Lady Business

"It seems like there are two ideas here: Marston, Holloway and Byrne and their biographies and histories, and the actual cultural and feminist relevance of the character herself. And this book focuses on the first, which is fine, but is pretending to have something to say about the second, which is a stretch?"

Yes, this sums it up perfectly. And we didn't misunderstand the thesis, I don't think - it's more that the execution is itself very confused. I didn't actually know there had been other books about Marston recently, but my gut reaction is to find it tiresome too. I'm sorry to say that there's a fair share of digging into his psyche here too, and those were the chapters I found the least interesting.

I did get the impression that Wonder Woman was being used at least semi-metaphorically, though I wondered if it was my lack of knowledge of the character that was keeping her from coming alive for me. Lepore does make references to concrete stories, which would have meant more to me if I was familiar with the source material. But still, it was disappointing to finish a book about the history of Wonder Woman without getting a better feel for Diana herself, you know?

Also, yes, very much this: "I'm pretty sure the creation of Wonder Woman is actually proof that the feminist movement in 1940 was *already* troubled and complex" The book acknowledges these contradictions to an extent, but I wanted it to deal with them at more length. There's a whole chapter about Marston's idea of loving submission and "benevolent authority" (eek) and how a contemporary of his was like, "Dude, you know that's the kind of rhetoric people use to justify fascism, right?", but then it just... ends, and it all felt rather cursory to me.

Lastly, reactions welcome even if you haven't read it! You have context that I lack and I appreciate your thoughts :D