Cassandra Cain, DC’s Batgirl, has been a topic of discussion among many in the blogosphere this week. Her personality, costume, and storylines have all come under scrutiny. Especially her costume.
Point:
Johanna of Comics Worth Reading thinks that Batgirl is creepy.
Excerpt:
And she doesn’t even get into what I find most annoying about the character, the disturbingly sexist symbolism of the stitched-shut mouth. Gotta keep the girls silent! And implied violence to a sex-related body part is only a bonus.
Counterpoint:
Cassandra Cain fan JLG provides his own impressions.
Excerpt:
I never, ever got the impression that her uniform was fetish gear. And I really don’t care to look that stuff up. To be honest, it didn’t really stick out any different that most other superhero uniforms – off the top of my head, Supernova, the Spider-People don’t have those lower-face openings. True, her bat uniform is stitched up where that opening traditionally is. However, I don’t think this can necessarily be interpreted as her being “silenced” as Johanna argued it was. It’s not totally out of bounds, since it’s stithes on something that masks and obscures the usual opening in the Bat uniform.
It’s worth a read! Check it out!
