Articulationg Intersectional Advocacy in Sarah Scott's

Home , Invisible plane, Lasso of Truth, Mala (Amazon), Yanick Paquette

BEYOND THE WOMAN’S UTOPIA: ARTICULATING INTERSECTIONAL

ADVOCACY IN SARAH SCOTT’S MILLENIUM HALL AND GRANT

MORRISON’S WONDER WOMAN: EARTH ONE

______

A Thesis

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University Dominguez Hills

______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

English

______

Brenda Bran

Summer 2017

BRENDA BRAN

2017

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this thesis to Ana and Salvador Bran and Rosa Lopez for their

continued support and love throughout my academic career. No hay suficientes palabras

para agradecer les por su apoyo, cariño, y por el ánimo que me dieron. Los quiero mucho

y los aprecio mas de lo que puedo explicar.

This project is also dedicated to Cosmo and Luna who stayed up with me night after night

as I worked on term papers and on this project.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my thesis committee: Dr. Helen Oesterheld, Dr. Jane Lee,

and Dr. Jon Hauss for their patience and assistance in the completion of this project. Without their continued support, this project would not have been possible. A special

thank you to Dr. Debra Best for first encouraging me to pursue a graduate education. A very special thank you to my best friend, Jennifer Henriquez, who has been my partner- in-crime for the last thirteen years. Jennifer, thank you for encouraging me when I wanted

to give up and for always listening to my political and literary rants. I could not have

done this without you, so thank you. Lastly, I’d like to thank my thesis support group, Christine Walker, Tory Russo, Livia Bongiovanni, Paula Sherrin, and Terri Fleming-

Dright. Thank you all for your encouragement, guidance, and love. You’ve all made

surviving grad school possible. Thank you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

DEDICATION ...... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... v

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vi

ABSTRACT ...... vii

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. UTOPIAN VISITORS’ TROUBLES AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES ...... 8

3. UTOPIA’S FAMILY AND HIERARCHY PROBLEM ...... 33

4. THE INTERSECTIONAL UTOPIST AGAINST UTOPIA...... 61

5. CONCLUSION ...... 86

WORKS CITED ...... 94

LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE

1. Fig 1. Diana attempts to heal Steve Trevor with the purple ray ...... 16

2. Fig 2. Botticelli, Sandro. The Birth of Venus ...... 17

3. Fig 3. Steve Trevor lands on Amazonia for the first time ...... 18

4. Fig 4. Hippolyta question Steve Trevor during Diana’s ...... 27

5. Fig 5. Collage of multiple panels with Hippolyta’s all-seeing mirror ...... 46

6. Fig 6. Amazonia ...... 50

7. Fig 7. Diana and Steve Trevor escape Amazonia through the storm barrier ...... 52

8. Fig 8. Cover art...... 54

9. Fig 9. Mala and the Amazons leave in pursuit of Diana and Steve ...... 56

10. Fig 10. Diana hands Steve Trevor a collar ...... 64

11. Fig 11. Nubia confronts Diana before the trial ...... 69

12. Fig 12. Diana in Man’s World comforts a dying woman ...... 74

13. Fig 13. The Holliday girls confront the Amazons ...... 76

14. Fig 14. Diana learns the truth about her conception and purpose ...... 79

15. Fig 15. Diana embraces her mother ...... 80

16. Fig 16. Diana arrives in Man’s World ...... 82

17. Fig 17. The Amazons are enslaved ...... 89

18. Fig 18. Hippolyta reminds Diana of Hercules’ rule ...... 90

19. Fig 19. The Fates make observations about Diana’s influence on others ...... 92

ABSTRACT

Women’s utopian fiction has allowed writers a figurative space in which they can

negotiate for women in leadership roles, but the genre’s progressive impulse is stunted by

imposing a strict gender ideology on its community and imagining a specific location as

the ultimate goal. The following project examines Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall and

Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman: Earth One and their women’s utopias through an intersectional critical lens which examines the multiple forms of oppression individuals face as a result of their gender, race, and class. Despite its noble goals, utopia proves limiting in addressing and remedying all forms of oppression, but the intersectional utopian impulse, a trait embodied by Wonder Woman, drives other characters to work toward a vision closer to what utopia promises: a perfectly just society.

vii

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Women’s utopian fiction has traditionally allowed authors a literary space in which to argue in favor of female agency. In her 1762 novel, Millenium Hall, Sarah Scott presents the titular woman’s utopia as an idyllic community meant to protect marginalized members of British society who have systematically been ignored and harmed by existing social structures. Scott presents a cast of characters familiar to eighteenth-century readers: genteel but economically distressed women, older working- class women, disabled individuals who were once forced into circus work, and a number of other marginalized figures who cannot prosper economically because of the social stratification and stigmas they face within British society.1 These characters are introduced to the reader through Sir George Ellison and his travel companion, Lamont, who stumble upon Millenium Hall after their carriage breaks down.2 They find in

Millenium Hall a sanctuary for these aforementioned characters. Within the community, each character is allowed to form small family units and flourish economically in ways that society outside of the community simply does not allow. Millenium Hall’s residents are representative of an eighteenth-century English society that favors its male landed gentry at the expense of everyone else. The characters in Scott’s novel are fortunate

1 In Sensibility: An Introduction, Janet Todd notes that literature of this period often featured distressed characters such as the ones that Scott presents (Todd 1-4) 2 Ellison’s name is not revealed until Millenium Hall’s sequel: The History of Sir George Ellison when he attempts to replicate his own utopian community after witnessing the success of Millenium Hall.

2 enough to escape to the utopian community in search of protection and companionship, but in doing so, they reveal the inadequacies of life outside of Millenium Hall.

The need to escape from a cruel and unjust world likewise appears in Grant

Morrison’s Wonder Woman: Earth One, an American graphic novel published in 2016, two hundred and fifty-four years after Scott first published her novel. In Morrison’s text, the Amazons escape Hercules’ cruelty after years of living as his slaves. They flee to

Amazonia and live in harmony for three thousand years in total isolation from Man’s

World. 3 The sudden appearance of United States Air Force Flight Lieutenant Steve

Trevor, however, utterly disrupts the harmony within Amazonia and leads Diana, or

Wonder Woman, to rebel against her fellow Amazons and her mother, Queen Hippolyta.

Diana helps Trevor off Amazonia and immediately faces charges of treason. Her mother is then forced to preside over Diana’s trial and enact her punishment. Both Scott and

Morrison present women attempting to escape the tyranny of patriarchal societies, and, more importantly, they endeavor to normalize female leadership and agency, though with varying results.

This question of female agency and leadership drives much of the discussion around utopian fiction, a genre in which gender is a constitutive element. In her novel,

Scott suggests that matriarchal leaders simply work better because of their sympathetic nature. The leaders of Millenium Hall, for example, attempt to exhibit their wisdom in constructing their utopian vision as they dictate every detail regarding the community’s

3 In past iterations, Amazonia is known as “Paradise Island” or “Themyscira.” It is an exclusively female utopia.

3 daily operation. Morrison’s novel, however, is less concerned with a woman’s place in public discourse. Instead, Morrison advocates intersectional awareness within popular culture to imagine and produce an inclusive utopian impulse—one that rejects utopia as a space and drives characters to confront intersectional systems of oppression as the occasion demands so that society inches closer to, but never fully achieves, this utopian vision. Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge offer the following definition of intersectionality:

when it comes to social inequality people's lives are better understood as being

shaped not by a single axis of social division, be it race or gender or class, but by

many axes that work together and influence each other. Intersectionality as an

analytic tool gives people better access to the complexity of the world and of

themselves. (2)

As a critical lens, intersectionality sheds light on the intersections of oppression that

individuals face because of their gender, class, race, and a number of other identity

markers; but in practice, it seeks solutions that resolve and heal wounds inflicted upon the

marginalized.4 Morrison’s inclusion of African-American Air Force Flight Lieutenant

Steve Trevor, and an overweight white American woman, Beth Candy, who does not fit

the mold of the elite Amazonian, illustrates an intersectional utopian approach. Morrison

attempts to give voice to characters who would otherwise be ignored within utopia and

larger society. Their race, gender, and class play pivotal roles in their marginalization

4 This description of intersectionality is based on Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge’s Intersectionality.

within Amazonia, thus exposing the inefficiency of utopia as a figurative space. Both

characters represent the margins of society and the violence with which both are treated

highlights the intersectional forms of oppression each faces. Morrison’s implied critique

is echoed by recent critics: in her critique of feminist utopist Betty Friedan and other

similar utopists, Sally L. Kitch argues that utopianism hinders feminist theory because

utopists argue for a community that inevitably marginalizes members of society: “…

[Friedan] both ignored working-class and poor women and women of color and overlooked the possible problems full-time careers might generate even for the middle-

class white women who accepted her invitation to ‘have it all’” (5). Intersectionality, like

feminism, is utopian in its goal. Both seek to expose and critique structures of oppression

that marginalize, disenfranchise, and limit a woman’s agency, but intersectionality offers

a broader lens, one beyond the gender-specific perspective, which invites a diverse

discourse to address cases of injustice.

Using an intersectional lens and the feminist goals of these utopias, this project

will examine the female utopias presented in Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall and Grant

Morrison’s Wonder Woman: Earth One, and it will trace the inherent flaws with

conceptualizing utopia as a place. The term “utopia” was originally coined by Thomas

More in his publication, Utopia (1516), and it has come to signify a place “having a

perfect social, legal, and political system” (OED). It is important to note that both of the

utopian communities depicted in these novels are concerned specifically with projecting a

community run by women, and in Morrison’s text, exclusively for women; therefore,

these fictionalized utopian constructs differ in their objectives from traditional utopias. In

5 describing eighteenth-century feminist utopias, critic Alessa Johns suggests that they explore the ways in which women can change and reform society, while traditional utopias are concerned instead with revolution: “feminist utopists wished to modify socioeconomic life to include women as subjects, to retheorize toward reform rather than revolution; the modifications they imagined worked at the deep structures of everyday life” (16).5 The focus on modifying rather than revolutionizing society situates writers of women’s utopian fiction as agents within existing structures working toward change in less overtly radical ways. While Scott’s novel is originally intended to critique British social structures, it inevitably hints at some of the key problems with utopia, but Scott’s narrative does not fully explore the complications it sets up. Conversely, Morrison is much more explicit in his critique of the utopian genre and its limitations in working toward an increasingly diverse public discourse. Both novels reflect key features of feminist utopian fiction, and the gendered description of this genre allows writers to argue for social change that includes women in decision-making roles. The utopian communities within these narratives, however, each prove limited in their advocacy for social change. These societies are both ideologically and physically removed from a broader society, and therefore become overly concerned with imposing a strict gender ideology that is inherently marginalizing.

Additionally, utopia cannot offer the flexibility that utopian thought promises.

While Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall presents a group of noble women ruling over their

5 While Johns’ definition is meant to describe eighteenth-century utopian fiction, her definition applies equally well to later utopian fiction authors.

6 community for the benefit of all, they continue to uphold the existing British class system to present their audience with a familiar structure that affords them the freedom to propose female leadership as an alternative, but little else. These women, marginalized by the patriarchy, do not face struggles like those of the rescued circus workers or former farm tenants who experienced daily abuse and who are now “protected” within the community of Millenium Hall. Scott’s utopia merely replaces patriarchal figureheads for matriarchal ones, thus upholding a system wherein members of the working class and other marginalized groups are silenced. Relatedly, the utopian community, as it exists in

Morrison’s novel, succeeds in negotiating for increased female agency—a feminist goal in and of itself; however, the utopia is unable to address or resolve every case of injustice or marginalization and inevitably creates its own prejudice and bias. The Amazonian social stratification serves to critique the idyllic community for its rigidity and exposes it, ultimately, as untenable. Diana’s exit into Man’s World, a place receptive to change, suggests that the key to articulating and formulating solutions to complex social inequities is embedded in the intersectional utopian impulse. Ultimately each text works to normalize the idea of female leadership, but Morrison’s novel takes a step toward the inclusion of intersectional concerns wherein female utopian ideology addresses not just gender, but issues of class and race outside of the utopia. In both cases, there are problematic aspects of the imagined community as the utopian spaces are not equipped with the necessary structures to face unforeseen or previously unimagined challenges.

This project relies on a feminist utopian critical approach to frame a three-part argument about Millenium Hall and Wonder Woman: Earth One. The first chapter

addresses the implications of both works’ respective reliance on male visitors—

specifically their role in framing the reader’s reception of the utopian community—and

the effects of their presence within communities that paradoxically welcome progress and

reject external influences. The second chapter addresses the power structures that each

narrative sets up and explores the ways in which the respective utopian spaces fail to

articulate a truly utopian vision. Each utopia inevitably reproduces an oppressive system

at the expense of its initial intended purpose which is to protect its residents from abusive

leaders. Chapter two therefore focuses on examining utopia's failure to deliver on its

foundational promise. The third and final chapter examines the utopian impulse present

in Morrison’s novel and argues for a reading which highlights the potential of the utopian

impulse, the thought process that drives characters to create utopia. Diana, in particular,

embodies an intersectional utopian impulse as she fights for justice regardless of race,

gender, or class. Ultimately, this project examines the potential of utopian figures who

continuously fight for a better version of society. Through these characters, readers

experience the best part of utopia’s promise—the possibility for improving social circumstances—not the place itself.

