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 On
the eve of Hollywood’s silvers creen reprise of Wonder Woman, Lynda
Carter is at home with herself, her family, and her legacy as a lesbian
love object. |
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I spent the summer of 1977
running around my Long Island neighborhood in Wonder Woman Underoos,
ragged towel safety-pinned around my neck, tinfoil-covered bracelets
warding off invisible bullets. Two years earlier, an ingenue named Lynda
Carter had been cast in the role of Wonder Woman, a cartoon superhero
come to life on prime-time TV. I was five years old, and had never
before seen such beauty and power. It altered the course of everything
in my life that followed-including my lesbian identity. |
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More than 20 years later,
the icon of Wonder Woman endures. As hysteria builds around the movie
version of Charlie's Angels, Warner Brothers (along with The Matrix
director Joel Silver) is developing a feature length film based on Diana
Prince's Isis-powered alter ego. Young women today, given role models
like Brandi Chastain, Xena, and even Sporty Spice, still hold up Wonder
Woman as the original female hero. Schoolgirls in St. Louis, ravers in
the District, punks at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival with
too-tight Wonder Woman tees strained across their pierced nipples-all
embrace the allure of Wonder Woman. |
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But what of the woman
behind the superhero? Lynda Carter has a family and a comfortable home
in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The former Miss World USA hasn't
talked for years about her 1970s role, saying, "Everyone's been waiting
for me to hate Wonder Woman, but I don't go around taking Wonder Woman
pictures out; I don't live in the past." But she does not forget. |
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 Girlfriends:
Wonder Woman first caught society's eye as a cartoon crime-fighter in
the WW II era, during which other female icons such as Rosie the Riveter
existed. Do you recall the impact your Wonder Woman had on women during
the 1970s, when they were again re-assessing their roles? |
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Lynda
Carter: I think that the battle for women's rights has been ongoing, and
every decade or generation has their own frustrations and battlesand.
underground. [As for ABC's] creation of Woder Woman, I think they did
want something out there for little girls to believe in, and I do
believe there was an altruistic reason for doing it. It was kind of an
experiment, and my understanding is that the publishers of the comic
books were against it until they realized that it was an untapped
market. |
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Girlfriends:
When you began playing the role of Wonder Woman in 1975, what was the
political climate? I recall reading that there was some initial
apprehension that a woman could not sustain a TV series. |
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Carter:
Absolutely. They had their little graphs and things. But of course, they
polled men. Then Doug Cramer had this idea, and it was a good one. They
did these great big searches [for Diana Prince's character]. He got it
on the air, and they didn't think [I was right] because I had no real
experience. To Doug's credit, he fought for me. He thought I was the one
that could do the role. Once Wonder Woman became successful, there was
the Bionic Woman spin-off, and then after that was Charlie's Angels, and
on and on. |
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Girlfriends: What was the
response at that time from viewers, especially from women and girls? |
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Carter:
Well, the feminists were angry, because here was this "exploitation"once
again. They were not very supportive of me in the role initially. But
then they didn't know anything about me, and they didn't know how the
character was going to be perceived. Once they saw that it was good for
little girls they backed off. |
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Girlfriends:
That's ironic, because on the cover of Ms. magazine's premiere issue in
July 1972 was the cartoon of Wonder Woman. |
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Carter:
That's interesting, because there wasn't a lot of feminist support when
[the show] first came out. And [they weren't reacting to] Lynda Carter;
it was Wonder Woman/Diana Prince. This character is much bigger than I
am, although historically I played her and will always be identified
with her. But I saw all of the potential when I first read the script. I
thought that it could really be something great and that it could really
be something that would help bolster girl power. |
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Girlfriends:
How did the popularity of Wonder Woman as an icon for female empowerment
affect you personally as a woman? |
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Carter:
During the time when I played the role, I lived vicariously through her,
because it was probably the least empowered time of my life. I've never
really put that together before. I was at that time really unhappy and
trapped in a relationship that was not healthy. It was my first
marriage, anc it was a mistake. Doing the show was like a saving grace,
