500th Wonder Woman of the Week: Olive Byrne

I often use this platform to talk about the real-life women who embody who the fictional Wonder Woman is- woman of strength, compassion, and justice. We've spotlighted women in warfare, politics, theatre and film, fashion, music, and several other fields. To figure out who would be the best spotlight for the 500th Wonder Woman of the Week, I wanted to find someone who not only embodied who Wonder Woman was, but someone who may have actually be the very real Wonder Woman herself. For that- we have to look at the historically obscure but critically important figure- and this week's Wonder Woman- Olive Byrne.

Olive Byrne was born to an Irish-American family that was anything but obscure. Her aunt personally played a handing delivering her- that aunt being Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood). Sanger left a big impression on the young Byrne while the latter was growing up- both for Sanger's views on the importance of sex education and for Sanger's personal racism towards African-Americans and other minorities. (Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in hopes of decreasing birthrates among African-American women in hopes of eventually breeding them out of existence.)

By the time Olive Byrne became a medical student at Tufts University, the freshman quickly tried to shy away from the famous shadow cast upon her as both an advocate for women's rights and as an opponent of her aunt's racist ideologies. Byrne continued her education through to her senior year in which she took a psychology class that would change her life- and history- forever.

Byrne's professor was failing businessman and experimental psychologist William Molten Marston. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he's the man who later invented Wonder Woman. Byrne quickly gained a position as an aid to Molton- especially in his development of his lie detector test (yeah, he's also the guy who invented that). This is where Byrne story takes a proverbial fork in the road of historicity.

That November, Byrne entered into a sexual partnership with her professor and his wife- a relationship that followed an earlier participation in psychological response to the application of power. In other words, there is a case to be made that Byrne may have been the victim of psychological manipulation and coercion by a figure of authority indoctrinated into a cult of personality to her professor and his wife. Byrne would remain in the polygamous relationship for most of the rest of her life- having two children with Marston, but keeping the identity of their father secret from everyone but Marston and his wife (the children themselves wouldn't find out until the 1960's).

During Byrne's time as a sexual partner to Marston and his wife, Byrne helped the struggling psychologist with his writings- including his attempts at entering into the world of comic book composition. Marston wanted to use the real life influence of women working in factories during World War II to develop a female super hero that could sell to the new audience of comic book readers (since most of the men who read comics were fighting overseas) and created Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman from the start was inspired by a combination of Marston's wife and by Olive Byrne. Byrne's work in helping Marston develop his lie detector test inspired him to give the character a "lasso of truth" that would coerce its victims into speaking only the truth, and the massive bracelets Byrne wore in place of wedding rings (to hide her involvement with Marston and his wife from the public) inspired Marston to give Wonder Woman large, bulletproof bracelets.

Even Byrne's iconic short hair inspired the original haircut for the first illustrations of the character. After Marston's death, Byrne continued to live with his wife- who also had one child by the psychologist- until her death in 1990. From one perspective, the compassion-driven Olive Byrne engaged in consensual polygamy with the man who would invent Wonder Woman whose feminist ideologies and activism would lead to the birth of the most iconic feminist character in pop culture. From another, Byrne was the victim of cult indoctrination to a disturbed experimental psychologist.

We may never know which truth applied to Olive Byrne, but her story rings true for countless women throughout history. For all the warrior women we've covered, there's a question to ask about what led them to enter war and apply uncompromising violence against innocent victims. For women in politics, there are countless questions to ask about how the proverbial swamp of politics drives its victims to become corrupted by power. In film, theatre, and television, women often have to subject themselves to degrading acts in order to elevate themselves to a position in which they can inspire new generations of women and girls. In that ambiguity, Byrne may truly be the most true Wonder Woman.