Polyamory – The state or practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time.
I grew up watching and loving the television show, Wonder Woman. You couldn’t tell me, actress Lynda Carter wasn’t a true super-SHEro. I used to stand in the middle of my bedroom and spin around wishing to turn into such a strong, fighting-for-good, white woman in a red and blue bathing suit. 😀 My favorite weapon was the lasso-of-truth. I would wish for any belt in my hand to be that lasso. I also had many fantasies of running, no, flying away from home in my invisible jet to another state, just to get away. At such a young age, all I knew was California, Arkansas, and Texas. That was enough for my mind to dream the running, no, flying away dream whenever my older sister would upset me.
I was never into comic books. I didn’t even know Wonder Woman was a comic book until many years into my teenage life. Superman, Batman, etc., I had no idea these superheroes were written publications first. I thought they were all cartoons and cheesy television shows. My bad! Fast forward to the movie era of today. I love the movie versions of these same superheroes. To learn that Professor Marston and the Wonder Women was supposedly the story behind the creation of Wonder Woman, I was excited, to say the least.
Today, I saw the first showing of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women at 2:20 p.m. Hated that the first showing wasn’t during matinee times. I love matinee’s first showings because I’m in and out with cheaper priced tickets and less to no concession stand lines. However, boohoo AMC today for their 2:20 p.m. showing. End rant!
SPOILER ALERT – stop reading if you don’t wanna know. You’ve been warned!
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women didn’t truly delve into the creation of Wonder Woman as I expected. Again, as I, expected. It’s a love story. This movie depicts the love between Prof. Marston, his wife, Elizabeth, and their lover, Olive. Yes, their lover.
According to this movie, Wonder Woman is the perfect mix of Elizabeth and Olive. There is a part in the movie where Prof. Marston tells Elizabeth the reasons why he loves Olive and then the reasons why he loves Elizabeth. These reasons, according to him, “make the perfect woman.” He used these same attributes if you will, to form Wonder Woman. Even her look is a combination of both women: curly hair and bracelets from Olive, black hair, and physique from Elizabeth, facial features from both women, lips from Olive, eyes from Elizabeth, oh, the list goes on.
As much as the movie talks about the creation of Wonder Woman in a reversed timeline sort of fashion, there is more about their relationship and society’s disagreement with both the comic book and their love. To me, it wasn’t a 50/50 display. I’d say it was 70/30 with 30% being about Wonder Woman. This movie is definitely one for the liberal and not the conservative. Also, for the hopeless romantics that believe “Love wins,” regardless of societal circumstances.
What I loved about this movie was how deep they went into sadomasochism, polyamory, lesbianism, and bisexuality of women. If this movie has any truth to it, it showed how these no-no’s of society were quite prevalent in the 1940s. It wasn’t a 1960s or 1970s splash onto the scene of life. While watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think of The Kinsey Reports and Masters and Johnson’s work regarding human sexuality. This movie explores a lot of what Dr. Kinsey and Masters and Johnson worked towards revealing and wanting society to understand.
What’s true from this movie is that Prof. Marston had four children, two by each woman. So he definitely had a relationship with both women and they accepted such a lifestyle. The argument is if the two women had their own intimate relationship. While this movie strongly suggests they had, it is vaguely documented and somewhat left to personal interpretation. Angela Robinson, the writer and director behind Prof. Marston and the Wonder Women truly believes the relationship was polyamorous and the women were bisexual. She defends her interpretation as well as discusses her research in this article she wrote for the Hollywood Reporter.
While Robinson stands by her creativeness, Prof. Marston & Elizabeth’s granddaughter refuses to see the movie because of the polyamorous lifestyle, as explained in her article written for the Hollywood Reporter. Christie Marston denies her grandmother Elizabeth having a sexual relationship with her grandfather’s lover. Yet, she doesn’t deny Olive being her grandfather’s lover. She defends Olive’s existence in their life after Marston died saying, “After the kids were out of the house, the two women chose to share a household. They were best friends, so close as to be sisters.”
My thoughts …
After reading articles surrounding this movie like this one and a few others, I’ve come to what may not be fact, but is my interpretation: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women depicts a loving relationship as best it could be based on the information out there. Because their lifestyle was SO TABOO, they decided to secretly live their way. There is one scene in the movie when Elizabeth says that they must, “come up with a lie and never ever tell the truth.” I think that’s exactly what happened!
No one seemed to have a problem with Marston having, no, living with two women. Oh, but the two women loving Marston AND each other, well there’s a HUGE ISSUE there! Why? Why is ok for this man to have two women, loving two women, living with two women, sexing two women, fathering two children each by the two women and the two women can’t love each other? Why? Why is one wrong and one if not right, accepted?
“If Olive and Elizabeth weren’t lovers, the Wonder Woman comics turn into some weird stifled fantasy, a vision of eroticized lesbian love which existed only in Marston’s fantasies. But it seems much clearer that the early comics’ playful eroticism was meant as a love letter to the woman Marston cared about. It was an effort to imagine, and to bring about, a world in which they wouldn’t have to hide.” – Noah Berlatsky, The Verge.
Professor Marston died in 1947. The two women remained “together” until death did they part.
Writing Waves 