This week, let's take a look at the cultural impact and uses of Wonder Woman through these resources for further reading.

Comics @ CUNY panel recommended these works:

Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story by Peter Bagge
This comic biography illustrates Sanger's life and times.

NYU Margaret Sangers papers project

Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection by Debora L. Spar
Although this book is not about the character of Wonder Woman at all, it shows how pervasive the idea  of a Wonder Woman is in our society, and how some may perceive what being a "Wonder Woman" means in today's world.

On occasion, Wonder Woman has moonlighted as a nurse. This Smithsonian slideshow shows the evolution of the nurse stereotype.

Letter to Army Nurses from Alice Marble
Alice Marble was a tennis pro who was asked to add a "Wonder Women of History" feature to celebrate the lives of heroic women and explain the importance of women's history. "As you have probably found in your own experience," Marble wrote, "even in this emancipated world, women still have many problems and have not yet reached their fullest growth and development. 'WONDER WOMAN' marks the first time that daring, strength and ingenuity have been featured as womanly qualities. This cannot help but have its lasting effect upon the minds of those who are now boys and girls." (p.222)

Smithsonian's surprising origin story of Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot, former athletic trainer, model and actress has been slated to portray Wonder Woman in three upcoming films: Batman vs. Superman, Justice League and a stand-alone Wonder Woman film. The announcement met with mixed reviews, many which centered around the released photo of the new, darker uniform in the Zach Snyder directed Batman vs. Superman.  Lynda Carter expressed that she hopes the film version of Wonder Woman "has heart." Michelle MacLaren is the director tapped to film Wonder Woman.

Cultural impact of Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman in literature

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines documentary

Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine by Tim Hanley

Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics by Mike Madrid
"Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle ruled the pages of comic books in the 1940s, but many other heroines of the WWII era have been forgotten. Through twenty-eight full reproductions of vintage Golden Age comics, Divas, Dames & Daredevils reintroduces their ingenious abilities to mete out justice to Nazis, aliens, and evildoers of all kinds."

Comics from both Marvel and DC have occasionally lent out their heroes to bring awareness to various issues. In this one, the Amazing Spider-Man fights the villan of misleading sex education for Planned Parenthood, and in this government comic, Superman and Wonder Woman fight together for land mine awareness.