CHAPTER 2

UTOPIAN VISITORS’ TROUBLES AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Utopian fiction offers its readers an escape into an imagined ideal society that is free of conflict and works perfectly for its inhabitants. Borrowing on the tradition of travel writing, most utopian narratives have a traveler, or a visitor, who happens upon the community and learns alongside the reader about the utopia’s social and judicial framework (Davis 5). The traveler, or visitor, often facilitates the reader’s entrance into the narrative and frames the reader’s response to the idyllic community. The traveler, often male but not exclusively so, exhibits a sense of admiration and awe when he arrives and first experiences the utopia. The traveler’s wonder is expected, but his unique position to challenge utopian ideals and possibly improve conditions within the community is often overlooked, ignored, or blatantly dismissed in utopian fiction.6 In

Millenium Hall, Lamont and Ellison are given a tour of the community, and while

Ellison’s questions are kindly answered, Lamont’s concerns are often scorned as naïve or simplistic. The utopian leaders’ response to Lamont’s inquiries signal their disregard for improvement and progress. Millenium Hall, like many of its utopian predecessors and followers, is elevated as a fix-all solution. Lamont, by the end of the novel, is convinced that Millenium Hall represents a better social contract than that of eighteenth-century

6 J. C Davis comments on the similarities between utopian and travel writing. He suggests that overlooking these similarities often leads to “the relative neglect of the process and implications of travel to, through and from utopia” (1).

England, and Ellison attempts to replicate Millenium Hall’s utopian vision on his own.

Instead of embracing a utopian set of ideals, meant to equip larger society with the tools necessary to deal with an increasingly socially and technologically complex world, these two travelers, but especially Ellison—who has become impaired by his pursuit of wealth in Jamaica—become problematically coopted into the utopia and attempt to reproduce it in Scott’s sequel, The History of Sir George Ellison (1766). The visitors in Morrison’s narrative, Steve Trevor and Beth Candy, however, are not as welcomed as their

Millenium Hall counterparts and, in fact, the utopian alienation that they face is meant to highlight utopia’s failure. Whereas Scott’s utopian vision is offered as an alternative to

British society, Morrison rejects utopia as a solution and utilizes his travelers to reveal the injustices inherent with the utopian space. Steve Trevor and Beth Candy face blatant rejection from the Amazons which the reader, as an outsider to Amazonia, inevitably empathizes with. Although utopian founders elevate their societies as perfect spaces, visitors inevitably find drawbacks that mar the utopian setting, so their concerns prove both legitimate and worthy of attention. J. C Davis describes the utopian traveler and reader as immersed in “an away match which we are always destined to lose. There is, perhaps, more than a frisson of humiliation in reflecting on the gap between their identity and our reality” (10). This analogy of the utopian visitor as constantly facing humiliation is noteworthy when considering the dismissive, and in some cases violent, reactions that each faces when asking about utopia’s upkeep and management. The challenges that utopia might face are often neglected in favor of highlighting the merits and promising potential that this space offers, so the traveler is inevitably silenced or ignored when he

10 questions any aspect of utopia. Ultimately, the visiting traveler poses a threat to the rigidity of utopia, but his presence also underscores a utopian hope for change and progress that is simply impossible within the rigid utopian setting.

Scott’s use of Lamont as a symbol of the patriarchy strengthens her utopian objective while simultaneously critiquing the social structure that creates a need for

Millenium Hall. When Lamont is introduced, the reader never learns his full name; instead, he is easily relegated to the margins of the narrative and dismissed as Ellison’s vain friend.7 Ellison’s first introduction of Lamont is that of a young attractive aristocrat prone to hollow and simple judgements:

Mr. Lamont is a young man of about twenty-five years of age, of an agreeable

person, and lively understanding; both perhaps have concurred to render him a

coxcomb. The vivacity of his parts soon gained him such a high such a degree of

encouragement as excited his vanity, and raised in him an high opinion of

himself. (55)

Lamont’s age and excitable nature distance him from the reasonable and thoughtful

Ellison so that the reader inherently dismisses Lamont as a superficial novice with a limited understanding of the world. As Ellison continues, he offers the following insulting diction when describing Lamont: “fashionable,” “desultory,” and “idle” (55).

These signifiers are meant to cast Lamont in a negative light and guide the reader to dismiss him as a pompous cad. Initially he represents a class of men—the affluent landed

7 The same is true of Ellison, whose name is never mentioned in this narrative, but whose sensibility allows the reader an opportunity to imagine him or herself as the protagonist eagerly learning and converting to Millenium Hall’s ideology.

11 gentry—who are not only indifferent to the plight of the marginalized but are often responsible for it, and are more concerned with the appearance of nobility than the execution of it. This blatant disregard for their fellow man is precisely the root of Scott’s critique, as Sally Kitch suggests, and serves as a form of social protest: “Utopian visions…typically react to current, unsatisfactory social conditions—sin, materialism, injustice. They present positive alternatives to such conditions” (23). Lamont’s vanity and his concern with the “fashionable” symbolize the same societal attributes that Scott and likeminded utopian authors are protesting. The author therefore expects the reader to likewise look upon Lamont in contempt as a stock character, well known in the literature of this period, who metonymically stands in for the corrupt values of landed English society.

Of course, as a member of the British aristocracy, Lamont’s perspective is not unique and therefore places sympathizing readers in an awkward position when they recognize his naïveté and selfishness in themselves. When first spotting the enclosure that houses those who are physically deformed, Lamont makes a few callous remarks regarding the subjugation of majestic creatures for the entertainment of men:

Lamont, not less curious, and more importune, observed, that ‘the inclosure bore

some resemblance to one of Lord Lamore’s, where he kept lions, tygers, leopards,

and such foreign animals, and he would be hanged if the ladies had not made

some such collection, intreating that he might be admitted to see them; for nothing

gave him greater entertainment than to behold those beautiful wild beasts, brought

out of their native woods, where they had reigned as kings, and here tamed and

subjected by the superior art of man. It was a triumph of human reason, which

could not fail to afford great pleasure’. (70-1)

Lamont’s logic in the abovementioned passage illustrates a popular attitude among the nobility of eighteenth-century England.8 Mrs. Mancel, however, quickly counters

Lamont’s suggestion that man’s art is superior and deems it “tyrannical,” “vain,” and

“cruel,” thus embarrassing Lamont, and by extension any reader who might have felt a sense of excitement at the prospect of animals caged for the pleasure of man. When readers pinpoint similarities between Lamont's sensibilities and themselves, they are meant to feel this sense of dread and humiliation at the relative similarities that they share with Lamont, a character both the narrator and author do not altogether trust.9 The instructive nature of the text is then meant to motivate the reader to reform and self- correct societal attitudes that he or she might share with Lamont—specifically in terms of vanity and social hierarchy. Just as the ladies of Millenium Hall point out the flaws in

Lamont’s reasoning, Ellison emphasizes Lamont’s frivolity numerous times throughout the text to invalidate his present and future critiques of Millenium Hall: “Lamont was much surprized at this piece of information, and though he would have thought it still more exquisitely beautiful had it been the design of the person he imagined, yet truth is

8 According to Gary Kelly, collections of exotic animals were commonplace and “had been customary…for monarchs and nobles,” so to Lamont and the average reader, this enclosure serves as a symbol of wealth, power, and status (71). 9 J.C Davis suggests that: “Utopian writing, therefore, faces a series of strategic challenges reflecting the problems peculiar to having journeyed to or fallen upon an ideal society. One is the potential humiliation of the utopian traveler and that traveller’s audience” (11).

13 so powerful, that he could not suppress his admiration and surprize” (68-9). In the aforementioned scene, Lamont looks upon a piece of furniture and determines that it would have been more beautiful if it had been designed by the artisan he originally thought created it. His frivolity in this scene is meant to mock individuals who determine beauty and worth on fashionable opinions of high society rather than their own judgment.

As a member of the landed gentry, Lamont is meant to model nobility for others, but this scene demonstrates that he is incapable of the nobility that is expected from him thus highlighting Scott’s social critique of a patriarchal system that values appearances over authentic acts of virtue.

While Scott’s intent to critique the British patriarchy is clear, her use, or rather her misuse, of Lamont reveals significant flaws with the utopia that she proposes. Numerous utopian critiques have argued that one of the key complications with utopianism is its inability to predict or account for future social concerns: “One especially troubling aspect of utopianism is its ‘present focus’…it is the underside of its talent for social critique.

While resisting the present, utopianism often remains, firmly and paradoxically, attached to it” (Kitch 43). Lamont represents the average member of the British landed gentry who ignores the less fortunate and within Millenium Hall, he cannot escape this identity.

However, Lamont also makes critical observations about Millenium Hall and its inhabitants. He remarks that the community seems frozen in time, an observation which marks a significant problem that many fictional utopias face—an inability to progress or change according to the shifting demands of its people. Lamont makes such an

14 observation of Millenium Hall’s ruling class in his discussion with Ellison as he flippantly remarks on the ladies’ inability to grasp fashionable subjects:

…he observed, ‘they were very deficient in the bon ton, there was too much

solidity in all they said, they would trifle with trifles indeed, but had not the art of

treating more weighty subjects with the same lightness, which gave them an air of

rusticity; and he did not doubt, but on a more intimate acquaintance we should

find their manners much rusticated, and their heads filled with antiquated notion

by having lived so long out of the great world.’ (64)

“Rusticated” evokes a sense of country-like simplicity and when paired with the image of the community as being “so long out of the great world,” it implies inadequacy. Lamont’s suggestion that Millenium Hall has not evolved with the “bon ton” is easily dismissed as a trifling concern, which he ironically accuses the ladies of; but beyond the issue of fashion, he raises a legitimate complication. If Millenium Hall remains rigidly rustic and antiquated, can it develop the necessary social and technological structures necessary to confront modernizing demands? While Scott’s desire is for a simple agrarian way of life, the realities of a vastly complex technological and urban setting make a rustic utopia an impossibility. Scott of course attempts to account for an increasingly changing world through the expansion of Millenium Hall into the countryside and its rug factory, which is meant to keep its residents employed, but these are both presented as fleeting and immediate solutions to a looming problem. In presenting itself as the solution to society’s flaws, Millenium Hall does not have the necessary tools to adapt and change according to its residents’ needs. Ultimately, Lamont is the embodiment of patriarchal England that

Scott is actively critiquing, but the “bon-ton” to which he refers does not simply refer to a world of luxury, it is also a reference to a society of continuous discourse and susceptibility to adaptation and change that simply does not exist within Millenium Hall.

As a symbol of the patriarchy, Lamont is rejected and ridiculed within the utopian space, but this rejection of the patriarchy is foundational to Amazonia in Morrison’s text.

The Amazons’ adamant refusal of men mars the utopian ideology, a set of ideals that drive individuals to work toward a more just and inclusive society, and casts the utopian space as a repressive apparatus that discourages discourse and change in the service of a narrow gender ideology ill-equipped to deal with societal changes. Because Amazonia was founded on an isolationist desire to protect the Amazons from men, they are wholly opposed to Steve Trevor’s presence. During their first encounter, Diana warns Trevor that his presence on the island will result in his death, so she asks that he remain hidden while she finds the purple ray, a medical device that heals the Amazons of any and all injury.

The violent undercurrent within Amazonia affirms Peter Paik’s suggestion that the threat of violence paradoxically reveals utopia’s totalitarian ideology (4-5). Diana must hide

Trevor for his own safety, thus highlighting the community’s repressive laws, but she also lacks the tools necessary to handle the introduction of a foreigner into the utopian space. After hiding him, Diana returns with the purple ray, which despite Amazonia’s technological superiority to Man’s World, does not work on Trevor (See fig. 1):

Fig 1. Diana attempts to heal Steve Trevor with the purple ray by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

The purple ray’s inability to heal Trevor illustrates the utopia’s failure to contend with complications and ultimately reveals why the utopian model cannot function:

Utopianism can also provoke disaster because it depends on models and plans

that rarely encompass the complexities of human needs and behavior. When

utopian models categorize, divide, and oppose ideas and people to fit their

worldview, they inevitably overlook important connections among those same

ideas and people. By the same token, when utopian models ignore or rationalize

contradictions and conflicts within their views or romanticize their goals, they can

miss problems most in need of solution. (Kitch 45-6)

Because Amazonia has not had to deal with outsiders, it has also failed to create the necessary social framework to embrace problems, thus revealing a key flaw in utopian ideology—utopias are not able to cope with the complications of a changing world that might include shifting perspectives of gender ideology, technological developments, or other important societal factors.

Furthermore, the visitor in Morrison’s text subverts conventional gender roles to articulate a complex vision of sexuality and emphasize the increased need for intersectional advocacy within feminist utopian fiction. The first full image that the reader sees of Trevor is a visual echo of Sandro Bottecelli’s The Birth of Venus (see fig.

2). After Trevor’s airplane malfunctions, he parachutes, injured and in distress, onto

Amazonia’s beach (see fig. 3):

Fig 2. Botticelli, Sandro. The Birth of Venus. 1482-85. Tempura on canvas. Uffizi Gallery Museum

Fig 3. Steve Trevor lands on Amazonia for the first time by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

The visual allusion to Botticelli’s painting places Steve Trevor in a position where he is simultaneously “the object” subject to the male gaze and the intruding outside agent bursting into the narrative in his military gear. This visual allusion to Greek and Roman mythology through the painting serves to suggest Trevor’s potential and power. While not a deity in any way, his worth is equal to that of the Amazons on the island despite their rejection of his presence. In discussing the original Venus painting, Paul Barolsky comments on Botticelli’s use of gold as both a symbol of opulence associated with the

Greek and Roman gods and as an allusion to an anonymous poem to the goddess (4-5).

