Content Warning: This article discusses mature themes, including adult topics related to sexuality. It is intended for readers 18 years of age and older. Reader discretion is advised.

Wonder Woman is often hailed as the original feminist superhero, a timeless symbol of strength, equality, and female empowerment. But that perception overlooks a more complicated reality. While Diana has undoubtedly grown into a feminist icon, her journey to that status has been anything but straightforward.

There’s no denying that Wonder Woman is one of the most enduring feminist icons in popular culture today. This article doesn’t challenge her current status as a symbol of empowerment, but it does question the assumption that she has always represented feminist ideals.

From her early appearances to decades of shifting interpretations, Wonder Woman’s legacy is far more complex than her modern image suggests. Her origins are deeply entangled with themes of submission and control, elements that complicate her alignment with genuine female empowerment. Many of these contradictions can be traced back to her creator, William Moulton Marston, whose controversial views on gender, authority, and sexuality heavily influenced her earliest stories.

Wonder Woman’s Origins Aren’t As Feminist As Many Fans Believe

Marston’s Early Vision Blended Empowerment With Controversial Themes

Some readers may be surprised by the suggestion that Wonder Woman hasn't always been an ironclad symbol of female empowerment, as that role has defined her public image for decades. However, a closer look at her origins and early stories reveals elements that complicate the feminist narrative now closely associated with her. For example, Universitas Dian Nuswantoro’s senior lecturer, Daniar Wikan Setyanto, points out in “Reading the Message of Feminism in Wonder Woman Film” (2019) that William Moulton Marston Suprema, where he also drew inspiration from his personal interests, including themes of BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, and submission).

The suggestion is not that Wonder Woman was never intended to be empowering, but rather that her early conception, with its ties to sexual themes, presents a more complicated foundation. This does not dismiss Marston’s well-documented intent to create a feminist superhero who embodied love, peace, and female strength in a male-dominated genre. It simply acknowledges that Wonder Woman's early portrayal was shaped by a combination of progressive ideals and personal philosophies, and that her evolution into a widely recognized feminist icon was a gradual process that incorporated some arguably contradictory elements.

Wonder Woman’s Early Stories Were Shaped by Bondage and Submission

Marston’s BDSM Themes Still Echo Through Her Most Iconic Weapons

Critics who examine the tension between Wonder Woman’s roots in BDSM influences and her status as a feminist icon often point out that themes of bondage and submission extended well beyond her initial conception as Suprema. These elements were prominent in her early comic appearances. As comics scholar Tim Hanley notes in the summary for his Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine (2014), Marston “filled [his] comics with titillating bondage imagery,” and Wonder Woman was “tied up as often as she saved the world.” This highlights how BDSM motifs were not just private influences but became part of Wonder Woman’s official narrative.

Further evidence of Marston’s personal interests shaping the character can be seen in some of Wonder Woman’s most iconic tools, which remain central to her mythology today. Her Bracelets of Submission and the Lasso of Truth both reflect elements of BDSM. The bracelets are directly tied to the concept of submission, a core theme in the BDSM acronym. Meanwhile, the Lasso of Truth not only forces honesty but also enforces obedience through physical restraint. These details reinforce the argument that BDSM subtext has been embedded in Wonder Woman’s stories from the beginning and continues to be part of her complex legacy.

Marston Openly Embraced the Sexual Themes Behind Wonder Woman’s Origins

Wonder Woman’s Earliest Values Were Tied to Erotic Philosophy

Some may argue that critics are reading too much into Wonder Woman’s early stories by asg sexual connotations and subtext where none were intended, claiming that Marston never meant for there to be any sexual association. However, this would be incorrect, as Marston was extremely open about the sexual implications behind his creation. In a letter to his friend Maxwell Charles Gaines, Marston stated that the “kinky" nature of his heroine was actually part of her value as a positive role model: “This, my dear friend, is the one truly great contribution of my Wonder Woman strip to moral education of the young. The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound.”

Marston elaborated further in the same letter: “Only when the control of self by others is more pleasant than the unbound assertion of self in human relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful human society. Giving to others, being controlled by them, submitting to other people cannot possibly be enjoyable without a strong erotic element.” This demonstrates that Marston was fully aware of the implications when he gave Wonder Woman her Bracelets of Submission, Lasso of Truth, and depicted her binding, or being bound by, others. The question, then, is not whether BDSM influenced Wonder Woman’s early portrayal, but whether that influence complicates or contradicts her message of female empowerment.

Wonder Woman’s Origins Raise Complex Questions About Feminism and Fantasy

Can a Hero Built on Submission Still Represent Empowerment?

To be clear, the purpose of pointing all of this out is not to demonize BDSM or suggest that it cannot coexist with healthy feminist practices; it absolutely can. Rather, the point is to question whether a feminist icon whose foundational stories include BDSM subtext tied to themes of submission and control risks undermining her empowerment message by framing female strength through the lens of male fantasy rather than genuine agency. This is a question whose answer will vary from person to person and is ultimately meant to be thought-provoking. It is also important to emphasize that Marston created Wonder Woman with the explicit goal of crafting a feminist superhero.

Regardless of the BDSM elements, Marston’s primary intention was to give girls a role model who solved problems through love, comion, and truth rather than brute force. As he himself explained, “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power... The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” So, whether one agrees or disagrees that grounding a feminist icon in BDSM themes was the right approach, there is no denying Marston’s original intent, or that the Wonder Woman of today stands as a widely recognized feminist symbol.

Source: Reading the Message of Feminism in Wonder Woman Film, Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine (2014), BBC