Nerdy Fact #1434: Wonder Woman was originally based on two women: the wife of creator William Marston and one of his former students that both he and his wife had sexual encounters with.
Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne were among a number of women who contributed to the original Wonder Woman, and they’re fascinating people in their own right.
Elizabeth Holloway Marston was a brilliant woman. She earned three university degrees in psychology and law at a time when few women received any tertiary education. She was a successful career woman who assisted her husband with his work and was frequently the breadwinner of the family.
The main reason she was able to continue working after having children? Olive Byrne, who was not simply a casual “sexual encounter”, but the Marstons’ lover and life partner. To enable Elizabeth to work, Olive stayed at home and raised both her and Elizabeth’s children. She also wrote for Family Circle and contributed to Marston’s research.
Elizabeth is credited with pushing her husband to create a female superhero, and after his death she worked hard to preserve his vision for the character, urging DC to employ her as the comic’s editor (she was ignored).
Wonder Woman’s bracelet’s are Olive’s bracelets: Olive was known for wearing a pair of wide silver bracelets, and Marston had these in mind when he envisioned Diana’s bullet-deflecting accessories.
Marston died in 1947, but Elizabeth and Olive continued to live together until the end of their lives.
Wait. Clarification please. Are you telling me that the creator of Wonder WOMAN WAS IN A POLY-AMOROUS RELATIONSHIP?
Yep! They were in a poly relationship and had four children together, two by Elizabeth and two by Olive.
(And for those who’ve asked about sources, the Marstons’ story is covered in detail in The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore and Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels)
Wonder Woman was inspired and shaped by not only a man who was incredibly progressive and awesome by todays standards let alone the standards of the day he lived in but also by a fierce, intelligent and awesome bisexual woman
This is one of the many reasons why the ways DC has ruined Wonder Woman in their pursuit of making the book as backwards and heteronormative as possible pisses me off…
Not a fierce and intelligent and awesome bisexual woman.
Two fierce and intelligent and awesome bisexual women.
You are correct 😀
Imagine growing up in that house
“Mom wants to see you.”
“Psychology mom or bracelet mom?”
“Bracelet mom.”
According to Lepore, the kids called Elizabeth “Keetie” and Olive “Dotsie”!
That is adorable.
I have reblogged this before and will continue to do it until the day I die. The origin story of WW comics is as fucking great as the character herself.
Fun fact: Olive’s bracelets were a gift from William and Elizabeth, and were basically an alternative to a wedding ring, since she couldn’t legally marry them. Diana’s bracelets, 70+ years later, are a symbol of that relationship.
Another fun fact: There’s a movie coming out about their relationship, starring Luke Evans and Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote that was written AND directed by a woman (Angela Robinson)
i’ve gotten a few responses here asking for some clarification on this paper and why making essentially squishy plants was important enough to make it into the plant science section of nature, one of the most influential journals in the world, and i’d be happy to oblige and break this down a little!!
so to start off, plants have two kinds of membranes around their cells, while animals only have one. one of these is called the ‘plasma membrane’, which is a soft, squishy kind of membrane that we have as animals that just kind of holds everything in. the other kind that only plants have is called a ‘cell wall’, which in plant cells surrounds the plasma membrane to basically hold everything in even more, and is really rigid and hard instead of squishy. the cell wall is made of a strong substance called ‘cellulose’, which you prob have heard of before, which acts as a really strong support structure to hold up the plant and protect the cells. the cell wall has a lot of different functions, but one of the main ones is structural; the pressure between the cell wall and the water inside the plant’s plasma membrane forming ‘turgor pressure’, which keeps the plant upright (when a plant needs water, it’s turgor pressure goes down, and there isn’t enough water in the cells to push against the cell wall to hold it upright. this is what causes wilting!)
