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Copyright of Mediterranean Journal of Gender & Women's Studies (KTC) / Akdeniz Kadın Çalışmaları ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Dergisi is the property of Mediterranean Journal of Gender & Women's Studies (KTC) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In every era, the Hollywood sex symbol signifies, in addition to the obvious trait of sexuality, a complicated matrix of social ideals, fantasies and prejudices. Central to many of the ideological issues brought to bear through sex symbols are notions of ethnicity and nationality. Actress Gal Gadot, most famous for her role as the modern Wonder Woman, consolidates and embodies specific ideas about gender and sensuality in relation to class and nationhood. Gadot is a version of the 'Continental Exotic', an alluring and dangerously fetishistic woman who reinforces specifically American insecurities when faced with an uncontainable other. The Continental Exotic bridges the gap between Hollywood's tradition of whiteness as a cultural ideal of female beauty and Otherness as the domain of exciting but treacherous sensuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Social Sciences / Roczniki Nauk Społecznych is the property of Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawla II and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Motif Academy Journal of Folklore is the property of Motif Yayincilik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Humanisticos. Filologia is the property of Universidad de Leon, Area de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Girls in Western societies are increasingly exposed to feminist ideas, often led by women celebrities. The current study explores how Israeli girls negotiate feminist concepts such as 'girl power' and 'feminine success' by examining their responses to Wonder Woman – a film that is part of this 'feminist zeitgeist' – and its Israeli actress, Gal Gadot. The paper documents the voices of hegemonic Israeli girls aged 13 to 15 in ten focus groups, and shows that girls take pride in the presence of a strong female character and an Israeli representative in Hollywood. The girls position themselves around a model of success represented by strong global and local feminine images. The global elements reflect neoliberal postfeminist discourse advocating authenticity as the ideal for self-actualisation. The local elements reflect a relational sentiment of loyalty to both the state and the family. We argue that the authenticity myth plays a key role in reinforcing the existing gender order and the conservative definition of good citizenship through the perception of a successful woman. We conclude that the local cultural features and national belonging are meaningful categories for studying girls' encounter with celebrities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most recent release of the film "Wonder Woman" signified a pivotal moment to highlight societal forces of oppression along with distinct launching points to advocate for women. Relational-cultural theory (RCT) is a feminist framework used in counseling and supervision that acknowledges the resilience and empowerment found in authenticity, mutuality, and growth-fostering relationships. Researchers have documented the widespread integration and proliferation of RCT due to its intuitive coherence with professional counseling and advocacy. The film "Wonder Woman" serves as a modern and entertaining platform that illustrates how early connection, societal representations, and growth-fostering relationships can serve as a source of empowerment and advocacy for women, despite superhero powers. Combined with an elaboration of relational-cultural theory (RCT) as the underlying framework, this article addresses three overarching areas: (a) synopsis of "Wonder Woman" and its implications for feminism, women, and advocacy; (b) core tenets of RCT; and (c) practical aspects of using "Wonder Woman" in counselor education, supervision, and counseling practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses actor-network theory (ANT) and Aristotelian virtue ethics to think with/of Wonder Woman as an assemblage of human and non-human actors clustered on a page. It also considers how the emerging assemblage that is Wonder Woman might be viewed as the embodiment of Aristotle's 'complete virtue' or justice. As one of the 'trinity' of Detective Comics (DC) superheros, which also include Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman was created to counter the sadism and tyranny of the Nazi threat during the 1930s and 1940s and has been continually published since 1941. Wonder Woman is a multidimensional icon and an exemplary model of a superhero with a different body and voice, who operates in a different way in the world. She is presented here as a case study to trace possible translations of Aristotle's configurations of virtue and justice. Using ANT, we argue that Wonder Woman arises from an assemblage of actors that include an armoured swimsuit, a magic lasso, shiny bracelets and a star-emblazoned tiara. By problematising these technologies as actors that commonly invite objectification (the swimsuit) or subjugation (the ropes), this paper suggests possible divergent readings that reveal how virtue and justice can emerge within these relational networks. We test how the sexualised body depictions and overt bondage references in the Wonder Woman comics, and in particular, in our chosen story, George Pérez's Wonder Woman: Destiny Calling, offer something bolder and more profound--a complex performance of justice. Additionally, this paper intimates the productive methodological powers of ANT in relation to the broader field of comics studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Investigium IRE: Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Editorial Institucion Universitaria Centros de Estudios Superiores Maria Goretti