Dec. 23rd, 2014

supergee: (coy2)
I am not making this up: Harvard professor William Moulton Marston invented the polygraph in 1916. Some years later he dreamed up Wonder Woman comics. I am making this up: He rubbed his hands together like Lex Luthor or Dr. Sivana and chortled, "If they believed the lie-detecting machine, I should have no trouble selling them on the bullet-catching bracelets."

Dr. Marston created the comic because he was a perv, a bottom who believed that submitting to a strong beautiful woman was not only the most fun ever but also an excellent way to run a nation. He may have done the best job of transmuting nonstandard carnal longings into popular art since that other moonlighting STEM guy Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and really his approach was no more ridiculous than Michel Foucault wanting to reduce all intellectual disagreement to battles for power and dominance because that was what got him hot. The story is told by Jill Lepore in The Secret History of Wonder Woman

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Arthur D. Hlavaty

March 2025

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