Would you believe me if I told you that the original creator of Wonder Woman was polyamorous? And that this Sexy feminist icon was based on the creators two lovers?
American psychologist, feminist theorist, inventor and comic book writer William Moulton Marston (AKA Charles Moulton) originally created wonder woman in 1941 based on his two simultaneous love interests – Masrston’s legal wife Elizabeth and their polyamorous lover, friend, and life partner Olive Byrne, each of whom gave Marston two children!
And what’s even more unbelievable, Marston helped invent the lie detector! Marston’s wife Elizabeth was the one who originally suggested there was a connection between emotion and blood pressure in the 1920s. And together, they researched it in the laboratory and came up with a systolic blood pressure test, which became a key component to the modern polygraph or Lie detector (invented by John Augustus Larson in Berkeley, California.) Many suspect the lie detector is the inspiration for Wonder woman’s “Lasso of Truth.” Marston set out to commercialize the polygraph but got distracted on his comic book writing career.
Elizabeth is also credited for coming up with the idea of a female super heroine. According to a Family Circle, “William Moulton Marston…struck upon an idea for a new kind of superhero, one who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love. ‘Fine,’ said Elizabeth. ‘But make her a woman.’”
His girlfriend Olive was the inspiration for wonder woman’s black hair and blue eyes. He even turned the heavy silver bracelets that Olive always wore on each wrist into bullet deflectors. Olive was one of Marston’s psychology students, and when they fell in love, Elizabeth agreed to have her move in with them. Marston had two children by each women and they all lived together as one big happy family. After Marston’s death in 1947, Elizabeth continued to support Olive until she died in the 1980s. Elizabeth lived to be 100.
Marston believed that women would become more and more dominant in our society, and saw Wonder Woman as a way to get boys used to the idea of strong, dominating women.
“Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world. There isn’t love enough in the male organism to run this planet peacefully. Woman’s body contains twice as many love generating organs and endocrine mechanisms as the male. What woman lacks is the dominance or self assertive power to put over and enforce her love desires. I have given Wonder Woman this dominant force but have kept her loving, tender, maternal and feminine in every other way.”
William Marston also theorized,
“The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound. Only when the control of self by others is more pleasant than the unbound assertion of self in human relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful human society.”
Obviously, Marston’s personal life reflects radical views on love, and his political message comes through a superhero who opposes violence and spreads a message of truth and peace.
