonder woman was wearing the same handcuffs. Bowen died on 1990 at the age of 86. She and holloway have been living in an apartment in Tampa. When Bourne was dying in the hospital, holloway fell and broke his hip. She was admitted to the same hospital. They are in different rooms. They lived together for 64 years. When holloway learned of Bourne's death from her hospital bed, she sang a poem by Tennyson: "Sunset and evening star,/Clear call! I hope there is no noise in the bar when I go out to sea. No newspaper published obituaries. Elizabeth holloway meston died in 1993. * * * Publish an obituary. Its title is "Elizabeth H. meston, the inspiration of miracle women, 100. "This is only half the truth at best.