The use of gold is evident in Steve Trevor’s image; furthermore, golden light illuminates the crashed plane in the background and emphasizes Trevor’s survival. Like the goddess,

Trevor emerges from the page as a Roman deity equivalent, victorious in having survived a dangerous crash. Conversely, this comparison to classical antiquity inevitably feminizes

Trevor as a moderately exposed object, but his action stance—that of his left leg taking a step forward—signals a subversion of the traditionally feminine image and suggests that

Steve Trevor is not easily defined by the male-female binary. Like Lamont and Ellison who are in distress when they first arrive to Millenium Hall, Trevor is injured and in desperate need of help. On one hand, he fulfills the masculine expectation of action through his military attire and stance, but Paquette’s visual echo allows the reader to see

Trevor through an increasingly complex lens, one which highlights the ambiguity of the gendered space he occupies. Trevor is neither the quintessential masculine figure nor is he the innately emotional feminine one, the latter of which Pohl describes below:

Male and female ideals of the feminine as the benevolent, domestic, sentimental,

sociable and asexual testify to this utopian desire. Women’s ‘closeness to nature’,

their emotion and innate compassion, mark them as at once intellectually lesser

and morally greater than men. At the same time, precisely this construct of the

femme naturelle invokes the corresponding construct of a destructive female

nature that must be controlled and managed. (130)

Characterizations of femininity as innately compassionate and morally upright, especially when juxtaposed against men, are foundational to Scott’s novel; however, Morrison’s depiction of Trevor complicates the oversimplification of the feminine as “intellectually lesser and morally greater” as he confronts the Amazon’s sexist hatred of him and slowly reasons through his loyalties. Trevor straddles the gender binary without succumbing to it and as a feminized figure, rejected by the Amazons, he highlights the rigidity within

Amazonia that extends and manifests itself through its narrow vision of gender.

Both Lamont and Trevor’s inability to exist within the utopian space signals a broader ideological problem with setting. Even Ellison, who seems to move seamlessly into and out of Millenium Hall, attempts to reproduce its structure on his own, but he cannot stay within its walls; instead, he can only share in utopia’s promise of harmony by replicating it on his own. Through the characters’ exclusion, the reader notes the paradoxical nature of utopian fiction—a genre indebted to travel writing but that ultimately fails to compensate for the promises that travel narratives offer their readers. In his description of travel stories, J.C Davis credits the genre with allowing readers an

21 opportunity to engage with a world other than the one they inhabit and embrace its diversity and difference:

…through conveying a knowledge of diverse possibilities, they liberate us to

contemplate change, whether such contemplation leads us to cling to what we

have and are or inspires us to transform ourselves. Travel both enlightens and

liberates us. A substantial part of the appeal of travel literature has been the

vicarious experience of enlightenment underwritten by the authority. (7)

Though a special type of travel narrative, utopian stories nevertheless partake of Davis’

formulation in allowing travelers the freedom to contemplate their circumstances and

effect change as a result of their travels. For every one of these visitors, living within the

utopian space is a virtual impossibility. Lamont and Trevor would need to submit to the

authority of their utopian mistresses—whom they respect, but because of the strict social

or gender ideology within the utopian setting, they can never be accepted as equals

among the utopians. Lamont is not only a part of the patriarchy, he is a beneficiary of its

oppressive structures, and Trevor's gender automatically disqualifies him from ever inhabiting Amazonia. Their discovery of these imagined ideal places distances the reader from the locale and allows the utopia to exist strictly in the realm of the imaginary. Its idealism still affects the reader, most notably through characters like Lamont, Ellison, and Trevor who all admire and demonstrate a sense of respect toward the society, but the physical removal that permeates the narrative allows the reader to see the utopian space strictly as an ideal and not a reality; even as Ellison attempts to remake Millenium Hall in

22 the novel’s sequel, his efforts are based on a community that proves unfeasible because it is not equipped to contend with all possibilities.

Ellison’s reproduction of utopia, however, remains problematic because he fails to recognize the inherent flaws of the utopian setting. In The History of Sir George Ellison,

Ellison participates in the practice of replicating utopian ideology, which Johns describes as a definitive characteristic of utopia:

‘reproduction’ in its broadest sense, encompassing not only the birth and education

of children in order to expand and multiply utopias but also the propagation of

utopian ways of life and behavior through imitation and circulation, moral

conversation, transcription and duplication (even to the point of plagiarism), and

literary mitosis. (Johns 2)

This reproduction, although admirable, merely duplicates the existing structures within

Millenium Hall and does not acknowledge possible complications. The moral conversations that utopian participants are meant to have are narrowly defined by its leaders and are not open to further discourse—Lamont’s treatment and dismissal indicate this narrow vision of the ideal community. In fact, Ellison’s conclusion at the end of his letter is a hope for imitation from both himself and the reader:

…the pleasure I find in recollection is such, that I could not restrain my pen

within moderate bounds. If what I have described, may tempt any one to go to and

do likewise, I shall think myself fortunate in communicating it. For my part my

thoughts are all engaged in a scheme to imitate on a smaller scale. (249)

Ellison’s description does not make mention of a desire to improve upon the utopian structure; instead he hopes that his reader will take Millenium Hall as a model and reproduce it. Ultimately Scott’s goal for Ellison is to reform the British patriarchy so that genteel women—specifically those educated and capable of discussing power dynamics and social concerns—are given decision-making roles within their communities. While

Ellison is content to replicate the most salient features of Millenium Hall in his own community, he overlooks the inherent potential for transformation and progress that accompany its growth:

Literary utopias typically lacked political analysis and depicted the future’s

emergence from the past as a moral rather than a realistic or political process,

although it sometimes involved violence. As in the communities, however, the

literature emphasized the pragmatic and expressed faith that institutions can

change human beings for the better and that transformed humans can create better

societies (Kitch 38)

Ellison hopes that the replicated utopian community can affect and reform individuals.

Ellison’s final thoughts in the novel reflect a hope that decent people can create a better community, but his focus on creating such a space signals a failure to acknowledge a realistic political and social process and illustrates a missed opportunity to explore improvements to Millenium Hall’s framework. Ellison’s desire to replicate Millenium

Hall stems from a fascination with its optimism—a necessary component of the utopian impulse. Conversely, Morrison’s text utilizes a diverse cast of visitors to suggest that the

Amazons’ utopian space is insufficient in its quest to create a more just society, but its

24 visitors and Diana expose Morrison’s inclusive utopian drive as a better alternative to utopia.

While Trevor’s presence challenges the rigidity of Amazonia, Ellison does not question the strict rules imposed on the inhabitants of Millenium Hall; instead he and

Lamont are both easily indoctrinated into the utopian vision. Ellison serves as the model reader, quietly observing and learning all he can from the ladies of Millenium Hall, and

Lamont is the ideal student who is easily convinced that the community established within Millenium Hall is overwhelmingly preferable to the fashionable England to which he is accustomed. At the end of the novel, Ellison notes that Lamont is a changed man who wishes to adjust his life according to the teachings of Millenium Hall:

The next morning, upon going into Lamont’s room, I found him reading the New

Testament; I could not forbear expressing some pleasure and surprise….He told

me, ‘he was convinced by the conduct of the ladies of this house, that their

religion must be the true one. When he had before considered the lives of

Christians, their doctrine seemed to have so little influence on their actions, that

he imagined there was no sufficient effect produced by Christianity, to warrant a

belief, that it was established by a means so very extraordinary; but he now saw

what that religion in reality was, and by the purity of its precepts, was convinced

its original must be divine.’ (248)

While Ellison flatters Millenium Hall’s leaders, Lamont is quietly transformed and convinced of the community’s social framework and its mission to provide a safe environment for the disenfranchised. In his discussion of Lamont, critic James Cruise

25 points out that the young man is like “the soft clay of the novel” (555). Lamont’s indoctrination is almost seamless and poses an interesting contrast to Ellison’s, whose acceptance of utopia, Cruise argues, is slightly more complex and selfish:

His sympathy is not selfless, however, since what he implies from the beginning

is that he must empower himself. The wholeness of body and soul that he seeks

becomes a matter of personal fulfillment that he universalizes and superimposes

upon Millenium Hall through his typologies. Thus, even when most apparently

benevolent, Sir George’s sympathy is streaked with paternalism. (Cruise 558)

This sense of identification marks a significant element within Scott’s narrative as characters reach at least a minimal sense of understanding. Although motivated by self- interest and his own ailing health, Ellison's sympathy is not any less noteworthy. As a member of the landed gentry, his illness proves that neither he, nor any member of the aristocracy, is above natural ailments; therefore, it is incumbent upon him and all members of society to work toward the protection of all citizens regardless of physical state, gender, or class. Since Scott’s goal in Millenium Hall was to reform existing power structures so that they became more empathetic to the plight of marginalized citizens, her characterization of Ellison, a character who is both a privileged member of society and vulnerable to illness, makes sense. He identifies with the community and will try to replicate the same sense of community once he exits Millenium Hall. This identification is key within both narratives as it allows characters an opportunity to reflect upon their own state and recognize that although their circumstances are different, they share similar goals. Ellison seeks a utopian space that welcomes someone as virtuous as himself, and in

Morrison’s text that same sense of identification allows Trevor and Hippolyta to trust one another, albeit momentarily, during Diana’s trial.

Hippolyta and Trevor share a contentious relationship, but their willingness to compromise and seemingly trust each other is at the root of the utopian impulse that the narrative attempts to celebrate. Throughout the novel, Morrison utilizes the lasso of truth as a symbol of unity and sisterhood within Amazonia, but he also uses it to reveal truth during judicial proceedings. When Trevor steps up to testify during Diana’s trial, the

Amazons restrain him in a symbolic gesture that, while uncomfortably serving as a visual echo of slavery, also intimates the idea that sisterhood is binding the patriarchy: 10

10 I will discuss the slave imagery present within Amazonia at length in the third chapter of this project.

Fig 4. Hippolyta question Steve Trevor during Diana’s trial by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

The angle through which the reader observes the pair in the panel above suggests that although Hippolyta is standing on a lower stair, she is at least equal in height to Trevor

(see fig. 4). The golden rope restraining him marks Hippolyta’s, and the Amazons’, superiority in this scene. The Amazons, however, do listen to Trevor’s testimony.

Although unsure about his claims, Queen Hippolyta's focus changes from that of an untrusting leader to that of a concerned mother:

Steve Trevor: No. I lied to them. And I’ll lie again if I have to. I told them I only

saw Diana. You alerted them to your presence, not me.

Hippolyta: Why would you lie? Lust? Do you lust after my daughter and wish

to deceive her?

Steve Trevor: I lied because…well…like a lot of people in “Man’s World,” my

ancestors were enslaved and persecuted by men with too much

power. The truth is, rich men and the men who do their dirty work

will try to sell you garbage while they do their damnedest to

stripmine your technology, poison your culture and degrade your

women. Your daughter saved my life. Twice. From now on, I’m on

your side.

Hippolyta: That remains to be seen. Do you lust after Diana?

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

Their willingness to listen to Trevor’s testimony is a stark difference from Lamont’s treatment in Millenium Hall, for although restrained, Trevor is allowed to challenge the

Amazons’ perceptions of suffering and injustice. He is given the opportunity to identify with them which then makes Hippolyta refocus her attack on Diana rather than continue directing her questions at Trevor, whose history of marginalization proves he is not the evil villain Hippolyta thinks he is. This moment of identification in which Hippolyta recognizes Trevor’s genuine honesty and upright character subtly hints at a utopian impulse. While initially determined to kill Trevor, Hippolyta’s attitude in this scene seems to soften to indicate a possible shift in attitude—one that Diana fully embraces.

Hippolyta, as the queen of an unchanging Paradise Island, will never accept Trevor, but her tempering response to him subtly reveals the utopian impulse on which utopia was originally founded.

Both Millenium Hall and Wonder Woman create a hierarchy that favors an elite class of women, so Elizabeth Candy’s presence on Amazonia—like her fellow utopian visitors—is an unexpected complication that signals another missed opportunity to embrace change and work towards an inclusive and truly just society. Upon seeing Beth, many Amazons, including Diana, are disgusted by her appearance because she does not fit the athletic mold of the average Amazon; instead, Elizabeth Candy is an overweight white woman who is not shy about sharing her distaste for the Amazonian rigidity or the patriarchy of Man’s World. During Diana’s trial, Beth makes a case for both Diana and womankind—specifically women from Man’s World. Beth reaffirms that although the patriarchy has taken a hold of Man’s World, women in it also have the right to assert their voice: “It’s not just Man’s World out there. Do I look like a man? Sure, the patriarchy sucks, but we ain’t shy about telling ‘em!” (Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original). Her strong presence in the narrative, however, signals a willingness within this utopian narrative to acknowledge that the utopian space is both limiting and insufficient when dealing with the complexity of an ever-changing world. Beth is unapologetically vocal and frank, and her candidness is met with contempt:

Beth: But I didn’t get to finish your royal highness! I’m only telling all y’all how

it went down. You want to know how she wound up so pimped out

looking, don’tcha?

Althea: This is absurd. This girl is sick—her body mass grotesquely distorted. If

Man’s world does this to women--

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

Althea’s dismissal of Beth is based on the latter’s appearance and demonstrates the

Amazons’ inability to look beyond the space and the world that they know. The ideals and rules established within a utopia cannot account for the difference and progress of the real world. In describing the utopist and the realist, Kitch puts forth the following explanation:

…a utopist is likely to make rules enforcing and preventing the infringement of

predetermined ideals, while a realist typically constructs her ideals in response to

innovations, forces, and circumstances that acknowledge human independence

from and resistance to social manipulation. (10)

Elizabeth Candy is not a symbol of the realist, but she represents the potential to

“construct ideals in response to innovations.” She does not dismiss the Amazons offhand because they are different, rather she attempts to reason with them and establish her voice as a white overweight woman among their community of warrior women. Although

Elizabeth Candy does not change the ideology within Amazonia, she does expose the potential for “interconnectedness” that Scott long ago identified but had a hard time integrating into her work:

Scott’s persistent conviction that failure to acknowledge interconnectedness ends

in ruin, however, corresponds to her idealistic utopian outlook. A person of ‘good

sense,’ a utopian subject, understands how critical are the often unseen

connections between individual people or moments in history, whether unnoted,

persistent vexations or hidden, underground streams. These can become sources

of destruction. At the same time, hidden links represent sites of potential utopian

transformation. (Johns 101)

Elizabeth and Trevor offer the Amazons an opportunity to adjust their utopian ideology so that it becomes one of inclusivity and expansion. They offer the potential for transformation and change without threat of dismantling the utopia, but the Amazons’ fear of this change legitimizes their rejection of the two.

