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Gender Performativity In The Wonder Woman Series

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With the implementation of the Comics Code Authority and its domination of the comic field, Marston’s creation that subverted gender norms had become problematic. The Code called for comics to conform to the social conservative ideals currently held in society and the original Wonder Woman flew in the face of that. Though Marston’s widow begged DC Comics to be given the reins of the Wonder Woman series after Marston’s death, the company handed over control of the series to Robert Kanigher, who they knew would conform and adhere to the regulation of the Comics Code Authority. The Code called for an emphasis on “the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage” and Kanigher absolved to honour and submit to the symbolic power of the Code. All gender subversion was wiped out of the series. Wonder Woman conformed and under Kanigher’s run, feminine gender performativity became evident. Lepore best describes it: “In the 1950s, Wonder Woman followed the hundreds of thousands of American women who had worked during the war only to be told, when peace came, that not only was their labour no longer needed, but it threatened the stability of the nation by undermining.” The following sections will examine how Butler’s concept of gender performativity was present in Wonder Woman series under the height of the Comics Code Authority’s power in the comic field.

Before we discussed the data collected from examination of the gendering within the Wonder Woman series in the height of the

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