because I was my own person on the set; it was a piece of myself that I
was able to hold on to. It was a scary time too, because everyone wants
a little piece of you. |
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Girlfriends:
Was that a heavy weight, or did it bolster you? |
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Carter:
Of course it was. I think that any newly famous person should have to go
into therapy immediately. (Laughs) But every time a woman succeeds, it
paves the way for another woman. |
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Girlfriends:
Although the icon of Wonder Woman has always been popular, it seems like
there has been a resurgence of popularity, especially among young women
of today. |
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Carter:
I am thrilled by that. It makes some of the painful stereotyping of me
by the industry worth it. I think Wonder Woman has that lasting effect
because of the fantasy, that vicarious thrill of seeing a girl deck some
guy, the idea of girl powerbeing smart, and funny, and free. It's also
the idea of not being full of yourself while doing it, not being the
female equivalent of a macho man, but being just a regular person. |
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Girlfriends:
Few can deny that the icon of Wonder Woman paved the way for
contemporary superheroines such as Xena. Do you take pride in being a
progenitor? |
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Carter:
I like women. I have the most amazing woman friends. And it seems to me
that there are so many great women in comparison to great men-and I do
know some really great men, my husband being one of them. But in general
I think that women are just amazing creatures and raising one is
fascinating-ultimately, exhilarating. My daughter fascinates me. Just
watching her wheels turn in a different set of circumstances than I grew
up in, growing up in the fifties and sixties, you know, that whole
thing.... |
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Girlfriends: The lesbian
community in particular has embraced the icon of Wonder Woman as a
powerful, independent woman from an island of Amazonian sisters. Do you
recall any backlash from that? |
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Carter:
Like with Xena? No, there was nothing like that, at least that I was
aware of. And if there had been, I would have told them all to go shove
it anyway. I think it's great! |
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I get really angry about
homophobia. I get really, really angry. Friends of mine, famous athletes
don't have one single big company supporting them now they've come out.
I've known Martina Navratilova for a long time, and she came out, and
got no endorsers-none. Any openly gay woman, it seems to me, cannot get
any endorsers. What does that have to do with anything? Except the
religious Right and their judgment. |
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All the bad things I've been through in my life, every painful moment,
have allowed me to be less judgmental of other people. Because I know
how tender my heart is, I know how valuable I am, and I do believe I
know the secret to life. |
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Girlfriends:
Do you want to let me in on that? |
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Carter:
It's giving. That feeling that you have inside when you have given to
someone, that's God. And that's really what Wonder Woman did. I think
that's the universal note she struck: she went around saving people,
helping people, and she would kind of hide it and not make a big do
about it. That's why I liked her: she wasn't sayin "Look at me, I'm
great, look at what I can do." |
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The other thing about her
was that she also he this baggage. For Diana Prince, Wonder Woman was
her baggage, because she couldn't just be he self. She couldn't have
both of her selves seen and loved. Why is it that something as silly as
a cartoon character does that? People don't have that kind emotional
attachment to The Rugrats. |
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Girlfriends:
But it went against the grain. Wond Woman wasn't just another Batman,
Spiderman or Green Lantern. Wonder Woman was the fir actual female role
model, something that brol the mold, that said to women, "You don't have
be the damsel in distress." |
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Carter:
And she made people tell the truth. In re rospect, believe me, the
writers and the produce had none of this in mind when. they were writir
and producing. They had the formula down: four little acts, three Wonder
Woman changes p episode. I didn't know enough, and I didn't have enough
clout.... I could only endow her with as much humanity as I could.
That's what I worked on every day on the set. And that's why I liked do
my own stunts. They were a blast. |
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Boys thought of her differently, I think. I was the first fantasy for a
lot of young boys.... |
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Girlfriends:
Maybe it was the metal bra. |
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Carter:
But also, these little boys got to see woman kick ... you know what.
Wonder Woman had a great body and she was pretty, but that's ok can take
that, too. |