While these two novels are marked by their cultural and temporal distance, the progression toward a more inclusive narrative that presents a more diverse set of visitors demonstrates the genre’s acknowledgement of a more complex and diverse world. In

Scott’s novel, Ellison and Lamont come from a homogenous pantheon of visitors who draw on the traditions of travel narratives. They explore new sights and offer their audience an experience through proxy, and the opportunity to learn about a matriarchal approach to governance. Conversely, Morrison’s use of the “visitor” serves to illustrate the rigidity within the utopian space that prevents a more just society. Both texts acknowledge their utopian objectives as a search for improved circumstances. In

Millenium Hall, Scott presents a society grounded in reality wherein everyone is human and attempting to create a community that serves even the most underprivileged, and in

Wonder Woman: Earth One, Morrison recognizes that both within the superhero fantasy and the world of reality-based fiction, utopianism must exist as an ideology rather than a solution. The potential that resides within the visitor is not fully articulated in either

32 novel, but their responses to the utopian setting largely shape the reader’s reaction, so their presence within these narratives either favor the utopian goal or utterly deconstruct the utopian argument. Millenium Hall’s clock-work control of its inhabitants—one of the main focuses in the following chapter—becomes a concern as Ellison and Lamont point out the rigidity with which the community is governed. They acquiesce to the wishes of their hostesses, but in their discussions with the ladies of the community, the visitors reveal some of the drawbacks inherent with the utopian space. Similarly, the Amazons’ overreaction with regards to Steve Trevor’s presence demonstrates the setting’s inflexibility. Aside from their concern with the female utopian structure, these constructs created within the utopian space reveal a tendency to oversimplify the complexity of governing structures and present a one-size-fits-all solution. In placing Scott’s work in conversation with Morrison’s, readers can trace some of the roots of feminist utopian fiction and its evolution within the reformist framework. While Scott’s work is inherently about social change for increased female agency, Morrison’s novel seeks an intersectional advocacy that rejects utopia as a solution and instead opts for a utopian ideology meant to affect the larger existing world.

CHAPTER 3

UTOPIA’S FAMILY AND HIERACHY PROBLEM

While the visitor highlights the social limitations of the utopian setting, the utopian family construct plays a key role in manufacturing and maintaining utopia.

Within the family, individuals learn cultural norms and customs which equip them with the necessary social skills to survive outside the family home; in this way, the family is the ideal place for teaching the individual how to function in larger society. The family construct, therefore, is also a microcosm that replicates the power hierarchies that exist within larger society. Typically, the patriarch, or the “head of household” controls the family and makes decisions regarding the family’s finances, activities, and future. Scott’s feminist utopia, however, subverts this family model so that women occupy the patriarchal role. In both Scott and Morrison’s work, the reader sees a family model that, although similar to its contemporary construct, places women in key positions of power to articulate a family based on compassion, love, and kindness rather than on conjugality

(Van Sant 375). Arguably, the ruling ladies of Millenium Hall run their families in much the same way as the traditional patriarch would so that contemporary audiences recognize the family unit and its function and accept it as a normal part of society; but ultimately, its similarity to feudal British systems demonstrate its inadequacy in formulating a truly utopian vision. The family unit in Morrison’s text, however, serves a different purpose.

On Amazonia, the residents exist as one familial whole with a queen figurehead who assumes the role of mother. Every Amazon regards her fellow Amazon as a sister-in-

34 arms. While Diana is the queen’s only biological daughter, the social contract within

Amazonia is such that matriarchic-directed sisterhood drives policy, social attitudes, and even infrastructure. This focus on feminine bonds prevents Amazonia from developing adequate responses to any challenge that may arise against their matriarchy. While both texts present the family as a microcosm for the larger community, they also expose the limitations of the utopian space. Millenium Hall and Amazonia offer themselves as havens from injustices that they themselves are guilty of committing and create family structures that replicate the circumstances that facilitate abuses of power. The utopian space as it exists in both these narratives proves insufficient in remedying such abuses of power. Of course, Scott’s narrative is a product of a much more repressive culture than

Morrison’s, even as the latter utopia is more visibly repressive than the one that Scott offers in her novel. Despite its numerous flaws, a feminist utopia in Scott’s time was in and of itself subversive. However, Morrison’s audience recognizes that the utopian space fails for multiple reasons. Both authors tap into the potential of utopian thought— specifically its ability to imagine a better version of society—even as the limitations of utopian space emerge. Scott’s novel, in wedding the utopian impulse to a protected utopian place, unwittingly reproduces structural inequities, whereas Morrison’s text adds an intersectional reading to the utopian impulse that highlights utopia’s failure and points toward a more hopeful future.

Both Scott and Morrison center part of their respective narratives within female

communities to advocate female agency, but while Scott’s narrative is a feminist utopia,

Morrison presents a female community which adheres to the conventions of a traditional

35 utopia. For Scott and her contemporaries, feminist utopias allowed an opportunity to imagine and create idealized spaces in which women appear as independent figures free from the bonds of “unwanted marriage, pregnancy, and the disappointments and dangers of maternity” (Van Sant 373). Alessa Johns offers the following useful description:

In feminist utopias, human behavior is guided not by external forces but from

within. Women writers invoke new psychological and educational theories, like

those of John Locke, and use fiction, conversation, and play for behavior

modification. Such an approach suggests not only new ideas about subjectivity

and individual responsibility but also attention to what the occasion demands

rather than rigid adherence to a determined system. (14)

These communities, although strict in many ways, attempt to formulate situation-specific civic responses to create a more just and fair social construct. In Scott’s novel, characters are educated through the model behavior of its leadership—a cohort of genteel women who behave humbly, compassionately, and responsibly. In contrast, Morrison’s all- female utopia follows a rigid and strict system of rules that ultimately casts Amazonia as a dangerously socially-stunted place. Morrison’s approach is meant to highlight the benefits of an intersectional utopian impulse outside the bounds of utopia as a protected and isolated place. 11

The feminist utopian space in Millenium Hall, however, fails to deliver on the flexibility that many critics cite as one of the hallmarks of feminist utopian fiction—

11 To clarify, Morrison’s intersectional approach to utopian studies does not discount the work of feminism that authors like Scott attempt to argue for; rather it seeks to include feminism's work in identifying gender-specific structures of oppression.

specifically in its social stratification. In Scott’s novel, a resident's role is determined by

her gender and class which replicates the class structure of eighteenth-century England

and establishes a feudal system in which its working-class inhabitants produce goods for the whole community—these goods are either consumed within the community or sold outside, but Millenium Hall ultimately reaps the benefits of this labor in some way:

‘There is nothing in that,’ continued the good woman, ‘the ladies steward sends us

in all we want in the way of meat, drink, and firing; an dour spinning we carry to

the ladies; they employ a poor old weaver, who before they came broke for want

of work, to weave it for us, and when there is not enough they put more to it, so

we are sure to have our cloathing; if we are not idle that is all they desire, except

that we should be clean to.’ (67)

The goods that the older resident describes in the abovementioned scene are financed by the wealth of its gentry-class women and the labor of Millenium Hall’s dwellers. They work for each other to make sure that each member of the community has the basic necessities, but ultimately it is the founding women who redistribute and determine where the goods go. This structure, described by Nicole Pohl as a “country-house ethos,” was prevalent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:

The country house signifies as an economically self-sufficient, socially stable

(therefore hierarchical) microcosm within which the aristocratic owner

dominated as governor and patriarch. As such, it also seeks to negotiate and

more importantly, stabilize the profound social and economic changes in the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The country-house ethos re-evaluates

ancient feudal power and at the same time, legitimizes the ‘new aristocracy’ by

constituting their authority through the discourse of good stewardship,

hospitality, and benevolence. (58)

Scott’s primary female characters all fit the definition of “good stewardship,” and their system is one that replicates the feudal country house; however, in its replication, Scott overlooks the folly of the feudal system itself, understood as a hierarchy that merely relies on the benevolence of its leadership to reform society. While the women in the narrative are described as good Christians, there is no guarantee that they will not transgress the community’s expectations of nobility. In fact, one older resident remarks on her former steward’s moral irresponsibility:

‘Nay all the parish were so when they came into it, young and old, there was not

much to chuse, few of us had rags to coverus, or a morsel of bread to eat, except

the two Squires; they indeed grew rich, because they had our work, and paid us

not enough to keep life and soul together; they live above a mile off, so perhaps

they did not know how poor we were, I must say that for them; the ladies tell me I

ought not to speak against them, for every one has faults.’ (Scott 65)

The older lady’s praise of Millenium Hall’s leadership echoes the praise of a grateful child who is utterly dependent on its parent for survival, but it also illustrates the similarity between the relationship she had with her former steward and her current one with Millenium Hall’s leadership. This parallel demonstrates an imbalance of power that simply replicates the morally corrupt power structure of the outside. While these women are kind, generous, and giving in action—a stark contrast to the landed gentry outside of

Millenium Hall—they have created a system similar to that which allows the male

aristocracy to abuse those of lesser social rank. While genteel women rule the hall,

victims of unscrupulous squires are relegated to houses outside the main building. These

residents are indebted to the ruling class of women inside Millenium Hall and are

therefore subject to their whims—a living situation that mirrors that of the feudal system

that necessitated their salvation from the squires in the first place. These female residents

face alienation in British society for their gender and class, but their positions within

Millenium Hall are largely determined by the same intersections of identity that

determine their place within British society: gender, class, and race. They are grouped

according to these markers and all must follow their patronesses' rules.

The physical removal of the utopian leadership from the community they oversee

further speaks to the structure of the family wherein decision-making power is strictly

vested in an individual or a small number of people, thus suggesting a structure strikingly similar to larger British society. When Ellison first begins to explore Millenium Hall, he notes that the saloon area, in which the ladies converge and enjoy their morning activities, is physically detached from the rest of the community: “As I passed by the windows of the saloon, I perceived the ladies and their little pupils….I first went into the gayest flower garden I ever beheld…Beyond these beds of flowers rises a shrubbery, where every thing sweet and pleasing is collected” (Scott 64). Ellison goes to great pains to describe the setting as idyllic and beautiful. He utilizes the intensifier “gayest” and makes use of pleasing imagery to ease the reader into the transition between the ladies’ home and the attached community which houses non-elite members of the community.

This transition paints the utopia as an inviting place, and conveniently blurs the social stratification that exists within Millenium Hall:

Behind the shrubbery is a little wood, which affords a gloom, rendered more

agreeable by its contrast with the dazzling beauty of that part of the garden that

leads to it. In the high pale which encloses this wood I observed a little door;

curiosity induced me to pass through it; I found it opened on a row of the neatest

cottages I ever saw, which the wood had concealed from my view. They were

new and uniform, and therefore I imagined all dedicated to the same purpose. (65)

The ladies’ physical detachment from those they claim to protect poses a paradoxical complication. If Millenium Hall is meant to serve as a just community to protect everyone, then why are members who are not part of the female gentry class physically removed from the main building where decisions about the entire community are made?

This removal echoes that which Scott critiques earlier in her novel when one of the residents reflects on her prior condition and eventual rescue by the ladies:

‘Why Sir, continued the old woman, it is all owing to them. I was almost starved

when they put me into this house, and no shame of mine, for so were my

neighbours too; perhaps we were not so painstaking as we might have been; but

that was not our faults, you know, as we had not things to work with, nor any

body to set us to work, poor folks cannot know everything….few of us had rags to

cover us, or a morsel of bread to eat, except the two Squires; they indeed grew

rich, because they had our work, and paid us not enough to keep life and soul

together; they live a mile off, so perhaps they did not know how poor we were.’

(65)

Feudal tenants had no say in the distribution of wealth outside of Millenium Hall, and when analyzing the structure within Millenium Hall closely, the reader notes that not much has changed. It becomes clear that the architecture is meant to reinforce a rigid social stratification in which utopian residents have very little agency over their community’s running. Family within the utopian space is a rigidly embedded social hierarchy that places the matriarchs above everyone else and allows them to rule as they see fit.

Although Scott imagines Millienium Hall as community ruled by women in the service of anyone victimized by the patriarchy of eighteenth-century England, its leadership’s strict adherence to preordained notions of class undermine the utopian construct. Millenium Hall invites women but accommodates a small number of dependent men and boys and creates a community wholly dependent on the leadership of a homogenous enclave of genteel women who, because of their gentility and suffering, prove to be better feudal lords and matriarchs than their male counterparts who rule

British society. When touring Millenium Hall, numerous residents comment on the generosity of their female patrons: “You must know these good ladies, heaven preserve them! Take every child after the fifth of every poor person…these children they send to us to keep out of harm” (66). While not genetically related to these children, Millenium

Hall’s patronesses are committed to their protection and education. Such an arrangement is meant to contrast that of Louisa Mancel’s experience with Hintman, an unscrupulous

41 landlord who sought to sexually exploit the economically distressed Louisa. The arrangement of dependency wherein one party is economically reliant on another reinforces both the class structure of eighteenth-century England and creates a space

wherein one party can easily exploit the other:

By misconstruing the privileges of ‘possession’ and assuming that providing for

Louisa’s education entitles him to do what he will with her, Hintman exemplifies

the problems of a system that makes land ownership the basis for authority in all

other realms, including that of child protection. Scott’s novel offers a modest

corrective, advocating that female rather than male stewards are more likely to

protect women’s interests. (Jordan 36)

The suggestion that a female steward is “more likely to protect women’s interests” does

not guarantee that the elite class of women will always comply with what is honest and

benevolent. Furthermore, these ladies prescribe to a regimented social class hierarchy that

places them above their tenants. This social distance, much like the distance evident with

stewards outside of the community, facilitates abuses of power. Scott nevertheless paints

Millenium Hall’s leadership as the epitome of moral responsibility and charity to situate

them as morally superior beings who are uniquely qualified to rule over Millenium Hall.

