I’m glad that this 1972 Wonder Woman cover (conical hat tip to Comics Should Be Good) is labeled “SPECIAL! WOMEN’S LIB ISSUE” right up at the top, because otherwise it might not have been obvious.
"Austro" as in Rothbard and Wittgenstein, "Athenian" as in Aristotle and smashing-the-plutocracy.
About Roderick T. Long
The Empirical Me
I’m Roderick T. Long, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. I’m an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory. (More about me here.) This blog, Austro-Athenian Empire, is a continuation of my earlier blog, archived here.
Well, on the purely visual level you have a sadistic staple of men’s pulp entertainment (tied-up lady), but on a symbolic level you’ve got one woman rescuing another from the snarling dogs of rapacious male lust, no doubt to be whisked away to an egalitarian lesbotopia. Cathy, your troubles will soon be over, indeed.
A quibble — I don’t think Wonder Woman (yes, the woman in white civvies is Wonder Woman — this is from her Emma-Peel-ish, no-superpowers era) even notices the dogs yet. She’s just planning to rescue Cathy from her bonds, and doesn’t realise she’s in peril herself. So the pic overall undercuts WW’s promise of rescue.
Now with 50%* more pants!
* Yes, I know, but it sounds better.
That comment wasn’t supposed to go there. Crazy.
Wonder Woman was created by a fascinating fella who was into S&M. IF you look through a lot of early Wonder Woman issues there is a ton of crypto S and M (tied up with blindfolds, tickling, spanking, and such.) Even the golden lariat has Dominatrix connotations.
The guy who invented WW — including her lariat, which could force those bound by it to speak the truth — also invented the lie detector.