Honoring our Female Superheroes and the Jewelry that Celebrates Them
Despite composing roughly half of the human population, women have not been proportionally represented in many fields. There’s a lot to say about this in the real world, but we want to stay in our lane and focus on what we know best- superheroes and pop culture characters.
The first female superhero to appear in print was Fantomah, "Mystery Woman of the Jungle", who appeared in Jungle Comics #2, which was published by Fiction House in February of 1940. Fantomah had permed blonde hair, a leotard, assorted superpowers, and sometimes her face turned into a blue skull. A month later, Thrilling Comics #2 introduced us to The Woman In Red, the first masked, crime-fighting superhero, who was the alter-ego of police officer Peggy Allen. In 1941, Bell Syndicate released a Sunday comic strip, The Black Fury written by June Tarpé Mills. The Black Fury was the alter ego of socialite Marla Drake, before switching names to be known as Miss Fury. Marvel comics reprinted the strips later in the 1940s. While Fantomah’s legacy faded, The Woman In Red was revived by comic legend Alan Moore in 2001, and Miss Fury has been appearing sporadically up until 2021. (And, no, she’s not related to Nick.)
The next big name in female superheroes you probably know: Wonder Woman! Officially created by Writer/ Harvard Psychologist William “Charles” Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter, Wonder Woman was inspired by Marston’s wife, Elizabeth, and the couple’s partner, Olive Byrne. Marston pointed out the lack of strong, powerful role models for girls, and stated, “The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” Worth noting, the Marstons also invented the lie detector, which might have partially inspired the Lasso of Truth. William writing under the pseudonym “Charles” also suggests that he has at least a small insight into the idea of secret identities.
Known in her homeland as Princess Diana of Themyscira, and in mortal society as Diana Prince, many of her early stories involved twists on classic tropes, such as the damsel in distress needing the hero to save her. Now, the damsel was her own hero. Wonder Woman has appeared countless times in different media, including cartoons voiced by Rosario Dawson and in the most recent DCU films as portrayed by Gal Gadot. We suspect that we don’t have to explain much about Wonder Woman, she’s so famous she even has her own holiday on October 21!
What we will explain is that we have a LOT of cool Wonder Woman jewelry!
While it is Women’s History month, we admit that we’re not historians, we’re a jewelry company, so, yes, even our articles come down to selling things. The good news is that we have fun stuff to sell!
While we tend to focus on the term “jewelry,” we do have many other accessories, such as our set of 3 scrunchies, featuring Wonder Woman iconography and color schemes. They’re a great fashion statement if you want to reward your friends with sharp eyes and attention to detail. If you have shorter hair or wear it down, these also make great bracelets!
If you want to be more overt about your love for Wonder Woman, why not wear it close to your heart-literally- with lapel pins? We have this Wonder Woman 84 Pin featuring our protagonist and her adversary, Cheetah, our classic Wonder Woman logo pin, and this set featuring the latter pin, her name, and two comic book images.
Of course, we have plenty of traditional jewelry items, for instance, if you want to wear Wonder Woman Logo Earrings, you can wear this set, this set, or even a set of screw-fit plugs. We also feature this set of earrings with a matching necklace, as well as a set with the WW Logo and dangling Lassos. Whatever you pick, you’ll look fierce and fabulous!
Meanwhile, in another multiverse entirely:
Marvel’s first female superhero was Sue Storm, aka Sue Richards, aka The Invisible Woman, from Fantastic Four. However, when she first was introduced, she was called “The Invisible Girl.” Perhaps this is one aspect of attempts at gender equality as created by men. That said, Sue was at least presented as part of a team, as opposed to the trend of female heroes as sort of the diminutive female counterpart to a “real” hero, such as Supergirl in relation to Superman.
In the mid to late 1970’s, Marvel started taking female characters especially more seriously, although the company’s history of women protagonists seems entangled with the history of eponymous characters: In 1972, Jean Grey’s alter ego went from Marvel Girl to Phoenix. In 1977, the character of Ms. Marvel was introduced: originally as the alter ego of Carol Danvers, who would later be called Captain Marvel (As opposed to the other Captain Marvel and that completely other Captain Marvel, who, despite being the first Captain Marvel, was not a Marvel hero.) Of course, the name Ms. Marvel came back into the story as the alter ego of Kamala Khan, who is the protagonist of the 2022 Marvel Studios series of the same name on Disney+. We can also discuss the connection between characters named Captain Marvel and characters named Mar-Vell. Confused? Maybe this video will help. (Two grownups had a meeting to discuss which source would be the best explanation, even though this brings up even more characters and tangents.) In any case, Captain Marvel the film stands as the first MCU film to focus on a single female protagonist, and Captain Marvel the character stands on record as the MCU’s most powerful hero.
Whether or not you are confused, we do make it simple enough to order our products! (How’s that for a forced segue?) You may easily click the following links to check out this Captain Marvel Logo Pin, this other Captain Marvel Logo Pin or even our Captain Marvel Pin Set. We have a Captain Marvel Bib Necklace and a CAPTAIN MARVEL LOGO INTERCONNECTING 2-TIERED NECKLACE, even this Captain Marvel logo keychain. If you want to support feminine heroes with traditionally masculine accessories, we even have a Captain Marvel Cufflinks, Tie Bars and Money Clip Set.
If you lost track of which Marvel is which Captain, we also represent some of Marvel’s other characters; for instance this Spider Gwen adjustable ring, a full selection of Black Widow accessories to honor our favorite female Avenger, and an assortment of Wanda/ Scarlet Witch accessories such as our popular Tiara.
Do all Super Heroes need to be “Superheroes?”
We’ve covered the history of women as comic heroes, comic superheroes, and some of the big names in the big two companies, and if we had the time, we could discuss heroic women in many fandoms and legacies, but a few of us here are a bit obsessed with Avatar: the Last Airbender, and that raises the question; what is a superhero? See, A:tlA already has raised questions about, say, if it’s technically an Anime or not, now we bring to your attention the question: are benders superheroes? They have powers, they are heroic, they wear fancy outfits, and while they don’t have personal logos, they do live in societies that have cool logos.
Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that by the time Avatar was created for Nickelodeon, pop culture has gotten to the point where the female characters were not sidekicks or the female version of an existing male hero. Nor are any of the female characters the token girl in a group of guys. The heroes, the villains, even the minor characters have a considerable mix of male and female characters with different inherent and learned strengths. So let’s hear it for both of whom have superpowers, both of whom have developed their skills to be beyond what anyone in their world have seen, both of whom have overtly defeated both the bad guys and social patriarchal oppression!
History is an Ongoing Process!
When we talk about history, or, in this case, herstory, we often think that it’s the past leading up to where we are now. But “now” is part of history. (Literally, what is being written now is already the past by the time you read it.) What does the future of pop culture hold for our favorite women, and who might we meet? As we mentioned earlier, Ms. Marvel is getting her own Disney + series. Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff returns to the big screen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She Hulk will be getting her own Disney+ series. Thor:Love and Thunder will feature the return of Valkyrie and a power promotion for Jane Foster. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hints at some powerful female energy, and all in all, 2022 looks like a great year for superhero media. We’ll be there, releasing new and exciting superhero jewelry and other pop culture accessories.