Their deference to social stratification, however, illustrates a sense of superiority that

cannot be ignored: “Scott, able to identify with victims, nonetheless sided with dominant

ranks and patriotic ambitions….She…supported the idea of social ranks, created by God,

that imply particular obligation” (Johns 95). This belief that an individual’s social rank is

predetermined by Providence highlights a hierarchy that can easily result in the same

42 types of injustices that patriarchs commit in eighteenth-century British society. The strict social structure impedes anyone from rising above their station and allows for a system of governance in which those in power can abuse it. The feminist utopia’s founding goal is to contend with social and political conflicts as they arise, but the reality remains that those in power will ultimately decide how to solve conflict, thereby allowing for abuses of power to remain unchecked.

For Scott, remedying the feudal system and its human consequences is one of her topmost priorities, so she offers a community ruled by matriarchal figures who teach their tenants, as mothers would, appropriate Christian values and behavior. If British social structures do not work to protect those in need, then Scott’s utopia serves as a solution because its decision-making powers are in the hands of a naturally caring enclave of respectable women, who act as maternal figures in providing for their residents and in teaching them how to appropriately confront conflict, as one resident attests to Ellison:

We used to quarrel, to be sure, sometimes when we first came to these houses, but

the ladies condescended to make it up amongst us, and shewed us so kindly how

much it was our duty to agree together, and to forgive everybody their faults, or

else we could not hope to be forgiven by God, against whom we so often sinned,

that now we love one another like sisters, or indeed better. (67)

This scene suggests that society outside of Millenium Hall is incapable of true Christian living. The residents admit to confronting conflict with arguments—which were not particularly constructive—but they learn how to better address problems because of their patronesses. The ladies therefore morally program their residents into the utopia by

43 reminding them of their shared identity as sinners and helping them bond through that shared experience. While on the surface this scene seems innocuously similar to a mother teaching her child how to behave, the implication here is that if Millenium Hall residents do not follow the community’s rules, then they must exit this haven. The authoritarian undercurrent with which the genteel women rule Millenum Hall is at odds with the feminist utopian objective of confronting challenges as “the occasion demands” (Johns

14). The reminder of individual sin exploits the residents’ sense of guilt to make them compliant members of the utopia and silence signs of strife. In this regard, Millenium

Hall becomes almost dystopian in the emotional manipulation that these residents experience. The benevolence with which the utopia’s citizens describe their patronesses adds another layer of uneasiness as it subverts utopia’s promise of a more just society and ultimately recasts its leadership as a group of domineering mothers who use religion to control their children.

Once within the utopian space, like Rousseau’s social contract, the individual gives up a number of liberties in order to partake of the community’s numerous benefits.

In contrast to Rousseau’s definition, the utopian vision promises a perfectly just society.

Its residents give up a number of social liberties so that everyone has enough, but in

Scott’s novel and other utopian interpretations, everyone must adhere to a strict sense of order. The sense of order and clockwork schedule within Millenium Hall illustrate the rigid sense of control and surveillance with which the genteel ladies run the community:

I should have stayed longer with her, if a bell had not rang at Millenium Hall,

which she informed me was a summons to breakfast. I obeyed its call, and after

thanking her for her conversation, returned with a heart warmed and enlarged, to

the amiable society. My mind was so filled with exalted reflection on their

virtues, that I was less attentive to the charms of inanimate nature than when I

first passed through the gardens. (68)

Both Ellison and the older resident seem elated at the ladies’ kindness and ignore the fact that they need to adhere to someone else’s schedule. Neither seem overly concerned with their lack of free will within the complex and instead marvel at the ladies’ many virtues.

Ellison must now ignore the gardens that seem to have mesmerized him earlier in the

novel so that he does not transgress the utopia’s strict schedule. Pohl touches on

liberating effect of the utopian space on the ruling ladies:

Scott’s novel…takes the appropriation of space further than her predecessors. By

establishing a separatist community on a working estate, Sarah Scott extends the

traditional role of women on country estates. Instead of being just wives,

hostesses and genteel women in retirement, the women of Millenium Hall are

responsible landowners and proto-industrialists. Economic power is expanded: all

land and material goods are held in common. As such the women do not merely

inhabit the space of the country estate but they truly appropriate it by

demystifying and remystifying its architectural form, function and metonymic

meaning. Traditionally, as we have seen, the country estate is an exclusionary

sociopolitical microcosm. Millenium Hall expands this idea of the microcosmic

oikos into an emancipatory and liberating space for women. (73-4)

This liberation, though, is strictly for the women in charge of it. The community’s residents must continue to adhere to the rules that Millenium Hall’s ruling class establishes or face exclusion from this space. In fact, the juxtaposition of the community’s rules with the jubilant elevation of the ladies’ many virtues exposes the unwillingness on Scott’s behalf to acknowledge the flaws with the utopian space and its conception of the family. While the utopia offers safe haven, it demands submission and obedience in exchange.

Similarly, this sense of control and surveillance is present in Morrison’s narrative as well and intimates a culture of distrust that is resistant to change. In the opening scenes of Wonder Woman: Earth One, Paquette, the novel’s lead artist, includes Hippolyta’s all- seeing mirror in the background of five different panels. Hippolyta uses this mirror to look into Man’s World, and the mirror’s repeated image is presented in the collage below

(see fig. 5):

Fig 5. Collage of multiple panels with Hippolyta’s all-seeing mirror by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

On one hand, the repetition of the mirror is logical because these images are taken from the same scene, but on the other, the mirror takes up most of the background space in each panel, thus emphasizing its importance. Hippolyta’s continued proximity and the fact that she stands in front of this mirror as if to block Diana’s vision suggests two things: firstly, that the Amazon queen is always keeping a watchful eye over Man’s

World and secondly, that she fears Diana learning too much of Man’s World. This fear signals utopia’s uneasy relationship with change. Man’s World represents a place that, although riddled with conflict, constantly changes and adapts:

Diana: Mother. What language is that?

Hippolyta: It’s nothing. The insane voices of Man’s World. The sound of the

wasteland beyond our perfect shores. The dreadful din that is Man’s

night. Mare of the unending conflict. Men never change yet

continuous change they demand.

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

Immediately upon hearing Diana’s voice, Hippolyta dispels the news projected on the mirror and disparages Man’s World as a war-infested void. This attitude is meant to discourage Diana from further inquiring about the world outside of Amazonia and from contemplating what she might learn from it. Hippolyta’s sense of secrecy in this scene, however, is at odds with what Kitch describes as a truly utopian vision:

By utopianism I mean a compendium of attitudes about and strategies for social

change that share the characteristics of utopian designs and visions. Those

characteristics include a belief that good societies produce good people and that

human needs and social values are constant and can be anticipated through careful

advanced planning. Utopianism also involves insightful social criticism that often

suggests programs for social change. (2)

Hippolyta’s belief that Amazonia is the epitome of culture should be enough for her to trust that Diana, a product of utopia, will look upon Man’s World with the same sense of

48 disgust that all other Amazons exhibit. In other words, as a utopian native, Diana should share the Amazonian sense of superiority to Man’s World—a definitive mark of a “good person” within the utopian space—but Hippolyta’s quick dismissal of the mirror’s image and her disdainful remarks paint her as a desperate mother trying to hide some underlying truth from her child. Furthermore, this attitude of distrust contradicts Kitch’s definition of utopianism as something that is capable of self-criticism. Hippolyta easily criticizes

Man’s World as a “dreadful din” and a “wasteland,” but when looking at her own community, she describes it as “perfect.” This unyielding signifier marks the difference between utopia and the utopian impulse. While utopia is an unchanging space, the utopian impulse, or utopianism as Kitch describes it, is an attitude that is meant to serve the needs of and social values of different people—something that is impossible to achieve when a society describes itself as “perfect.” Hippolyta’s strict surveillance of

Man’s World echoes this desire to remain untouched by both its conflict and ideas. On the surface, she fears that the conflict that envelops Man’s World might threaten to consume Amazonia, but she also fears any change, however minimal, that might infect her ideal community. Utopia’s culture of secrecy and surveillance signals an inherently dishonest and anxious attitude within the utopian construct. Hippolyta clearly does not trust her daughter, whom she raised within utopia, to receive the news of the outside world for fear that Diana might want to leave Amazonia. Diana’s desire to exit

Amazonia’s “perfect shores,” though implies that this utopia is not as perfect as it seems.

Utopia’s unchanging and unyielding nature is evident in its leadership—an eternal maternal monarch who actively works to maintain the status quo within Amazonia. When

Hippolyta and the Amazons defeat Hercules, the queen remarks: “Sweet Aphrodite. No more spilled blood. No more shackles. Let us retire forever from Man’s World. Let us

draw an impenetrable veil around our affairs and prosper in peace. In a world that bears no mark of men” (Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original). This founding declaration shapes the Amazons’ response to any threat or change to their utopian setting. Hippolyta’s objective in founding Amazonia is noble and highlights utopia’s potential as something capable of offering a better alternative, but it discounts the fundamental need for social change that initially drives the creation of a place like

Amazonia. The first image of Amazonia that the reader sees is an idyllic fantasy space that, while peaceful, hides the reality that this space is only possible because it serves a

distinctively homogenous group of women (see fig. 6):

Fig 6. Amazonia by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, full page (©DC Comics)

The picturesque paradise pictured above is clearly a fantasy space, but it projects a fundamental human hope that such a fantasy might be possible. This idyllic vision undergirds utopia and it marks its influence on the utopian impulse. A place like the one pictured above is not possible, but the drive to work toward the peace and harmony that it promises is fundamental to the utopian impulse. The Greco-Roman architecture delivers on the promise of utopia as an unchanging place and works as a physical metaphor for the fixed social structure inherent within the utopian space. During Hippolyta’s first conversation with Nubia, her most trusted advisor, about Diana’s disobedient actions, the

51 latter refers to the queen’s interminable rule: “At the end, she submitted to your majesty’s wishes. As do we all, sweet Hippolyta eternal. As do we all” (Wonder Woman: Earth

One vol. 1, emphasis in original). This emphasis on Hippolyta’s unchanging position reveals the staunch loyalty of the Amazons to their ruler and their unwillingness to change any part of their society, including their queen. Hippolyta has ruled for three thousand years and will likely continue to rule for years to come. In fact, even when

Hippolyta attempts to force Diana to remain on Amazonia by giving up her role as queen,

Nubia responds, “My queen. This decision is not yours to make. The eternal queen serves the Amazons eternally. Remember? You are not permitted to abdicate. Were the sky to fall, were the sea to dry, Hippolyta would be Queen of Amazonia. The fates gave you the crown after a trial like this one, log ago in the morning” (Wonder Woman: Earth

One vol. 1, emphasis in original). Once again, the reader sees Amazonia’s immutability with regards to social change. In accepting that Amazonia is perfect, the Amazons close themselves off to all changes, even if it is a positive social movement.

The physical detachment of Amazonia from Man’s World creates an isolationist attitude that fosters Amazonian exceptionalism and contempt for anyone outside of their utopia. In fact, when Diana rescues Trevor from the Amazons on the invisible plane, she crosses a storm-barrier that hides the island from Man’s World (see fig. 7):

Fig 7. Diana and Steve Trevor escape Amazonia through the storm barrier by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, full page (©DC Comics)

Amazonia appears at the corner of the page hidden away by tumultuous storms from

Man’s World. This isolation from other cultures, governments, and the opposite sex allows the Amazons to resist change and adaptation. Because they do not have to contend with the outside world, they never establish guidelines, other than violent tactics, with which to grapple with unforeseen visitors. In contrast, Scott’s utopian community, while self-sufficient in many ways, relies on establishing relationships with British society outside of Millenium Hall for profit. They depend on the outside world’s commercialism

53 for economic sustainability and survival. Millenium Hall’s willingness to work with larger British society suggests that this utopian vision is at least partly possible while

Amazonia’s strict rejection of the outside world suggests utopia is impossible. Their respective treatments of utopia are emblematic of each author’s time. While Scott is attempting to argue for the inclusion of women within public discourse, Morrison is attempting to critique a feminist trope in favor of a literature that at least attempts to move beyond the strict gender ideology toward a utopianism that is intersectional and fair. For Morrison, the gendered utopian space does not demand or critique social structures enough. Wonder Woman physically exits the utopia and enters Man’s World and forces her way into public discourse. Her entrance into larger society illustrates a willingness to work within a complex system that is far from perfect but ultimately works to improve the circumstances for everyone and not just a limited group of elites.

Part of the utopian construct in the Wonder Woman mythology relies heavily on

William Moulton Marston’s ideas about submission and love, which are meant as a social critique against man’s—or men’s—aggressiveness and violence. However, this continuous chain of submission creates a space in which abuses of power can occur. 12

The cover of Morrison’s novel shows Wonder Woman in heavy chains and wrist cuffs, evoking the bondage imagery that Marston originally used (see fig. 8):

12 William Moulton Marston is Wonder Woman’s original creator. He created the character in the 1940s for All-Star Comics, later to become DC Comics (Lepore 200).

