Day Forty-three – Feest Isolation Days

Feest Isolation Days – 26 April

Migraines! They really are a bore. I have been getting these damn things all of my life. When they arrive there is nothing to do but take some sumatriptan, lie down and let them pass. However, because I now turn into Wonderwoman every night for twenty minutes or so, the length of these excruciating headaches has shortened. The little piece of kit I wear on my forehead has become an invaluable part of my armoury in my never ending tussle with the headaches from hell. Migraines run in the family – my grandmother, my mother, my sister, her son, all of us get them. It’s better now since triptans are around, thank you once again to the Scientists of the world! My Wonderwoman device hasn’t eliminated them, but believe me, it is much better having only part of the day instead of the entire day given over to sleep, nausea and throb. The device that turns me into Wonderwoman is called a Cefaly and we have become good mates. If you or someone you know has migraines, please investigate this. NICE has done some evaluation of its efficacy and the results are excellent. Thanks go to my big sister for telling me all about it!

You might have guessed I had one of these little horrors yesterday. It’s so unfair! There is no rhyme or reason. I haven’t had any wine for days, no chocolate, don’t feel stressed and wham! At least they eventually go away…

Before I turn into Wonderwoman again, I thought I’d find out a bit more about her roots. She’s been a part of the vernacular for so long we all know her as a good Comic Book woman who wears a tiara. What we probably don’t know is that her inventor, William Moulton Marston, was a Psychologist with a PhD from Harvard who was interested in behaviour. He established DISC, a test to identify predictable actions and personality traits within human behaviour. Many of us are probably more familiar with the Myers Briggs personality tests which identifies personal preferences in human perception and judgement (I’m an ENFP). Both of these tests measure characteristics of personality but they approach it in slightly different ways. Marston’s work was published in the late 1920’s and Myers Briggs followed in the 1940s; both are still widely used today.

Marston based our comic Wonderwoman on his wife, Elizabeth, and their “life partner” Olive. Both women lived with him, had his children and when he died the two women remained together until their deaths. Olive always wore heavy bracelets and these were the basis for the bullet stopping bracelets Wonderwoman still wears today. He gave Wonderwoman a Golden Lasso which forces those she captures into submission, and when in her lasso they must obey her and, importantly, tell the truth. Marston is also credited with developing the lie detector test

In the Comic book realm, Wonderwoman is usually in chains before she breaks free. That sounds about right to me. Look out coronavirus, there’s more than one Wonderwoman after you at the moment. And she always, but always wins the day! As Marston, said about his creation, “Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.”

Jacinda Ardern the NZ PM actually looks a bit like his original vision……