1 post tagged “phallic menace”

Do you think those old-timey comic book artists were trying to suggest something in all those Wonder Woman covers? Superman had Lex Luthor. Batman had the Joker. And Wonder Woman, apparently, had the Phallic Symbol. In the early days, the biggest threat to the Amazon (who made her debut in 1941) was being attacked by penis-shaped objects. Though she did enjoy occasionally riding or straddling a rocket, bomb, or skyscraper when the mood struck. And why wouldn’t she? She was only a woman and the rockets looked so much like a — well — you know. But the phallic fun didn’t end with rockets or torpedoes. The Wonder Woman artists could turn anything into a stand-in for the male genitalia — as when the Amazon princess is the meat in a skyscraper sandwich or when, only a few issues before, she mounts another skyscraper and seems to be rubbing its tip. They even made a damn shark look phallic! Either these guys were complete perverts or working through their subconscious desires. Either way, it made for some awesome comic book covers and fodder for young boy’s fantasies (even if they had no idea what triggered them).