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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 20 OctOber 2017
In year of Wonder Woman, the

remarkable tale of her creation

By JAKE COYLE ality, and his studies later fil- and articles ran nationwide
AP Film Writer tered into Wonder Woman. reporting: "Feminine rule
NEW YORK (AP) — Super- He brought bondage im- declared fact."
man and Batman were agery to the early comics, Robinson initially had mixed
born, like brothers, in 1938 for one. Wonder Woman's feelings about some of
and 1939, respectively. But lasso, which forces people Marston's teachings but
psychology professor Wil- to tell the truth, was a ver- she's "come to love him,"
liam Moulton Marston had sion of the lie-detector test she says. What most won
grander and more progres- Marston helped invent. her over was Marston's 1928
This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Rebecca
Hall as Elizabeth Marston, from left, Luke Evans as Dr. William sive aspirations for his com- When Robinson ("D.E.B.S." book "Emotions of Normal
Marston and Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne in "Professor Mar- ic creation. ''Herbie: Fully Loaded," ''The People." Published while he
ston and the Wonder Women." "Frankly, Wonder Woman L Word") came across the was teaching at Columbia
Associated Press is psychological propa- back-story to the sole su- (and before disapproval
ganda for the new type of perhero to ever capture of his family's arrangement
woman who should, I be- her heart, she was floored. would damage his career),
lieve, rule the world," Mar- "It just blew my mind. I lit- Marston argued that what
ston said around the char- erally couldn't believe the many consider "abnormal"
acter's launch in 1941. story," says Robinson. "I be- in relationships and sex is
The female-empowerment came totally obsessed." quite natural.
ideals Marston intended Since Robinson first en- "I as a filmmaker came to a
Wonder Woman to es- countered the Marstons, conclusion that this movie
pouse have perhaps — as their story has been nota- does, which is that he was
plenty of recent events in bly recounted by author Jill on to a lot of stuff, and the
Hollywood and elsewhere Lepore in "The Secret Histo- core of his message was
have attested — not ad- ry of Wonder Woman." But about love and being true
vanced as much as he and the tale has, Robinson says, to who you are," says Rob-
his feminist wife and col- been a passion project for inson. "The first line of 'Emo-
league Elizabeth Holloway a decade — long before tions of Normal People' is:
would have hoped. But 76 a "Wonder Woman" movie 'Are you normal?' And that
years later, worldwide do- was a reality. just slayed me. He himself
minion has indeed arrived Hall was brought to Rob- was grappling with what
for Wonder Woman. inson's project initially af- that means."
Just months after Patty ter she, herself, sought the Audiences didn't initially
Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" rights to Lepore's book. respond to the much low-
became a worldwide box- Robinson's desire to make er budgeted, more lightly
office smash — making the film, Hall says, was over- marketed "Professor Mar-
Jenkins the first female film- whelming. ston and the Wonder Wom-
maker to helm such a mas- "She wanted to make a ro- an" as eagerly on opening
sive blockbuster — the story mance about three people weekend quite like they
behind the lasso-wielding filled with love and hope," did to Jenkins' "Wonder
superhero has also landed says Hall. "It's quite brave to Woman." (The film debuted
on the big screen. try to make in some sense poorly with $737,000 on
Angela Robinson's "Profes- a conventional romance about 1,200 screens.) But its
sor Marston and the Won- where you ask your audi- makers believe strongly in
der Woman," which An- ence to accept that the the relevance of the story
napurna Pictures released romance is legitimately behind the superhero ico-
in theaters last Friday, charts happening between three nography.
an origin story to beat them people — and not only ask "Their story seemed to be so
all: the creation of Wonder them to accept it, but to metaphorically significant
Woman by the free-thinking root for it." to so many other things,
Marston (played by Luke "Professor Marston" was like the history of 20th cen-
Evans) and his unorthodox shot last fall when Hillary tury feminism, the chang-
family. Marston lived with Clinton was presumed by ing ways we look at con-
both Holloway (Rebecca many to be on the cusp ventional relationships and
Hall) and Olive Byrne (Bella of the presidency. Robin- family values," says Hall.
Heathcote), a researcher son initially worried that the "There's just too much in this
who moved in with the film's ideas might be "passe" story."
couple in 1926. They were by the time it came out. Robinson says she was both
a threesome who harmo- "What struck me to begin deeply moved by Jenkins'
niously raised four children with was how contempo- film and saddened that
together. rary a story it is," says Rob- such a film — a big-budget
The Marstons were collec- inson. "The Marstons were release starring a woman,
tively influenced by early ahead of their time and directed by a woman —
feminists and suffragettes. they're still ahead of their remains an overwhelming
(Olive's aunt, Margaret time." rarity. "I feel like not just
Sanger coined the phrase In a 1937 press conference, women but men are really
"birth control" and opened Marston declared that desperate for new ideas,
the first birth-control clinic women would one day rule a new message — not the
in the U.S.) Marston studied the world. The Associated same old thing," says Rob-
gender, behavior and sexu- Press picked up the story, inson. q