Wonder Woman in '70s Feminist Art

Last night many PBS stations aired Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.  Inspired by that I share some 1970s feminist usages of the WW theme here excerpted from a catalog essay I wrote.  In 1975 a sexed up, a modernized version of Wonder Woman appeared in an eponymous series that lasted until 1977.  While the series reflects the percolation of feminism into pop culture, her deep mythological roots also inspired some 70s feminist artists.

The Waitresses Unpeeled

In 1977, a group of Los Angeles feminist artist created The Waitresses based on discussions that emerged about their common experiences as waitresses.[1] They realized that the waitress was a trope for various female stereotypes: the nurturer, the servant, and the sex object. Furthermore, the status of waitresses cut across many feminist issues they wanted to address such as money, work, and sexual harassment.

The Waitresses often performed guerrilla theatre in various restaurants around Los Angeles. While the group obtained permission from the restaurants, the customers were unaware of the performances that would occur. The Waitresses drew heavily on humor and irony in their performances, which was appropriate to their guerrilla theater tactics, since audience members had not even consciously chosen to be members of an audience. The use of humor also fit with the group members' desire to provoke thought rather than place blame.

Restaurants provided more than a thematically appropriate performance venue. The group consciously chose to offer their work in a public setting in order to establish a sense of unity among The Waitresses and other workers. The Waitresses were strongly committed to not only raising awareness among patrons of the economic issues faced by waitresses but also to reaching out to food service industry workers.

 The character, Wonder Waitress, was a variant on the comic book heroine Wonder Woman.(1)  Wonder Woman provided a tie to mythologies that some second wave feminists found fruitful. Wonder Woman was an Amazon, a mythological tribe of warring women who used men solely for reproductive purposes. The character Wonder Woman is named Diana after the virgin goddess of the hunt, who like the Amazons had little need for men and was an excellent archer.

 Wonder Waitress, the savior of harried waitresses everywhere, represented the spirit of sisterhood among waitresses that The Waitresses also celebrated and hoped to foster. Jamie Wildman-Webber who created the character, explained “I felt very helpless and apologetic as a waitress, and I gut such a rush transforming to Wonder Waitress. I felt extremely powerful …”(1)  In 1978 she reappeared in Wonder Waitress Takes a Look at the Union (May 1979) performed at a labor organizing conference.(2)  The group’s research revealed that less than 1% of waitresses were unionized and that unions proved unresponsive to issues important to female workers, such as child care and health insurance.(3) In the end, Wonder Waitress admonished both the rude patron and the uncaring boss to “be respectful and generous and … look for the union label.”  Wonder Waitress became the best-loved character of the Waitresses, in no small part because she typified the can do pop culture spirit of 1970s feminism.

The Roman Temple of Diana (or the Greek equivalent Artemis), gave rise to a second Waitresses persona, the Waitress Goddess Diana. The Waitress Goddess Diana can be seen as the flip side of the Wonder Woman archetype. 

The Waitress Goddess Diana was a performance art character Anne Gauldin developed with Denise Yarfitz. After visiting prehistoric sites in Europe in 1977 associated with ancient goddess worship, Gauldin became interested in using those symbols in her artwork.[4] The Waitress GoddessDiana symbolized the ability of women to satisfy everyone's wants and needs. Her costume, a many-breasted torso, derived from a well-known statue of Artemis that stood in her temple in Ephesus, where she was worshiped as a fertility symbol. In The Great Goddess Diana (ca. 1978), Gauldin and Yarfitz created an altar to Diana in a restaurant to honor "the great provider within each of us." A ritual incantation explained the piece:

 "The Great Goddess Diana returns in Her symbolic form to the modern day place of sustenance—the restaurant. She reveals Herself as the spirit of nurturing within the female as waitress. Diana was a goddess worshiped thousands of years ago. Great many breasted Mother, ruler and nourisher of the animal kingdom, provider of sustenance both physical and spiritual for all creatures great and small. How could you stand it? Sweat of reaching hands, open mouths, empty bellies—questioning, commanding, demanding—you must give everything to everyone at once, or be devoured!"[5]

While many feminists in the 1970s sought to overcome women's role as provider, the Waitresses were also interested in honoring it while at the same time recognizing the strain placed on women who were expected to be everything to everyone.

The Waitresses spread their work through performances and projects they organized.

From Liza Cowan's blog Sherwin Williams Aproned Housewife Goddess, 1981

Check out this performance by The Waitresses

Interview with some of The Waitress Participants



Yolanda Lopez a contemporaneous Chicana feminist artist who also worked out of California incorporated Wonder Woman iconography into some of her pieces.

Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe (1978) 

Things I Never Told My Son About Being a Mexican (1988) includes " a Wonder Woman comic book the cover of which shows Wonder Woman eating cafeteria-style rice and beans.

All images from the Woman's Building Digital Archive at Otis College of Art

 *Membership in the group fluctuated over time. It originated with Jerri Allyn and Anne Gauldin.  The group eventually included Leslie Belt, Patti Nicklaus, Jamie Wild and Denise Yarfitz,Chutney Gunderson, Anne Mavor, and Denise Yarfitz, Elizabeth Canelake and Anita Green

1.  “Wonder Waitress, 1978,” in The Waitresses 1977-1984, n.p.

2.  Script of Wonder Waitress, Performed by Jerri Allyn, Leslie Belt, Anita Green, Chutney Gunderson Berry, and Denise Yarfitz Pierre from a script written by Anne Gauldin and Jamie Wildman-Webber at the Fifth Annual Southwest Labor Conference, held at California State University, Dominguez Hills in May 1979.

3.  From undated publicity materials circa 1979, possession of the author.

4. On the use of the goddess in feminist art, see Gloria Feman Orenstein, "Recovering Her Story: Feminist Artists Reclaim the Great Goddess," in Broude, Garrard, and Brodsky, The Power of Feminist Art, pp. 174-89.

5.  The Waitresses, publicity materials, ca. 1979, author's personal collection.

See also Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman - by Dara Birnbaum (1978)

more contemporary uses of wonder woman

Joan Arbeiter