Um Diana...I don't quite think that's what you should be thinking about....

[wonderwomanhero]

Ah, the Silver Age! I bring you a gem from it. So, Wondy is just returning to Paradise Island with Steve Trevor. And then...this happens.


Buttons huh...She's avoiding lightning and thinking about buttons? Strange combination, ah well. Oh Silver Age, you never cease to make me laugh. You are my cocaine...
Also, I have a question. I really want to buy the Dark Avengers Uncanny X Men Utopia tpb, but I am confused by something. Wiki says it collects a different amount of content in the hardcover version than it does in the softcover? Is this true? Amazon says differently though. I am very confused.

 character: diana/wonder woman,  wtf: sexism, wtf: crack

Comments

[rordulum]

It's almost as if the writer has heard of these strange creatures known as 'women', and the outlandish tales told about them, but never actually met one.

[joasakura]

I've heard tell they get all crazy like over something called a "Vacuum Cleaner"!

[nothingbutcake]

[nothingbutcake]

Um, I guess the embedding did not work: http://www.youtube.com/v/kv6jqiAlW6E

[jelly_ace]

First post here? Maybe you could put the issue where the panel came from, and it'll really help the mods if your recommended tags follow the community's format for tags. :)

[wonderwomanhero]

Oh, no actually. I've been here quite a while...my posts are usually know for their um...how do I put it....um....

[crabby_lioness]

WTFery?

[wonderwomanhero]

a winner is you

[crinos]

Maybe its like Zen meditation; by focusing on girly stuff like a mans buttons, Diana goes on auto pilot and can accomplish amazing feats on instinct alone.

[pallas_athena]

Appropriate sound effect is appropriate.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

If I think really hard, I can see how that sort of makes sense. I guess being a super hero and all, she sometimes does daydream about having a peaceful domestic life. I don't think she had ever mentioned it before, but moving on. If she does daydream about that kind of life, it does make sense that Steve Trevor would be part of those daydreams since she was in love with him at the time, though I think it was more like she was in love with the Steve she met in the 40s and never noticed that he turned into a real jerk after the war ended.

But if I think about it a little more, all of that falls down. Why sewing buttons? That seems like a very random thing to daydream about. Was there a loose button on his uniform that had been bothering her for 20 years or something? And what kind of nursing training involves sewing? Surgery training, sure, but nursing?

And if I think about it some more. I realize that if she's putting her plane together with the pressure of her fingers, she's not actually sewing, she's welding.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I think it's more that she's daydreamed about being Steve's WIFE, with all the fiddly little domestic chores that such a position was automatically assumed to entail back in those pre-feminist days (though being an Amazon, of course, she should know better. Marston would never have put up with such a thing). She's probably daydreamed just as much about cooking him the perfect casserole and making sure his clothes are properly ironed and getting the floors of his house all twinkly-clean. A Stepford Amazon, that's her.

[bradhanon]

To be fair, when one loves someone, it's often a very good feeling to have a sense of taking care of them in some way. Looking after their needs, making sure they're okay. It's a feeling I've enjoyed myself on many occasions.

Of course, this issue's from the time when the post-war Cult of Normalcy was enforcing rules for what ANY women were allowed to want to feel, so an otherwise cute impulse is rendered creepy by context and being totally out of character.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, hey, I'm not saying there isn't a positive side to the whole thing - there's definitely a satisfying element to doing nice things for the person you love. It's just that I have a very difficult time imagining Wondy as a housewife - it's certainly about as far away from Marston's original concept as it's possible to get. Sure, Golden Age Diana loved Steve, but the whole theme of the series was 'women kick ass' - well, that and the whole 'loving submission' thing, but it was specifically 'men submitting lovingly to women', not the other way 'round (or women submitting to women, sometimes, but NEVER 'women submitting to men'). If Wondy and Steve ever HAD gotten married, I imagine their happy home would have been a bizarre cross between wholesome apple-pieness and a bondage dungeon. 'Yes, dear, I'm making your favorite meatloaf for dinner, the one with the onions and carrots, and here's your pipe and slippers while you wait - but first you must submit. Are you ready to submit, dear? Oh, good! Here's the chains.'

[bradhanon]

Exactly. That's what I meant when I said that her comment was out of character: domestic isn't really Diana's style. I'm not knocking domesticity in general, but it's not really how she rolls.

Though damn, now I'm hungry for meatloaf.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Submission first, meatloaf afterwards. Then dessert.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's completely out of character. Marston's Diana and Steve both had their contradictions. Steve was a submissive alpha male, and Diana had a girlish side that probably would have liked being a traditional wife once in a while.

There was her inner monologue when Steve got super strength about how it was kind of thrilling to have him take charge, but it was more fun to be the one in charge. In their apple pie bondage marriage, I'm guessing that, once or twice a month, she'd tell him "I've been a bad girl, putting you in chains all this time. You should give me a spanking."

Steve: "Whatever. As long as there's meatloaf."

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm getting the feeling that, if you weren't into bondage yourself, this would be an exceedingly risky household to be invited to for dinner...

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

In a way, being a housewife would fit in. I got the idea that part of Marston's idea of submission was the mistress taking care of the submissive. (It was also "men submitting to women who love them." His phrase was "submission to loving authority."), so there might be some "I'll keep you tied up here while I do the dishes the way they're supposed to be done."

And Golden Age Steve would have answered "Sure, Angel, you always know best. I'm so lucky to have you."

Silver Age Steve, however, strikes me as a compulsive cleaner, so he would have answered "Do them the right way? I just spent half an hour cleaning those dishes until they were absolutely spotless. And I have no loose buttons. I tighten them up every night just to make sure."

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, his philosophy was certainly a good deal more complex than the usual 'I am your mistress, now lick my feet' sort of thing that comes up nowadays. 'Loving authority' gives the whole thing a much more benign sort of air - you weren't being tied up because you were getting your rocks off by being called inferior scum, you were tied up because it was for your own good, and you'd be a better person afterwards. It's a bit difficult to tie down just what, precisely, its parameters were, though, as Marston often seemed to imply that getting tied up was the answer to practically EVERYTHING, up to and including major crises. The Cheetah's robbing the First National Bank? Getting tied up will do the trick. An army of aliens riding on technicolor zebras that spit death-rays? Getting tied up with chains. The moon is about to smack into the earth, intelligent ears of corn are attacking, the Kangas have the gout? Oooh, this may require a BALL-Gag!