Domestic Goddess

On the eve of Hollywood's silver screen reprise of Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter is at home with herself, her family, and her legacy as a lesbian love object.

Interview by Winnie McCroy

I spent the summer of 1977 running around my Long Island neighborhood in Wonder Woman Underoos, ragged towel safety-pinned around my neck, tinfoil-covered bracelets warding off invisible bullets. Two years earlier, an ingenue named Lynda Carter had been cast in the role of Wonder Woman, a cartoon superhero come to life on prime-time TV. I was five years old, and had never before seen such beauty and power. It altered the course of everything in my life that followed‹including my lesbian identity.

More than 20 years later, the icon of Wonder Woman endures. As hysteria builds around the movie version of Charlie¹s Angels, Warner Brothers (along with The Matrix director Joel Silver) is developing a feature length film based on Diana Prince¹s Isis-powered alter ego. Young women today, given role models like Brandi Chastain, Xena, and even Sporty Spice, still hold up Wonder Woman as the original female hero. Schoolgirls in St. Louis, ravers in the District, punks at the Michigan Womyn¹s Music Festival with too-tight Wonder Woman tees strained across their pierced nipples‹all embrace the allure of Wonder Woman.

But what of the woman behind the superhero? Lynda Carter has a family and a comfortable home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The former Miss World USA hasn¹t talked for years about her 1970s role, saying, ³Everyone¹s been waiting for me to hate Wonder Woman, but I don¹t go around taking Wonder Woman pictures out; I don¹t live in the past.² But she does not forget. Girlfriends: Wonder Woman first caught society¹s eye as a cartoon crime-fighter in the WW II era, during which other female icons such as Rosie the Riveter existed. Do you recall the impact your Wonder Woman had on women during the 1970s, when they were again re-assessing their roles? Lynda Carter: I think that the battle for women¹s rights has been ongoing, and every decade or generation has their own frustrations and battles‹and underground. [As for ABC¹s] creation of Wonder Woman, I think they did want something out there for little girls to believe in, and I do believe there was an altruistic reason for doing it. It was kind of an experiment, and my understanding is that the publishers of the comic books were against it until they realized that it was an untapped market.

Girlfriends: When you began playing the role of Wonder Woman in 1975, what was the political climate? I recall reading that there was some initial apprehension that a woman could not sustain a TV series.

Carter: Absolutely. They had their little graphs and things. But of course, they polled men. Then Doug Cramer had this idea, and it was a good one. They did these great big searches [for Diana Prince¹s character]. He got it on the air, and they didn¹t think [I was right] because I had no real experience. To Doug¹s credit, he fought for me. He thought I was the one that could do the role. Once Wonder Woman became successful, there was the Bionic Woman spin-off, and then after that was Charlie¹s Angels, and on and on.

Girlfriends: What was the response at that time from viewers, especially from women and girls?

Carter: Well, the feminists were angry, because here was this ³exploitation² once again. They were not very supportive of me in the role initially. But then they didn¹t know anything about me, and they didn¹t know how the character was going to be perceived. Once they saw that it was good for little girls they backed off.

Girlfriends: That¹s ironic, because on the cover of Ms. magazine¹s premiere issue in July 1972 was the cartoon of Wonder Woman.

Carter: That¹s interesting, because there wasn¹t a lot of feminist support when [the show] first came out. And [they weren¹t reacting to] Lynda Carter; it was Wonder Woman/Diana Prince. This character is much bigger than I am, although historically I played her and will always be identified with her. But I saw all of the potential when I first read the script. I thought that it could really be something great and that it could really be something that would help bolster girl power.

Girlfriends: How did the popularity of Wonder Woman as an icon for female empowerment affect you personally as a woman?

Carter: During the time when I played the role, I lived vicariously through her, because it was probably the least empowered time of my life. I¹ve never really put that together before. I was at that time really unhappy and trapped in a relationship that was not healthy. It was my first marriage, and it was a mistake. Doing the show was like a saving grace, because I was my own person on the set; it was a piece of myself that I was able to hold on to. It was a scary time too, because everyone wants a little piece of you.

Girlfriends: Was that a heavy weight, or did it bolster you?

Carter: Of course it was. I think that any newly famous person should have to go into therapy immediately. (Laughs) But every time a woman succeeds, it paves the way for another woman.

Girlfriends: Although the icon of Wonder Woman has always been popular, it seems like there has been a resurgence of popularity, especially among young women of today.

Carter: I am thrilled by that. It makes some of the painful stereotyping of me by the industry worth it. I think Wonder Woman has that lasting effect because of the fantasy, that vicarious thrill of seeing a girl deck some guy, the idea of girl power‹being smart, and funny, and free. It¹s also the idea of not being full of yourself while doing it, not being the female equivalent of a macho man, but being just a regular person.

Check out more of Girlfriends interview with Lynda Carter, in our April 2000 issue on a newsstand near your or order via our