now here’s the problem with cellulose: it’s a BITCH to break down. in settings where people are trying to make biofuels and renewable oils from algae and plant materials (and being successful in limited amounts!!), cellulose is the biggest thing keeping the process from higher efficiency, making it harder for those techniques to keep up with fossil fuels. but removing the cell wall altogether wacks out the plant’s turgor pressure, upon which a TON of natural processes and biological functions in plants are based (turns out that maintaining water pressure is really important when you dont have like, blood to keep stuff going!! or a heart to move shit around!!). so we need some kind of hard thing for the plant cells to push against to keep up hydraulic pressure, but it cellulose is too hard for efficient use in sustainable fuels.
which brings us to this study. im sure u can tell where this is going now. basically, these researchers were like, ‘what if we just added a second plasma membrane?? so its like, thicker, but there’s no cellulose???’.
this worked well. like, really well. i have made an annotated version of some of their results:
so in conclusion: this is a really cool paper, and not only did it show that it could be done, but they actually identified a ton of genes and transcription factors that could be modified to make replacement of a plant cell wall possible by other people.
this is a huge generalization, of course- they have way more data in the paper here if y’all wanna see it for themselves– but overall??? this technology could be really big in increasing the viability and efficiency in biofuels and sustainable biochemicals to be used in stuff like cosmetics, fabrics, plastics, etc.
something that was once good for you can be harmful when you’re in another stage of your life and healing process. something that once horrified you might become a lifeline. and what harms you might help someone else. people are—trauma is—individual like that.
and unless you’ve talked with an individual at length, you’re not at all qualified to say that they’re harming themself—and certainly not qualified to quantify any harm done to them by not engaging with what you think is harmful.
this isn’t just about fanfiction. it’s also about drugs. it’s also about cutting. it’s about pretty much anything you can think of, because there isn’t a coping mechanism in the world that can’t be(come) maladaptive, and most “harmful” ones can be extremely constructive in the right circumstances.
before you say shit about how drugs can never be anything but a maladaptive coping mechanism, i’d like you to be very, very aware that i’m talking about that…..as a functional addict.
is shooting up going to do you more harm than not shooting up? in a vacuum, yeah, no shit. but we don’t live in a vacuum, and when the harm done by shooting up exists alongside the harm negated by shooting up—like being able to dissociate the fuck out of your ptsd, or being able to self-medicate for pain you can’t get a prescription for, or god forbid being happy for once in your shitty fucking life—it gets a lot more complicated.
yes, it can do harm. yes, it can be extremely maladaptive. just like pretty much anything. and you don’t know enough about any random stranger’s life, experiences, or needs to say that it’s not the only goddamn thing keeping them alive.
i’m not saying “hey there’s never any harm done by doing drugs or cutting or reading darkfic, so go do all those things right now!” i’m saying there are situations and people for whom one or multiple of those things might be extremely situationally helpful, and that shouting down “that’s a maladaptive coping mechanism and you’re destroying yourself and have to stop” from up on your high horse isn’t constructive and won’t help them.
you want people to have other outlets? build support systems that make other outlets feasible and useful. don’t just….. moralize.
no offens but people being overworked to death in industries like animation and making video games is a huge issue… like holy shit i’d prefer my favorite anime being delayed or a video game’s release being a bit late if it means people don’t suffer under intense conditions and stress
“Crunch culture” is not some immutable fact of those industries. It’s an indictment of the shitty project management skills demonstrated by those in charge. “Crunch culture” means you, as a manager, done fucked up and shouldn’t be in charge of a bowl of ornamental fruit, much less other human beings doing work on things.
hi I’m a therapist some people come to me to break down severe childhood trauma some people come to me because their job is super stressful some people come to me because they’re worried all the time about stuff that they know they shouldn’t be worried about but they worry anyway some people come to me because they’re bad at focusing some people come to me because their mom said they should but they’re enjoying the experience anyway what i’m saying is there is no wrong time, reason, or explanation to come see a therapist. we’re ready for you.
ugh 