and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, I look at how comics aimed at young readers can serve to disrupt normative notions, gendered binaries, and fixed designations through featuring, or focusing on, queer girlhoods. In doing so I consider two contemporary series, Ms. Marvel and Lumberjanes. I contextualize these titles against aspects of the publishing of comics, before analyzing some of the narratives and characters in the texts in relation to queer girlhoods. I conclude that the comics offer different approaches and, therefore, differentiated reading experiences for the young readers who engage with them, but that they also form part of a wider grouping of titles that offer diverse images of young people embracing affiliations going beyond family and nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how the choice of actress Gal Gadot to play Wonder Woman negotiates between comic book fans' expectations and society's gender schema. It has taken 75 years for the industry to produce a film adaption of Wonder Woman, perhaps due to the 'problem' of female muscles. This article focuses on the significance of Wonder Woman's muscles using theoretical frames from sports sociology. One frame is edgework, coined by sociologist Stephen Lyng about dangerous activities that amateurs perform. The second frame is the feminist analysis of women's muscles. Women navigate the boundary between what sociologist Shari Dworkin calls 'emphasized femininity' and what is beyond this femininity. The article introduces Wonder Woman's origin, then presents theory of edgework and female muscles, third, it analyzes Wonder Woman as bodywork and edgework, and, finally, discusses Gadot's Wonder Woman body as feminist physique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The superhero genre, as the name implies, is a male-focused genre, whose lone 'redeemer heroes' enact 'rites of order' in which the Other is expelled from contested space and order is restored through externalised action. But William Moulton Marston's specific vision of a feminist 'loving authority,' rooted in feminist utopian novels, created the superheroine, a genre figure incorporating 'rites of integration' in which oppositions are reconciled and otherness is integrated and domesticated. Wonder Woman may not have been the first female superhero, but she was the first superheroine – an alternative to the cowboy-derived superhero that offers a different vision of the genre – and though many depictions of Wonder Woman have not lived up to this vision, Marston provided a model other creators have taken up in figures like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batwoman. The superheroine opens the possibility for an evolution and transformation of the superhero genre and for other genres that convey and perpetuate – and possibly alter – our cultural mythology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay – originally delivered as a more informal talk – explores psychiatrist and comics critic Fredric Wertham's reflections on the character Wonder Woman in both his notable monograph Seduction of the Innocent (1954) and clinical notes. In particular it explores his negative understanding of her sexual expression and the character's potential deleterious influence on the mental hygiene of younger comics readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1987, Wonder Woman was revised as part of an overhaul of the DC Universe, in the Crisis on Infinite Earths story arc. This paper analyses the representation of Diana in George Pérez, Greg Potter and Len Wein's revision of the character, February 1987–December 1991. The writers discarded her Diana Prince secret identity and Steve Trevor as love interest. Influenced by spiritual and feminist discourses of the mid-1970s onwards, he made her into a Goddess-like fantasy figure split into two identities. She is Diana, Princess of Themyscira, a private, spiritual neo-pagan, but she is branded in consumer culture as Wonder Woman, goddess. The discourses constructing Wonder Woman as goddess, however, clashed with feminist and societal discourses circulating in popular culture and politics of late 1980s' America. These discourses aimed at disempowering female autonomy. The clash between these discourses highlighted paradoxes in Wonder Woman as a female icon of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born at the height of World War II, Wonder Woman fought against the axis powers and misogyny! She was (and continues to be) a beacon of female empowerment and queer identities. As her creator William Moulton Marston proclaimed, Wonder Woman is inspiration "for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world." Yet while Wonder Woman has been both a feminist as well as queer icon, inspiring many, she was later--as fate would have it--marketed primarily to young boys in the comics world. A look at Wonder Woman through the ages captures the evolution of her message about gender, war, identity and the many audiences she has in one life inspired, and in another endured. In this essay, I consider the many lives of Wonder Woman both within comics and without. We will herald the new incarnation of Wonder Woman who not only reflects female power, but inspires it in female as well as male readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In honor of the 75th anniversary of the comic book super heroine Wonder Woman in 2016, Kent State University and Cleveland Public Library partnered to celebrate the intersections of public literacy, comics, and feminism in a jointly sponsored symposium with support from the Ohio Humanities Council. The 2016 Wonder Woman Symposium partnered these powerful public institutions in Northeast Ohio, taking up the historical trends that have changed the world of comics, American popular culture, and feminism. Centering on the figure of Wonder Woman and her heirs, this symposium featured addresses by major creators in the industry and historians