Author's note -- Introduction to the new edition -- Goddesses of tomorrow -- 1940s: a secret life -- The queen & the princess -- 1950s: the girlfriends -- Supergirl and the ballad of American youth -- 1960s: the modern world -- Girls together (outrageously) -- 1970s: sirens & suffragettes -- Wonder Woman's extreme makeovers -- 1980s: the dark road -- Sex and the single superheroine -- 1990s: the babe years -- Heroine chic -- 2000 and beyond: mother love?
Summary:
Comic book superheroines bend steel, travel across time and space, and wield the mighty forces of nature. These powerful females do everything that male heroes do. But they have to work their wonders in skirts and high heels. The Supergirls, a cultural history of comic book heroines, asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman's search for an identity or Batwoman's battle for equality also an alternative saga of the American woman?
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.