Wonder Woman: The Female Body and Popular Culture

(Paperback)

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Description

Wonder Woman was created in the early 1940s as a paragon of female empowerment and beauty and her near eighty-year history has included seismic socio-cultural changes. In this book, Joan Ormrod analyses key moments in the superheroines career and views them through the prism of the female body. This book explores how Wonder Womans body has changed over the years as her mission has shifted from being an ambassador for peace and love to the greatest warrior in the DC transmedia universe, as she's reflected increasing technological sophistication, globalisation and womens changing roles and ambitions. Wonder Womans physical form, Ormrod argues, is both an articulation of female potential and attempts to constrain it. Her body has always been an amalgamation of the feminine ideal in popular culture and wider socio-cultural debate, from Betty Grable to the 1960s mod girl, to the Iron Maiden of the 1980s.

Author Bio

Joan Ormrod is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the editor of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, co-author of Superheroes and Identities (2014) and has an extensive journals publication record.