of the comics world, and workshops by comics creators on creating graphic narratives and comics. This celebration paid respect to "herstory" while recognizing Wonder Woman's perpetual relevance to our present day, and beyond. This article reflects on the 2016 Wonder Woman Symposium, public humanities and the future of comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of sacrificing queerness when adapting comics into films, which cater to wider audiences - specifically, queer elision in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther (2018) and illusions of queerness in Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman (2017) . The difference between elision and illusion is crucial, and so approached using different analytical modes. Black Panther 's analysis is rooted in the production process, exploring how/why queerness is erased by drawing comparisons to the explicit queerness of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxanne Gay's comics. The analysis of Wonder Woman focuses on in-depth textual analysis of both Greg Rucka's comics and Jenkins's film to illustrate how queer illusions functions across media. Despite these films being hailed as progressive, this paper illuminates how motivations to hide queerness when moving to wider audiences are rooted in homophobia and protecting profit margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay serves as a close reading of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's 1950s descriptions and critiques of female comics characters. I draw on archival sources as well as relevant texts in the study of gender and sexuality. Additionally, I integrate ideas from two of his close associates, folklorist Gershon Legman and psychiatrist Hilde Mosse, whose contributions to Seduction of the Innocent are woven—often invisibly—throughout that text. The character of Wonder Woman serves as a touchstone, but other provocative female figures that Wertham found objectionable in mid-twentieth-century comics accompany her. My goal is to illuminate Wertham's understanding of what he viewed as the "regressive formula of perversity" enacted through women's representations in comics, particularly those female characters who played active roles. Although not all of these concerns are tied to lesbian identity, they do all touch on broader notions of queerness vis-à-vis deviant sexual and gender expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the wholesale rewriting of Wonder Woman’s origin story in a run written by Brian Azzarello that started in 2011 and finished in 2014. The new origin story made Diana the daughter of Zeus and did away with her matriarchal birth and lineage that was the cornerstone of the character. The paper argues that Wonder Woman was an explicitly feminist intervention from the beginning and that this piece of retroactive continuity completely undermines the political possibilities of Wonder Woman as a character. It also considers this move in light of the current context in superhero comics in which great advances have been made in the representation of gender and in the employment of women writers and artists. The paper concludes by arguing there is a tragic inevitability to Wonder Woman’s demise in that anything that truly threatens an alternative to patriarchy must in the end be tamed. Finally, the paper makes use of Greg Rucka’sHiketeiato illustrate the problem of Wonder Woman representing an alternative law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fe Journal: Feminist Critique / Fe Dergi: Feminist Elestiri is the property of Ankara University, Women's Studies Center (KASAUM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST) is the property of Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This interview with Trina Robbins explores her roles as a comics creator, historian and activist. It discusses her championship of female creators and readers and her various publications within the fields of feminist and LGBT commix, superheroics, and self-publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Latinoamericana de Geografia e Gênero is the property of Revista Latinoamericana de Geografia e Genero and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Espacio, Tiempo y Forma: Serie V, Historia Contemporánea is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – This article seeks to depict the pivotal role Hugo Munsterberg, the great pioneer in industrial psychology, played in the lives of his students, some of whom were feminists regardless of his own chauvinistic opinions. The article aims to examine the contributions made by Mary Calkins, Ethel Puffer, and William Marston, all former students of Munsterberg, who went on to make valuable contributions in psychology, women's issues, the polygraph, and the creation of the first and most famous comic book super heroine. Design/methodology/approach – Synthesizing articles from history journals, writings about the figures of interest, published works by the figures themselves and other resources, this paper illustrates how Hugo Munsterberg impacted the scholarly careers of Calkins, Puffer, and Marston who all made valuable contributions to academia and popular culture. Findings – This paper concludes that Munsterberg's influence was evident in the works of Calkins, Puffer, and Marston in areas as diverse as the psychology of beauty to the detection of deception. Despite his own chauvinistic views Munsterberg had an amicable and productive relationship with the aforementioned students, which sometimes extended beyond a professional relationship. Consequently, they initiated a research agenda that was greatly influenced by Dr Munsterberg. Originality/value – This article highlights Dr Hugo Munsterberg's influence on Calkins, Puffer, and Marston, who made valuable contributions in women's issues, as well as the development of DISC theory, and the super-heroine Wonder Woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]