Fig 8. Cover art by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, full page (©DC Comics)

While the bondage imagery is supposed to echo Marston’s sentiments regarding female leadership and submission, the reader cannot help but read Diana as a prisoner of her utopian home. In outlining Marston’s feminist goals, Michelle Finn notes his original intent in utilizing bondage as a way of empowering Wonder Woman and her readers:

“Bondage in Wonder Woman also served Marston’s call for female love leadership and his belief that, as bad as it was to be controlled by malevolent forces, it was equally beneficial to submit to loving ones” (13). Submission to loving forces is predicated on the idea that a loving ruler will ultimately judge her subordinates with love. This submissive vision of a social contract mirrors that within Millenium Hall in which familial relationships are based on “affective bonds” rather than conjugal ones (Van Sant 389).

The intimation here is that the Amazons do not punish each other harshly; instead they are ruled by their bonds as sisters and act with love when punishing their fellow

Amazons. At the heart of this utopian vision, participants must willingly submit to one another and accept their superior’s loving judgment—this submission is a choice and is therefore a form of empowerment. When Diana turns herself over to the Amazons, it is because Amazonian custom demands it, but Diana’s response when Mala asks for an explanation demonstrates that this social construct does not fully work:

Mala: You stole my plane. You exposed us to Man’s World. What do you hope

to accomplish?

Diana: I hope to prove that the Amazons can hide no longer. That it’s our duty to

improve the lives of women everywhere. That the time has come for us to

share our great culture with the world.

(Wonder Woman: Earth: One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

Mala is obviously hurt by Diana’s actions, but her accusatory tone and anger in this scene undermine the image of a loving superior. When first assigned the task of pursuing Diana and Steve Trevor, Mala is not only ready to obey Hippolyta’s orders, she is eager to comply (see fig. 9):

Fig 9. Mala and the Amazons leave in pursuit of Diana and Steve by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

The anger on Mala’s face undermines the promise of a loving figure accepting her subordinate’s submission. She rejects Diana’s suggestion that Amazonia needs to change multiple times and reinforces instead the rigidity of utopia that Hippolyta advocated for.

Because of her royal station, Diana is prevented from fully immersing herself in

Amazonian culture, and as a result she has very little agency within the utopian space.

Diana, a princess, plays a role—one that she cannot transgress—which limits her options

and transforms the utopia into a dystopia for her. Diana is brought up to play the villain in

the Amazonian festivals, a role she is not allowed to transgress. According to Hippolyta,

Diana must hide her gifts and adhere to the traditions of Amazonia:

Hippolyta: First you disappear for a day—then this! As Hercules, you’re

supposed to yield to Mala in loving submission!

Diana: I’m tired of playing the same role forever and ever…there’s a bigger

world.

Hippolyta: Our champion of New Athena must overcome the super-warriors of

the New Sparta! I have forbidden you to fight, Diana! Do our

traditions mean nothing to you, daughter?

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

As a princess, Diana has very little agency. Because of her gifts and physical superiority to the other Amazons, she cannot truly participate in the utopia. Diana, like her mother, occupies a small space, but while her mother can act as ruler, Diana is relegated to the side and presented only as an extension of her mother. She can perform the role of

Hercules during the festival, she can stand behind her mother when Hippolyta addresses

58 the Amazons, and she can learn from the Amazons, but Diana can never disrupt any part of the utopian construct by actively participating in it. She must simply exist:

Hippolyta: Your native abilities far surpass those of your sister Amazons.

Diana: Mother! I’ve been training my entire life—for what? You named me

for the divine Mistress of the Hunt!

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

For Diana, Amazonia is a severely limiting space that prevents her from enacting change.

As Amazonia’s princess, Diana is marginalized because of her class and her ability, which although superior, make her a threat to the other Amazons. While the Amazons are perfectly content having a strong princess, they do not want her to use her abilities to improve or disturb the utopia. Her eventual departure from Amazonia reflects Diana’s original purpose in articulating a fiercely independent vision of femininity. Diana embraces an ideology that encourages others to break free from whatever bonds constrain them:

Symbolized in the Wonder Woman stories as heavy ropes and chains, these

oppressive forces were both external—like tyrannical men—as well as internal—

like personal insecurities. Regardless of the form their oppression took, Wonder

Woman encouraged girls to overcome it by being strong, believing in themselves,

and meeting each challenge head-on. Ever the role model, Wonder Woman broke

free from her fetters and showed other women how to do the same. (Finn 13)

This drive to break free from oppressive forms of power defines the utopian impulse— which will be explored in the subsequent chapter—and illustrates the confining nature of utopia as a space.

Both novels present familial constructs based on compassion and respect, but both uphold power structures wherein one group rules over the other. The “family” therefore becomes the ideal place for indoctrinating the individual into the utopian space. The women of Millenium Hall use guilt to remind their residents that everyone is a sinner and that they must treat each other with respect. Hippolyta, however, uses tradition and her role as the eternal monarch to guilt Diana into submission. Both utopian constructs demand strict obedience through which they reveal their authoritarian control. Scott published Millenium Hall as a critique of eighteenth-century British culture that offered few to little protections to unmarried women, the impoverished, and the mentally ill. Her utopia, and consequently the family units created within this space, is meant to combat the injustices committed against these groups outside of Millenium Hall. Hippolyta and her subjects founded Amazonia because of similar injustices. After securing their freedom by killing Hercules, the Amazons retreat from Man’s World and create an isolated haven for themselves. Like Millenium Hall, decision-making powers are strictly concentrated on a designated few and thus allow for injustices to be committed against those who are not in power. Scott does not expose any such abuses in her novel, but the hierarchy within Millenium Hall does not guard against such abuses. Hippolyta’s continued subjugation of her daughter signals utopia’s limited and stunted vision so that when Diana ultimately exits this space, the reader sees the utopian impulse as a thought

60 process that encapsulates the utopian hope and goal better than the seemingly ideal utopian space.

CHAPTER 4

THE INTERSECTIONAL UTOPIST AGAINST UTOPIA

Although Utopia has largely been discredited in academic circles by critics like

Peter Paik and Sally L. Kitch for its impracticality, its reactionary tendencies, and its unintended and unforeseen systems of oppression, utopian thought offers readers a set of ideals that embrace complexity and change. Kitch suggests that while utopia is traditionally conceived as a practice, utopianism is "a thought process" (2) that seeks "to improve the human condition" (9). This utopianism, or utopian impulse, works toward a more inclusive discourse, and it further serves as an approach for contending with new challenges that may arise within a community. Specifically, the utopian impulse is the ideology that maintains a utopian ideal of a perfectly just world while recognizing that a physical utopia, including as it exists in Scott’s and even Morrison’s texts, should not be the ultimate goal. This process of improvement, which is a manifestation of the utopian impulse, is at the crux of what utopianism offers as a critical approach, specifically through Morrison’s representation of Diana, who tirelessly rejects the unchanging culture within utopia and actively works to undermine its narrow vision. Her utopian impulse, however, is also intersectional in that she examines different structures of oppression and resists them. Diana’s defense of Steve Trevor, for example, is notably intersectional.

Trevor’s race, gender, and immigrant status all contribute to his marginalization within

Amazonia, but Diana illustrates the intersectional utopian spirit in her rejection of injustice in any form. In her discussion of female communities, Nina Auberbach

62 describes the rise in female communities as a movement that originates from the core of female oppression: “Though women embody history’s primal oppression, oppression is, in her definition, history’s vital essence. Women’s victimization thus contains the radical promise of all human transformation” (189). Morrison’s text touches on an area of discourse that, in the broader context of a Western feminist movement, has been relatively successful. Rather than simplifying feminism as an area of study that examines the injustices that society commits against women, he displays an intersectional utopian drive that is nuanced by pointed representations of race and class; of course, these categories are by no means exhaustive, but they are meant to draw the reader’s attention to the multiple forms of oppression that exist both within and outside the utopian space.

The Amazons, figures representative of the typical utopian resident, cannot embrace outsiders, like Steve Trevor or Beth Candy, but the intersectional utopist—the figure who is not limited by physical space, who instead embraces utopian thought, and who is concerned with improving everyday circumstances for all—is willing to combat any form of injustice and work to transform society at large rather than a narrowly defined few.

Diana, or Wonder Woman, as she is referred to at the novel’s conclusion, embraces the potential for change and flexibility that Man’s World offers and ultimately embodies the intersectional utopian spirit.

While Morrison presents a female utopia, a space typically defined by feminist

ideals, a strictly feminist lens is insufficient in examining his critique of the female

utopia. In his inclusion of Steve Trevor, an African-American male Flight Lieutenant,

Morrison subverts the utopian traveler figure to highlight the racial discrimination often

faced by minority men while also interrogating the potential of utopian thinking to be

more inclusively transformative. Intersectional forms of oppression within the

Amazonian utopia are perhaps most explicit in the Amazon’s treatment of Trevor, whose

mere presence exposes the exclusivity and totalitarian control with which Amazonia is

ruled. In the context of Morrison's Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor occupies a space of

“double-jeopardy,” a term first coined by black feminist scholar Frances Beal (quod. in

Collins and Bilge 66). As an African-American man, Trevor faces oppression within

Amazonia for his gender and, in Man’s World, because of his race. Morrison paints

Amazonia as an inclusive space that welcomes different races, but Trevor's dark complexion, to the reader, especially in light of the character's historically white representation, carries with it a history of oppression, disenfranchisement, social inequality, and general marginalization that further reinforces Amazonia’s problematic system. While the Amazons are unaware of the rampant racism those of African descent may have faced in Man's World, the audience is not. The scene in which Diana innocently and almost playfully hands Trevor a collar and expects him to wear it as a sign of trust exemplifies utopia’s uneasy relationship with reality (see fig. 10):

Fig 10. Diana hands Steve Trevor a collar by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

Immediately following the abovementioned scene, Beth comically dismisses the ridiculousness of the collar as a kinky sex joke. Yet, the reader, like Trevor, remains disturbed by the implication of the collar. As a product of utopia, Diana is bound to make mistakes like the one depicted in this scene, and it reveals the limitations of utopia in understanding nuance and history. The reader recognizes the complex history of subjugation associated with Trevor's skin color, and when considering the Amazons' disregard of him based on his gender, the social inequality that Trevor experiences, while shocking the reader, illustrates that which intersectionality attempts to explain:

“intersectional frameworks examine the ways in which public policies uphold social inequalities” (Collins and Bilge 151). Within Amazonia, Trevor is persecuted for his gender and outsider status. Readers can only theorize that his immigrant status would not have been a concern were he female, especially as we see the Amazons’ reaction to Beth as one of contempt and disgust but not of outright hatred and violent subjugation; in fact, the threat of death looms over him the entire time that he is on Amazonia. The gender role reversal within Amazonia on the surface is humorously ridiculous until the reader realizes that the threat against Trevor is real and immediate. The intersection of inequalities here however is not far removed from reality. The reader recognizes that

Trevor is in danger within Amazonia, but when in Man's World he is also a subordinate in the U. S Air Force and under constant threat from his superiors. Within Amazonia, his gender places him in a precarious position, but in Man's World, both his race and gender place him in a similarly dangerous position. Steve Trevor’s status as an immigrant to

Amazonia adds another layer of oppression; he faces the stigma and suspicion that any

66 visitor to the utopia would inevitably face. Like Lamont, he is not taken seriously by the utopian residents and is in fact physically threatened. Trevor experiences intersectional forms of oppression for his gender and immigration status in Amazonia and the reader simultaneously recognizes some of the struggles he faces within Man’s World because of his race.

While Morrison attempts to present Amazonia as a community that transcends

racial inequality, its rigid class structure and its inhabitants’ inability to recognize the

nuances of race and their role in manufacturing systems of oppression in Man’s World

illustrate utopia’s failure and its unyielding social contract. The character of Nubia,

Hippolyta’s top advisor, could be read as Morrison’s attempt to circumvent racial

inequality, but her name reinforces the racial tensions and intersectional forms of

oppression that highlight utopia’s failure. The word “nubia” carries with it a number of

different denotative and connotative meanings that the reader cannot divorce from the

character. Denotatively, “nubian” can refer to “a native or inhabitant of Nubia, a region

and any several former kingdoms in north-eastern Africa, or a descendant of such a

person; a slave from this region” (OED) while “nubia” refers to “a soft fleecy scarf for

the head and neck, usually worn by women” (OED). Both definitions reduce Nubia to a

specific type of property. In one regard, Nubia is linked to the regional term, one linked

to a history of slavery and subjugation, while in another, she is dismissed as an accessory

for Hippolyta to use as she sees fit. These denotations make it difficult to read Amazonia

as a truly utopian place where all Amazons are treated equally; instead, Nubia’s

racialized characterization problematizes Amazonia, for while it purports to be an Edenic

67 haven for the Amazons, it reduces Amazons like Nubia to racial tokens who simply fulfill a racial quota that makes the utopia appear inclusive.

Through Nubia, however, Morrison captures the utopian potential to embed a diverse cast of characters into the ruling elite. She holds a position of major influence as the queen’s advisor, but her racialization remains a disturbing reminder that visually diversifying the ruling class is not enough. On one hand, Nubia’s role within Amazonia subverts racialized power structures, but on the other, she upholds the rigid structure that makes it impossible for people like Diana to change the utopia. Regardless of Nubia’s appearance, she shares the same values as all of the other Amazons. The key issue with

Nubia is that while she appears to come from a different racial background, her perspective lines up with that of her fellow Amazons, significantly complicating any reading of her identity. She is an Amazon first and foremost. Nubia’s presence in

Amazonia misleads the reader into imagining the Amazons as a diverse group of women, but the reality is that in prioritizing their Amazonian identity, they become a homogenous mass—a problem outlined by Collins and Bilge:

Solutions cannot be found by imagining women as one homogeneous mass, or by

painting men as perpetrators, or by focusing exclusively on individuals or state

power as sites of violence. Solutions to violence against women remain unlikely if

violence against women is imagined through singular lenses of gender, race, or

class….When it comes to violence, using intersectionality as an analytic tool

demonstrates the synergistic relationship between critical analysis and critical

praxis. (49)

While Collins and Bilge are referring to real world examples of domestic violence perpetrated against women, their discussion of solutions can be applied to the utopian space. Utopia is presented as the ideal response to societal ills, but in imagining a blanket solution, the utopia inevitably creates sites of oppression that marginalize those who do not fit its “homogenous” mold. Nubia invites the reader to assume that

Amazonia is a place unconcerned with race, but the stark reality remains that Amazonia is a homogenous space that works for the benefit of a specific class of elite women.

