Marston today: feminism, progressiveness, and values

[kjn]

A discussion over on the DC comics subforum lead to the following exchange about Marston, and I thought it would be better to continue it here:

It'd still be progressive by the standards of today, dude. Marston was for full blown equality and the uprising of women, which we still aren't at today.

He was also in a poly relationship with his wife and girlfriend and heavily into S&M before S&M was even a thing, I think (Im not really up on my weird fetish history).

Dude was way ahead of the social-sexual curve, so much so that he's still ahead of it today.

A lot of his ideas still hold up well:
- Mother figure is the main paternal figure of the narrative, not the father. DC still cannot wrap their heads around this consistently.
- Diana got her powers through Amazon training, she became one of the most powerful individuals on the planet due to her own efforts and not through handouts from the goddesses or (worse) due to a lineage with Zeus. it fits in with Marston's "any woman can be a Wonder Woman" philosophy, and the other Amazons were all varying degrees of super powered in ways subsequent versions weren't.
- Etta Candy, while the punchline of several fat jokes, was also a totally confident plus sized woman who was comfortable in her own skin, brave, loyal and totally boy crazy with her own collection of suitors. She wasn't even drawn to be grotesque the way you'd think a so called caricature would be, she was what TV tropes would describe as a Big Beautiful Woman. It's a shame the only takes than both modernize her and truly capture the appealing essence of the character are Elseworlds and not any of the modern canon versions, most of whom are Etta In Name Only.
- Communities of women empowering and aiding each other: the Amazons and the Holliday Girls
- Diana was clearly meant to be bi-sexual even though he couldn't say it, and DC didn't manage to confirm it until 2016.
- The Cheetah as a metaphor for the way society pits women against each other over petty things like beauty, wealth and fame, and Diana doesn't engage Priscilla on that level but instead tried to help her.
- Subverting the Amazon myth is one of the big ones, as is choosing Aphrodite as the primary patron. The one who was stereotyped as the vain ditzy beauty queen/trophy wife/Olympus "village bycicle", etc. was actually extremely powerful and benevolent while still embodying feminine qualities. Girls are powerful too and don't have to adopt "masculine" qualities to be so. This is lost somewhat by taking focus away from her in later versions.

His most dated ideas are the typical ones seen in that period: the racism and having Diana fall in love at first sight with Steve and having that be her motivation, and both are easy to leave in the past where they belong while retaining the rest of it.

Now, having read Sensation Comics #1–12, and Wonder Woman #1 and #2 as part of the Wonder Woman reread, I feel like I want to put a bit more nuance onto things.

I don't read Marston's feminism about equality per se. Rather, it is patriarchy turned upside down, where women should be the leaders, which also ties into his views on gender essentialism. His public interest in BDSM feels rather modern, but the modern thing is more being (reasonably) public about it, not the actual interest.

I like SiegePerilous02's list, but I think it leaves out a lot. The racism is a big one, but there is also quite a bit of classism and gender essentialism.

The classism is most apparent in Sensation Comics #8. While Diana helps the Bullfinch girls to organise, what the story spends the most time and effort on is Diana's attempt to better Gloria Bullfinch and make her more moral and benevolent. To Marston, I believe Gloria Bullfinch had already proved her superior ability to lead, she only needed to learn how to lead with love. Questions about leadership among the employees or how Gloria Bullfinch came to her position are left aside.

Meanwhile, the gender essentialism permeates everything. Diana envies the life of Diana White as a wife and mother, while Mrs White is stuck with a proven abusive husband. The Holliday girls are selected based on being the "prettiest and strongest". There are frequent references to Diana acting as a "woman" when she checks out fashion, her "female vanity" prevents her from damaging her eye lashes, and so on. Now, I have nothing against Diana having an interest in clothes or fashion, it is the framing of that interest that makes it a problem.

In a way, a lot of what makes Marston appear progressive in SiegePerilous02's list is due to the gender essentialism, which today reads as a rather dated construct.

The trans narrative is also worth a few words. To be fair, this is something where the real discussion came far after Marston, so I'd be careful reading too much into it. So far, Wonder Woman has encountered two cross-dressing villains: Doctor Poison (Princess Maru) and Agent X (Colonel Togo Ku). Their presentation is not too bad (as far as I can tell), but both are villains and both are Japanese, who are the main target of prejudice and racism in early Wonder Woman.