Monday, May 30, 2011

The Amazon in My Office

by Laura Bickle

Wonder Woman oversees my writing.

Okay, slight exaggeration. I’m sure that the *real* Wonder Woman would have much better things to do than watch me stare at the computer screen, shovel cats in and out of my lap, and swill Coca-Cola. I’m sure that she’d have no interest whatsoever in my barely-legible index cards, my swearing, and the crunching noise my broken backspace key makes. She has better things to do than watch me work – things like saving the planet from alien invaders or plagues of mutant robots.

But she still watches me write. Not her, but a sixteen-inch Wonder Woman replica doll, perched on my desk. She’s powerful, fearless of my mistakes and indecision. She doesn’t snicker when I read a run-on sentence aloud. Being plastic, she’s not terribly judgmental.

I've admired her since I was a little girl, when I got my first Wonder Woman doll and pored over her adventures in comics. I admired her - she always made her own way, leaving behind a very nice gig as a princess on Paradise Island to go fight evil in our world. Wonder Woman wasn't a fainting, helpless little fleur in need of perpetual rescue  - she was brave and brilliant, self-reliant and powerful. And beautiful and gentle. She had a career and a secret identity and a love interest she rescued every other week - what more could a girl want to be?

She was intended to be that way, an ideal of what a powerful woman can be. She was created by a psychologist, William Moulton Marston. Marston was also the creator of the lie detector, which flowers nicely into the idea of her lasso of truth. He created Wonder Woman to be a feminist ideal for young girls. And she certainly inspired me.

She still does. When I sit down at the desk, I feel a bit different. Like Diana Prince becoming Wonder Woman, I’m transformed into a writer. It's a subtle change, but I feel as if I'm in command of this little world I'm creating.

I sit and chew on a pen, staring at the Wonder Woman doll, my silent cheering squad. She reminds me to forge ahead, to be powerful. That if the entire word can be saved from hordes of alien invaders by one woman… one woman wearing high-heeled boots, no less… I can put on my own Wonder Woman boots to power through this story.

Resolutely, I put pen to paper.

9 comments:

  1. LOVE this entry. Wonder Woman was my favorite comic book hero as a child. I also watched the tv show. She is/was a great role model for women; she kicked ass and took names. I think I still secretly covet her boots.

    Great post. Happy writing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boots AND the invisible airplane! But most of all, the bullet-deflecting bracelets!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had no idea she was the brain-child of a shrink.

    I do, however, recall chasing the dog around the house in my Wonder Woman underoos.

    ReplyDelete
  4. alwayscoffee, I loved the TV show, too. One of my mother's favorite phrases is still: "It's time to put on your Wonder Woman boots and go kick some ass!"

    Jeffe, I have the boots. Tee hee.

    KAK, I also owned WW underoos. They were the best. Also had Batgirl and Supergirl, but they were not nearly as cool as WW.

    I do 'fess up to owning WW underoos for adults: http://www.webundies.com/womens_underwear_superheroes.html

    Because I REFUSE to grow up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post. I was a Wonder Woman fanatic as a child and yes, I distinctly remember attending my 7th birthday party wearing my Wonder Woman pajamas because I wanted to be her. Of all the characters from television I watched in my youth, Wonder Woman probably shaped me most as a writer because her strength and independence is what I admire and want to see in my heroines.

    *sniff* I wish I had a Wonder Woman doll.

    ReplyDelete
  6. danicaavet, I remember doing much the same thing in my plastic Wonder Woman Halloween costume! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great hero to have at your writing desk, and an inspirational post. Writing takes just as much courage and strength as being superwoman I think, and is just as powerful So go SuperLaura! Write us all into other worlds and adventures. : )

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the cheering, Kerry! But the great thing about writing is that we ALL get to be Wonder Woman! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  9. I also had the Underoos. >_<

    (But didn't every child of the 70's have them? LOL)

    Wonder Woman really was a perfect blend of feminism and cheese. I don't think a show like that could happen today, which is a shame.

    ReplyDelete