Customer Reviews

Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Wonder Women" would have been a very interesting book, had Robinson actually known the superhero comics which she attempts to analyze. Unfortunately, she doesn't -- she claims that a superhero's secret identity is not the superheroic one, but the one in plain clothes with a regular job. No, it's the other way around. She thinks that the Fantastic Four and nearly all other superheroes in the Marvel universe are mutants, when the idea of mutants as a well-defined minority is one of the cornerstones of that world. She claims that DC Comics's landmark crossover Crisis of Infinite Earths established a set of parallel realities in the company's stories, when the point of Crisis was to remove those parallel realities. Add to this a very aggressive attitude to just about anyone else who has ever written on the topic (especially Trina Robinson), and a tendency to wax poetic on her own short time as a comic reader in the forties, and it becomes surprising that the book manages to be interesting at times. It does manage that, but it could have been so, so much more.

"Wonder Women" by Lillian S. Robinson is a well-written book that, in the end, serves to alert us to the fact that feminist superheroines remain an almost nonexistent subject matter in the mainstream American comic book world. Stretching personal anecdotes, Greek mythology, and humorous side comments over the thin frame of her subject matter, at times the book strikes the reader as being little more than an exercise in intellectual self-indulgence. In fact, the author concedes that she penned "Wonder Women" in part as a distraction while she was writing a more serious and emotionally demanding piece of scholarship about rape. Nevertheless, I found that the book did succeed at times in providing rare moments of insight into a little-noted corner of the cultural studies world.

It was interesting to learn about the creator of Wonder Woman and his feminist ideals but disheartening to read about the comic's rapid decline in the hands of his successors. But while the feminist movement resulted in the revival of the character in the 1970s, the overall impression one gets is that Wonder Woman and mainstream comics in general remain perpetually stuck many years behind the real world in their depictions of female characters.

On that point, the author might have done well to follow the example set by Sherrie A. Inness (whose study of female action figures is published in the book "Action Chicks") who has found that risk-averse corporate marketing practices and parental anxieties about sex have conspired to make the toy store an overwhelmingly culturally conservative space that responds very slowly to cultural change. Might there be a similar dynamic at work in the comic publishing industry? We don't know, because on the one hand Ms. Robinson's book is conspicuously deficient in its failure to seriously discuss industrial practices and audience discourses; while on the other hand, we are treated to far too many of her cloyingly personal and random thoughts to engage in more meaningful analysis.

Still, "Wonder Women" has many fine moments that make for a worthwhile read. I recommend the book to all readers who may be intrigued by its quirky fusion of comic book culture with feminism.

Rather than being merely celebratory, this book offers a nuanced - yet very accessible - feminist analysis of Wonder Woman. Framed as both a historical and contemporary icon, the Amazon princess represents many of the promises and limitations associated with strong and sexy female bodies in mass culture. Robinson's text demonstrates how Wonder Woman both mirrors and departs from ancient myths featuring powerful amazons and goddesses. The author shows us how such extraordinary female figures continue to haunt contemporary culture in different forms.

This book shows us how an analysis of comic book heroines (Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Invisible Woman, and Elektra, for example) can contribute to ongoing discussions of women's (and girl's) "place" in our society, and is relevant to contemporary gender issues.

This makes Wonder Women not just a fun read, but a smart, witty, lively and engaging MUST-read.

After having read this book, I was struck by the manner in which the material is presented. The author is able to navigate the complexities of cultural critique while writing in an inclusive manner. Those who may not be familiar with either feminism or cultural studies will information that is accessible without being trite. The work is also quite enjoyable; the author has a very gripping style: an acdemic page turner if you will.

This is a provocative, interesting book that will appeal to readers of many stripes, whether they come to it from an interest in comic books, the history of women, or cultural studies.

good thought provoking book. examines pop-culture and influences on past generations. interesting history lesson.

At 150 pages, the book is still about 100 pages too long. One gets the feeling she is jealous of Trina Robbins (The Great Women Superheroes) and wants to write a book on comics just to show that if Trina can she can too. This is evident in that she keeps bringing up the other author to slam her.
Further,the author admits to the weakness of her thesis, in that there are many examples of prefiminist comics and of postfeminist comics but that the transition between the two mindsets is not documented within the comics. So the book documents the endpoints but says nothing about the journey.