Although Nubia thrives, individuals like Trevor, and even Diana, face subjugation because they are not, either through appearance or beliefs, Amazonian.

Marston’s and Amazonia’s neglect of nuance allows Morrison to challenge issues of race and enslavement and ultimately remind the reader that utopia’s exclusionary nature is unjust, and perhaps even dystopian. While Nubia fully adheres to the edicts and teachings of utopia, Diana rejects utopia as a space but embraces the utopian desire to continuously work toward a better social structure. Diana, therefore, embodies a stronger sense of the utopian impulse than her fellow Amazons. After the Amazons capture Diana and return her to Amazonia, Nubia comes up to a chained Diana, brushes her lip, and demands to know the reason for Diana’s betrayal of Hippolyta and the rest of the

Amazons (see fig. 11):

Fig 11. Nubia confronts Diana before the trial by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

This scene serves as a visual echo of a prospective slave owner inspecting a slave, but

Morrison subverts the reader’s expectations and places Nubia in the role of the slave

70 owner and Diana in the role of the slave. This subversion plays on a number of Marston’s original interests and problematic viewpoints.13 The inversion of the slave imagery ultimately reminds the reader, and the Amazons themselves, that such subjugation contradicts the utopian goal. Submission, regardless of choice, is problematic and at odds with utopia, but none of the Amazons, including Nubia, are willing to recognize this and so Amazonia fails in delivering on its fundamental promise.

Furthermore, Diana’s chains serve as a visual allusion to chattel slavery and underscore the limited agency that Diana has within the utopian space. Diana is physically restrained, both literally and metaphorically, and although Nubia wants an answer from her Princess, the intonation in this scene suggests that no explanation that

Diana offers will sufficiently justify her defiance of Hippolyta and the Amazons. When

Diana voices her reasoning, she explains that “it needed to be done,” thus illustrating both a defiance of the utopia itself and a utopian hope that her actions will somehow change

Amazonia’s rigid ideology and social structure. While Diana willingly submits to the

Amazons’ will, her response to Nubia illustrates a determined desire to change utopia, which Kitch outlines is built on erroneous assumptions:

…utopian literary and experimental patterns….involve utopian assumptions that

societies and human nature are perfectible; foundational ideas can be eternal and

unambiguous; consistent happiness can be achieved; most problems can be

defined and permanently solved; consensus can and must occur. Such a filter not

13 Marston prescribed to essentialist feminism and believed that women had a “natural capacity for love, nurture, and self-sacrifice” which “would make them better leaders than men” (Finn 7).

only masks the inevitability—and benefits—of uncertainty and change, it can also

inflate feminist expectations and lead to disappointment and disillusionment.

(100)

In this regard, the Amazons demonstrate Kitch’s claim regarding inflated feminist expectations. The Amazons expect their princess to prioritize Amazonia’s laws above rational thought and empathy. Since Amazonia is built on the foundational belief that all men are cads and rapists, any aid that Diana provides a man, regardless of his innocence, is a violation of their utopian society and is a disruption of this “eternal” and “consistent happiness.” Diana’s resistance to this unyielding ideology, however, illustrates a determined desire to work toward a society that is not gender-specific in its pursuit of justice and equality.

From her introduction, Diana voices a desire to change Amazonia, but her

suggestions and complaints are largely ignored. When protesting her part in the Amazon

festival in which she is to play the role of the oppressor Hercules, Diana questions her

purpose and her mother’s motivations:

Diana: I’m not a child, mother. This play you indulge in is perverse.

Hippolyta: Play? There’s no play here. You are my daughter! I made you!

Diana: For what purpose? To be an eternal, unchanging princess in your fantasy

island?

Hippolyta: Dear Diana. How many times we have spoken of this. Counseling is

available when you wish.

Diana: Counseling? You think I'm being emotional? I’m trying to get through

to you!

(Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1, emphasis in original)

Diana’s frustration with her “unchanging” role as a princess reiterates the notion that utopia is a place frozen in time that cannot and will not adjust to changes and demands that its inhabitants shape themselves according to its mold, or they will be forced to do so. Hippolyta’s suggestion that Diana seek counseling and the implication that emotion when associated with women is counterproductive echoes some of the criticisms against essentialist feminism which she rejects.14 While on the surface, the Amazons also seem to reject essentialist feminism, the reality is that they merely redefine it in terms that fit their pseudo-goddess athletic aesthetic. Anyone who does not fit the Amazon mold—

athletic, beautiful, and unemotional—needs counseling in order to change and adapt to

the needs of their society. The Amazon identity is rooted in loyalty to their queen; they are warrior women who denounce the weaknesses of strong passions in favor of a blind devotion to their ruler, Hippolyta, and her utopian edicts. Any transgression against the queen is met with fierce opposition and quick condemnation, so that when Diana questions her role as a princess, the queen immediately suggests counseling to cure her of her emotional and un-Amazonian qualities. Visually, Diana is an Amazon, but her hopes and ideas challenge the status quo of utopia. Her question, however, is not unreasonable;

Diana, like the reader, is justified in demanding more from the utopia. Yet neither

14 Essentialist feminism characterizes women as innately “more caring because their psychological and physical ties to physical being remain unbroken” (Rivkin and Ryan 767).

Hippolyta nor the Amazons can offer Diana the answers that she seeks because of utopia’s rigidity, and instead seek to impose various correctives.

While Wonder Woman readily and conspicuously defies the utopian society, her intersectional utopian drive offers the hope that while utopia fails, its foundational promise is still possible as long as individuals resist any form of injustice and oppose the status quo. Despite her exit from utopia, Diana brings with her the utopian impulse to improve society as a whole. When Diana delivers Steve Trevor to the hospital shortly after escaping to Man’s World, she walks through the emergency ward and finds a number of ailing patients (see fig. 12):

Fig 12. Diana in Man’s World comforts a dying woman by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

Diana’s compassion in this scene, when juxtaposed with her willingness to help Steve

Trevor earlier in the novel, signals a truly utopian figure. While the other Amazons are repulsed by Elizabeth Candy because she is overweight and does not look like them,

Diana is saddened by the maladies that the women in Man’s World must face. She embraces the woman in the panel above as a sister and attempts to comfort her despite the fact that this woman is not an Amazon. In this elderly patient, Diana sees a human being in need of compassion and understanding. She does not defer to Amazonian standards of

75 justice that will determine her actions; instead she is ruled by a nuanced “…desire for fairness and justice which is…a core aspect of the utopian imperative at both theoretical and practical levels” (O’Brien 36). This stark difference between Diana and the Amazons ultimately outlines one of the key criticisms against utopia, but it also exemplifies the benefits of a utopian impulse as demonstrated through characters like Diana.

A primary benefit of the utopian impulse is its power to inspire through example.

While the Amazons are constrained and limited by the rules of utopia even when in

Man’s World, Diana’s utopian impulse motivates the Holliday girls—a group of women who Diana rescues after she safely delivers Trevor to the hospital—to act on their own accord in the name of justice. The Holliday girls are members of Beth’s sorority, Beta

Lamba, and they serve as a foil to the Amazon’s sisterhood. Visually speaking, the

Holliday girls contrast the largely homogenous Amazons. While the Amazons all look like replicas of Artemis, the Holliday girls represent a diverse group of women who find camaraderie within a female community, but are not restricted by it (see fig. 13):

Fig 13. The Holliday girls confront the Amazons by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

In this scene, the Holliday girls are not as visually defined as some of the main characters

in the novel so that readers can project themselves onto these women. 15 Their willingness to jump into the fray during the Amazons’ attack illustrates the model community of women—one that is diverse, is not confined by utopian rigidity, and endlessly works for justice. The Holliday girls come to Diana’s defense in this scene.

They see in the Amazons a misguided militant force that they, as women, must oppose.

These women find solidarity in each other’s companionship and unite as a community of

15 According to Scott McCloud, cartooning in this way allows such projection to occur: “Another is the universality of cartoon imagery. The more cartoony a face is for instance, the more people it could be said to describe” (31).

77 women, but they do not allow this identity to determine their every decision. Unlike

Nubia, who acts according to the mandates of her Amazonian identity, these women prioritize a desire for fairness and justice. In Morrison’s text, the women’s utopian space serves to illustrate utopia’s potential for addressing and healing injustices committed against women; through the Holliday girls, Morrison is not strictly feminist in his approach, but rather intersectional. At its core, the text seeks a progressive ideology that examines different structures of oppression and embraces constant change to create a diverse discourse outside of utopia.

In their violent need to hold onto their utopian vision, the Amazons enter Man’s

World with a singular goal: returning Diana to Amazonia and eliminating Steve Trevor, but in their defense of their utopian values they compromise the sense of justice and fairness that Amazonia was initially founded on. When they burst into the hotel where

Diana and Trevor are hiding, they take little heed of the numerous innocent people in the lobby and unleash Medusa the snake-headed Gorgon. Their excessive use of force in this scene echoes what Collins and Bilge term an augmented use of force to subjugate people:

“…amplified powers of militarized and increasingly privatized police are exerted most heavily on the most structurally disenfranchised populations whose social location within interlocking systems of oppression makes them vulnerable to violence” (149).16 Diana and Trevor both experience marginalization on multiple fronts, and the force that the

Amazons unleash on the pair mirrors that which Collins and Bilge describe. Initially, the

16 While Collins and Bilge’s discussion centers on real-world violations of power committed against minority populations, their observations are relevant when analyzing literature as well.

Amazons pursue Diana and Trevor in an attempt to keep them on Paradise Island, but their decision to attack a civilian population with a war party and a magical being reveals the violence that undergirds utopia and its residents’ fervor in defending its ideology.

Diana’s moral difference from the Amazons, specifically her denial of unjust

utopian ideals, marks her as the champion of an open-ended utopian impulse that

embraces continuous challenges and offers situation-specific solutions. While the

Amazons react with rage and anger when their sense of justice and order is transgressed,

Diana’s response is one of calm and careful consideration. When her true parentage is

revealed, Diana subverts the female hero’s convention of anger.17 Diana, however, looks to her mother in confusion at the news that she is Hercules’ daughter and was originally conceived as a weapon against mankind. At first, Diana is angry, but she embraces her mother and forgives her—an act that no Amazon does (see figs. 14 and 15):

17 According to critics Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope, the typical female hero adheres to the following conventions: “When she identifies, and slays the inner dragon, the rage turns outward. At the moment of actual confrontation and slaying, the hero suddenly recognizes that she is not what ‘they’ say she is, and that she is in fact valuable and strong. At this moment, she is likely to be overcome by a sense of outrage” (67)

Fig 14. Diana learns the truth about her conception and purpose by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

Fig 15. Diana embraces her mother by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

Hippolyta’s years of deceit confirm Diana’s uneasiness throughout the novel, but this moment does not fundamentally alter Diana’s sense of justice and desire to change the world for the better. While the Amazons act, often violently, according to their utopian beliefs, Diana is capable and willing to confront conflict according to the demands of the situation at hand and to seek non-violent solutions.

Diana’s departure from Amazonia illustrates utopia’s failures, but it also points at a better alternative: her utopian intersectional impulse. Diana exits Amazonia, a space that is unreceptive to change, and enters Man’s World as Wonder Woman, a place that although imperfect, is responsive to her ideas, as evidenced by the Holliday girls’

81 eagerness to defend Diana, and a more inclusive and diverse discourse. Diana willingly leaves an unchanging social structure that marginalized Steve Trevor and Beth Candy; she does not want to replicate utopia, but she does carry with her a dream to effect continous change to bring about a better world. 18 This desire is represented narratively throughout the novel, as Morrison and his team of artists single Diana out, both narratively and artistically, as the heroic intersectional utopist who embraces the utopian spirit as a flexible and continuous process (see fig. 16):

18 In defining the utopian impulse, Michael Griffin and Tom Moylan offer the following: “Utopianism, consequently, is best understood as a process of social dreaming that unleashes and informs efforts to make the world a better place, not to the letter of a plan but to the spirit of an open-ended process” (1).

Fig 16. Diana arrives in Man’s World by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, full page (©DC Comics)

In the image above, Diana stands boldly in the foreground as she enters Man’s World ready to create change. In the background, Steve Trevor and Beth cheer her on as the

angle of the panel makes it so that the reader is physically looking up at Wonder Woman.

