Wonder Woman's Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) grew up on Themyscira, an idyllic paradise with pristine, sandy beaches; plenty of outdoor activities; and a refreshing lack of men. That may be why the movie's writers tossed in a sexy little joke when Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) asked Prince whether or not she was familiar with, ahem, "pleasures of the flesh."
BuzzFeed reports that Prince's answer — she mentions that she's well-versed in the 12 volumes of "Clio's treatises on bodily pleasure" — doesn't necessarily draw on real-life history. What exactly is in those treatises? Well, according to Prince, Clio "came to the conclusion that men are essential for procreation but when it comes to pleasure, unnecessary." That's where things in the movie world start to deviate from history.
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Not that comic book and superhero movies are often concerned with accuracy (Thor, am I right?), but BuzzFeed's look into the history of Amazon sexiness and Clio herself found that there was no actual Amazonian Dr. Ruth named Clio. Furthermore, a lot of what viewers and comic readers think of when it comes to Amazons is a modern construct.
Anyone looking for Clio's 12 treatises will be let down — they're not real. Clio is a fictional DC character that also lived on Themyscira as a scholar and scribe, so that little Easter egg was a real deep dive from the movie's writing team. BuzzFeed adds that the idea that Amazons are all lesbians (because what else happens on an island full of ladies in leather and armor?) is more of a current-day fantasy than any historical fact. Plus, the idea of ladies actually deriving pleasure from sex would actually go against the prevailing thoughts of ancient Greece.
"The surviving texts, medical and otherwise, were written overwhelmingly by men, and are not much concerned with female sexuality except insofar as it serves male interests," Rebecca Flemming, a senior lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge, told BuzzFeed. That's a total bummer for those looking to find Clio's sex manual on JSTOR.
BuzzFeed adds that ancient Greek texts only touch on the subject of female masturbation in passing. Plus, anything that did get written about female sex and pleasure was almost always wrong or inaccurate at best. Only a few even mentioned the clitoris.
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Sorry, Clio fanatics, she only exists in DC's fictional history. Fans will just have to make do with the fact that in the DC Extended Universe, she doled out plenty of sage advice to her Amazon sisters.
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