Just read this very interesting article on Wonder Woman and the whole bondage thing on ComicBookResources, thought I might share it with you guys. There's not a whole lot of bondage in it, honestly, but there is a great detail of analysis relating to issues of submission, Marston's intent for including such themes, a review of the influence of the Greek Gods, all very good stuff.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23548

A year later, a slow-poke like me responds to your very interesting forum. I just read the article you recommend and it offers a theoretical answer to a question posed several times on this website, namely: why do we have this fantasy/fetish? and or why do we enjoy this fantasy/fetish?

The article carefully analyzes Wonder Woman's career since the days of William Marston (her creator) to the present and comes to the conclusion that the main theme Marston is developing from the beginning is the idea that "Loving submission to a higher power is the way to true happiness, fulfillment and psychic health." The writer says over and over that Wonder Woman submits to Aphrodite and Athena (both female gods) and in doing so she is showing all of us how to live. One example is her bracelets . . . when they are taken off she goes wild even mad, but when they are on her they become instruments and symbols of submission and she is "whole, healthy, ready for life". Even the many, many bondage scenes are supposedly designed to show the importance of submission, though I am less clear in my head how this works when the one doing the binding is a malevolent power and not a benevolent power. Still, I think this facinating article gives us a clue about why we may have this fetish/fantasy thing. The answer which the article suggests to me is this: We have this fantasy because we instinctively and intuitively want a beautiful woman (also superheroine -- for many of us) to be LOVINGLY SUBMISSIVE TO US. And any female afficionados of this sleepy website apparantly have a secret desire to be lovingly submissive to a benevolent male (or female). The key idea is loving submission . . . it is offered as a reason for why we love to see these scenes. What a thought . . . who would have thunk it!!