Created in 1941, Wonder Woman has been a popular comics hero for decades. Associate Professor Carol Tilley will join fellow comics fans and scholars to celebrate the character’s seventy-fifth anniversary at the Wonder Woman Symposium on September 22-24 in Cleveland, Ohio. The event is hosted by Kent State University and the Cleveland Public Library.
Tilley will give an invited talk at the symposium, titled “By Sappho’s Stylus: Reading Wonder Woman with Wertham.”
Abstract: In his now-infamous 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham opined that a child's exposure to Wonder Woman and other strong female characters might encourage non-normative understandings about gender and sexuality. Simply put, boys might grow to fear women and girls might grow to become lesbians. This talk will explore Wertham's arguments about Wonder Woman, drawing on some of the records he used to write Seduction, together with other then-contemporary expert opinions on Wonder Woman, information about comics readers, and other archival sources.
“Growing up, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. Although that dream didn't come true, I'm honored to be included on the roster of fabulous speakers, such as herstorian and cartoonist Trina Robbins and comics creators like Phil Jimenez and Genevieve Valentine, to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the beloved and controversial superheroine,” Tilley said.
At the iSchool, Tilley teaches courses in comics reader’s advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children’s Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham was featured in The New York Times and other media outlets.