This rhetorical move presents Diana as a heroic figure who the reader should attempt to

emulate. The vibrant reds in her attire further emphasize her presence on the page so that

she mesmerizes the viewer, and her bold stance on the invisible plane marks her

eagerness to get to work inside Man’s World. The stars on the panel serve two purposes:

they elevate Diana as a goddess figure and they suggest that she is a symbol of hope. The

goddess-like imagery, however, is slightly muted by the presence of Diana’s friends

inside the invisible plane, who ultimately humanize Wonder Woman for the reader. Critic

Katherine Lehman articulates Wonder Woman’s relatively unique blend of iconic

potency and approachability:

Some feminists considered Wonder Woman symbolic of women’s multifaceted

roles and capabilities. For example, when 2,000 feminists strode the boardwalk of

Atlantic City in 1974, hoping to again ‘upstage’ the Miss America pageant, they

were headed by twenty Wonder Women wearing gold headbands, star-spangled

navy skirts, and black boots—along with National Organization for Women

(NOW) T-shirts. A NOW leader told the press that Wonder Woman represented

‘woman as a full human being—a provider, creator and thinker,’ in contrast to the

objectification ‘bathing-suit clad Miss American.’ She raged that NOW’s Wonder

Woman came in all ages, shapes, and sizes, unlike the narrowly defined Miss

America. However, she took pains to support the women participating in the

pageant: ‘After all, they are our sisters.’ (186)

As she enters Man’s World, Diana represents the unity that sisterhood offers, but she also represents the intersectional utopian impulse that she has embodied throughout the narrative. Yes, she is an icon for all women, but she is also a hero for anyone who has experienced any type of injustice. Morrison closes the narrative with this scene and the reader ultimately knows that Wonder Woman will work within Man’s World to make it better. Her intersectional utopian potential thus overcomes the utopian space and proves a better vision when contending with conflict.

Through this graphic novel, Morrison rejects the utopian space as a place to negotiate narrow social concerns and instead illustrates an intersectional utopian praxis through Wonder Woman, who escapes the utopian space and attempts to change Man’s

World. The goal of intersectional critical inquiry and praxis is to better understand systems of oppression that discriminate against individuals for multiple reasons in order to arrive at solutions to combat unjust systems. A utopian impulse, like the one that Diana exhibits throughout the novel, allows for such a goal to drive individual thought processes without confusing utopian impulse with utopian space.19 Our fiction needs to articulate the intersections of oppression so that individuals and groups learn to mobilize and address these structures in reality. Fiction is the bridge between the intellectual-

19 The utopian impulse and intersectional praxis are focus on similar concerns: “…to foster cross-movement dialogs and engage their differences creatively (class, religious, ethnic, racial, linguistic, sexual, and national differences or different combination of them), rather than muting them for the sake of (the myth) of unity” (Collins and Bilge 72).

85 theoretical space and practical reality; Morrison’s Wonder Woman, therefore, offers readers a model for an intersectional utopian approach. Diana rejects blind defense of utopian ideals in favor of analyzing and confronting conflict as it arises; she demonstrates that the potential for utopian fiction lies, not in creating a society that functions perfectly, but in creating model characters who continuously resist and combat systems of oppression.

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

While Sarah Scott’s A Description of Millenium Hall and Grant Morrison’s

Wonder Woman: Earth One are divided by time, culture, and medium—one is a novel

while the other is a graphic novel—they both borrow on a utopian tradition that attempts

to imagine a better world. In both novels, the utopian space allows writers to negotiate for

increased female agency, but the progressive undercurrent that first drives the formation

of a utopia plateaus and utopian residents become complacent and rigidly set in

upholding an unchanging and ultimately oppressive social contract. Utopia’s limitations

stem from its residents’ assumption that theirs is a perfect society and does not need to

adjust to changing social circumstances. Scott’s purpose in publishing Millenium Hall,

however, exemplifies the modest yet subversive goals that some eighteen-century women

writers reached for. As well-educated citizens, genteel women are only allowed to look

helplessly on as their male counterparts mismanage family estates, take advantage of economically disadvantaged women, and abuse their power as members of the aristocracy. The feminist utopian space then becomes a functioning haven from the abuses of their male counterparts and “readjust[s] a familiar world according to women’s desires for greater self-possession” (Johns 15). Morrison’s text, of course, is a little different in its presentation of the utopian space. Amazonia is never elevated as an effective community; instead, Morrison highlights the potential for female leadership through Diana, who is driven to protect those in need regardless of gender, race, or class.

Through Diana, Morrison argues in favor of a utopian impulse that continuously challenges systems of oppression. The foundation of utopia is predicated on a utopian impulse, but in upholding the physical space as the epitome of human existence, its residents abandon this impulse and instead violently defend the utopia as it presently exists—resistant to change and progress.

The utopian visitor becomes a casualty of the utopian resistance to change. On

one hand, the figure offers multiple opportunities to re-examine utopian constructs and its

limitations, but on the other, the traveler is often marginalized and ignored for multiple

intersectional reasons. As outsiders, they voice the readers’ concern and trepidation

regarding the utopia, but they also have moments in which they point out the utopia’s

shortcomings often at their peril, as attested by each work’s treatment of Lamont and

Steve Trevor, respectively. Paik describes these moments of collision between a utopia

and the outside world as sites of heated conflict: “…the rational, ostensibly peaceful,

internally harmonious social order ends up confronting the outside world in an

unremittingly antagonistic posture of perpetual war” (Paik 5). This tension between the

utopia and the world outside underscores the missed potential of the visitor. Because of

their outsider status, the male visitor figures are ignored and dismissed as either foolishly

naïve or as violent rapists who have no wisdom to offer the utopia, and therefore no place

within its protective borders. Through these visitors, writers are able to point at some of

the problems with the community, including the possibility that the utopian space

ultimately proves that utopia is woefully inadequate to fully account for every

complication that may arise.

Worse than exposing its own inadequacy, the utopia often replicates the structures of oppression that it is trying to remedy, and as a result, it becomes a facsimile of those same abusive structures of power. Within Millenium Hall, Scott presents a feudal social contract that imitates that of feudal England and inevitably makes its residents totally dependent on its leadership. In this moment, Ellison unquestioningly embraces the community of Millenium Hall and thus bypasses an opportunity to adjust and modify its traditional structure so that its residents are not utterly dependent on the utopia’s

leadership. This support of social class divisions, in part, led to the corruption of the

landed gentry outside of Millenium Hall. Ellison’s, and Scott’s, support of this class

stratification therefore illustrates a missed opportunity. Scott expects her reader to

become convinced, as easily as Ellison is, that a socially stratified utopia is the ideal

solution to the injustices committed against people, but the reality remains that in

replicating such a divided system, Scott is merely replacing a patriarch with a matriarch

and failing to address societal ills.

In creating Amazonia, the Amazons build a paradise that fixes gender-specific

forms of oppression, but that is also ignorant of intersectional forms of persecution.

According to Amazonia’s origin story at the beginning of Morrison’s text, Hercules’

enslavement of the Amazons was rooted in his misogyny and cruelty (see figs. 17 and

18):

Fig 17. The Amazons are enslaved by Hercules by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

Fig 18. Hippolyta reminds Diana of the horror they lived under Hercules’ rule by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

While Hercules’ rule is cruel and horrible, the Amazons’ subjugation is gender-specific.

They do not experience class or racial discrimination, in the same way that Trevor or

Beth might in Man’s World, so they are not prepared to contend with such forms of oppression. When they learn of Trevor’s presence on Amazonia, the Amazons react violently because of their history with men, but in their pursuit of Trevor, the Amazons

91 become equally as violent as Hercules. Their definition of oppressive structures of power of course make sense in light of their experience with inequality, but they have not had to face the aftermath of colonialism, racism, capitalist exploitation, etc., so they are simply not equipped to address injustices committed against various identity intersections and the community therefore fails to deliver on its fundamental promise of a perfectly just society.

In placing these two texts in conversation, the utopian impulse’s potential emerges as it reveals a person’s ability to learn, change, and adapt to a social construct that celebrates diversity and attempts to rectify systems of oppression. Scott’s work, and that of authors like her, drove the beginnings of feminist utopian fiction which slowly gave birth to the different waves of western feminism that ultimately culminated in an intersectional form of it. As a feminist icon, Diana has been a female role model for years—fighting monsters and evil scientists—but one of her key character attributes is her desire to resolve conflict without violence. In describing Diana, Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl explain:

Wonder Woman is the Amazonian princess from the island of Themyscira and a

reluctant warrior most known for her aversion to violence and reliance on

diplomacy. As an ambassador of peace, and blessed by the gods, Wonder Woman

uses her powers to fight for justice—only using force as a last resort. (Phillips and

Strobl 136)

This assessment is largely true in Morrison’s novel as well. Diana only resorts to violence when no other option is available to her. Furthermore, Diana’s desire in this novel for a

92 more inclusive and just society inspires characters like the Holliday girls. In fact, after rescuing the women from a near-fatal accident, the Fates intervene and tell the reader that

Diana’s influence is growing (see fig. 19):

Fig 19. The Fates make observations about Diana’s influence on others by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, and Todd Klein, Wonder Woman: Earth One, vol. 1, extract (©DC Comics)

The Fates refer to Diana’s influence on Beth, who projects a rebellious spirit in openly

mocking the Amazons’ lasso of truth. Upon her arrival at the trial, Beth feels compelled

to reveal truths that the Amazons are not interested in hearing, like her first crush, but her

resistance to the Amazons in this scene parallels Diana’s resistance throughout the novel.

Despite being in an unfamiliar space surrounded by warrior women who seemingly

93 disagree with her, Beth is unafraid to tell the truth. In Beth, the reader sees the potential for the utopian impulse within the average person. She is loud and obnoxious, but she is also interested in defending what is morally right, even if that is in defiance of the

Amazons.

While utopian residents, like Diana’s fellow Amazons, violently reject and

discriminate against outsiders, the intersectional utopist, like Diana, acts with compassion

and kindness. Utopia proves its inefficiency and failure in addressing all forms of

oppression through its inhabitants, yet Diana’s intersectional utopian approach to ending

strife—one that is an open-ended process that seeks to improve the quality of life for

all—proves a better alternative to the rigidity of the utopian construct. Because utopia’s

main objective is to improve upon and fix many of society’s injustices, readers and

writers alike cannot ignore the utopian impulse that first drives the creation of a “perfect”

society. This impulse is often forgotten in everyday management of utopia, so it is not

surprising that the utopian space becomes an oppressive structure that limits agency and

threatens anyone who has not been indoctrinated into its limiting ideology. Utopia’s true

potential lies in the drive that first stimulates the desire to create a better world. Diana’s

relentless determination to fight and advocate for those who are marginalized models this

utopian impulse and best embodies its potential.

WORKS CITED

Auerbach, Nina. Communities of Women: An Ideal in Fiction. Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1978. Print.

Barolsky, Paul. “Botticelli’s Golden Goddess.” Notes in the History of Art 32.2 (2013):

4-5. 02 Jan 2017. Web.

Botticelli, Sandro. The Birth of Venus. 1482-85. Tempura on canvas. Uffizi Gallery

Museum, Florence. Uffizi. Web. 02 Jan 2017.

Collins, Patricia Hill and Sirma Bilge. Intersectionality. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016.

Print.

Cruise, James. “A House Divided: Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall.” Studies in English

Literature 35.3 (1995): 555-573. 27 Apr 2016.

Davis, J.C. “Going Nowhere: Travelling to, Through, and From Utopia.” Utopian Studies

19.1 (2008): 1-23. 01 Feb 2017.

Dittmer, Jason. Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero: Metaphors, Narrative,

and Geopolitcs. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013. Print.

Elbert, Monika M. Separate No More: Gender Convergence in American Literature

1830-1930. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000. 1-20. Print.

Ferns, Chris. Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature.

Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999. Print.

Finn, Michelle R. “William Marston’s Feminist Agenda.” The Ages of Wonder Woman:

Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times, edited by Joesph J.

Darowski. Jefferson: MacFarland & Company, 2014. 7-21. Print.

Griffin, Michael and Tom Moylan. “Introduction: Exploring Utopia.” Exploring the

Utopian Impulse: Essays on Utopian Thought and Practice. Oxford, GB: Peter

Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2008. ProQuest ebrary.

1-8. Web. 28 Apr 2017.

Johns, Alessa. Women’s Utopias of the Eighteenth Century. Urbana: University of

Illinois Press, 2003. Print.

Jordan, Nicolle. “Gentlemen and Gentle Women: The Landscape Ethos in Millenium

Hall.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 24.1 (2011): 31-54. Academic Search

Premier. Web. 18 Apr 2016.

Kitch, Sally L. Higher Ground: From Utopianism to Realism in American Feminist

Thought and Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Print.

Lepore, Jill. The Secret History of Wonder Woman. New York: Vintage Books, 2015.

Print.

Lehman, Katherine J. Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular

Culture. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011. Print.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins

Publishers, 1993. Print.

Morrison, Grant. Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 1. Illus. Yanick Paquette. Burbank:

DC Comics, 2016. Print.

“Nubia, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2017. Web. 24 April 2017.

“Nubian, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2017. Web 24 April 2017.

O’Brien, Eugene. “Towards Justicce to Come: Derrida and Utopian Justice.” Griffin

and Moylan, pp. 33-46.

Paik, Peter Y. From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of

Catastrophe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota University Press, 2010.

Print.

Phillips, Nickie D. and Staci Strobl. Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the

American Way. New York: New York University Press, 2013. Print.

Pohl, Nicole. Women, Space and Utopia 1600-1800. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing

Company, 2006. Print.

Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan. “Introduction: Feminist Paradigms.” Literary Theory:

An Anthology 2nd Edition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 765-69. Print.

Rees, Christine. Utopian Imagination and Eighteenth-Century Fiction. New York:

Longman, 1996. 241-265. Print.

Scott, Sarah. A Description of Millenium Hall edited by Gary Kelly. Ontario:

Broadview Press,1995. Print.

Stanley, Kelli E. “‘Suffering Sappho!’: Wonder Woman and the (Re)Invention of the

Feminine Ideal.” Helios 32.2 (2005): 143-171. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug 2016.

Todd, Janet. Sensibility: An Introduction. Methuen: London and New York, 1986. 1-4.

Print.

“utopia, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web. 22 Dec 2016.

Van Sant, Ann. “Historicizing Domestic Relations: Sarah Scott’s Use of the

‘Household Family.’” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 17.3 (2005): 373-390.

Academic Search Premier. Web 18 Apr 2016.