Batwoman As Other

(Originally submitted April 11, 2021 for course HUMN 1033: Critical Approaches to Literature at George Brown College)

In Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) she notes that women are treated as the “Other” and men are considered the “Subject”; this concept can be seen while reading Batwoman: Elegy (Rucka et al., 2010). This seven-chapter collection of comics follows Batwoman, a vigilante crimefighter in the fictional city of Gotham – much like her namesake, Batman. Kate Kane, otherwise known as Batwoman, is othered throughout the seven chapters of the graphic novel; this is seen explicitly though the text in how her character is portrayed and the events of her story, but she is also othered through allusion and intertextuality to her namesake, Batman.

As a character, Kate-Batwoman is oppressed through patriarchal ideology and the norms that accompany it. As a civilian, Kate Kane is othered as a lesbian; she was separated from the army due to homosexual activity (Rucka et al., 2010, Chapter 6). In her analysis of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex through a lesbian perspective, Meryl Altman (2007) notes that overall, you cannot separate feminism from discourse on sexuality. This is mostly due to the concept of the “eternal feminine”, discussed profusely by de Beauvoir (1949). As a lesbian, Kate Kane loses that inherent essence of being a woman. Simone de Beauvoir illustrates the point clearly; she argues that “she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex … defined and differentiated with reference to man…” (Beauvoir, 1949, para. 8) Apart from Kate being oppressed as a lesbian woman and losing her position in the army, she continues to be othered by not only her sex but her sexual orientation. How Kate presents herself as a civilian versus how she presents herself as Batwoman is very different. In the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s guide on feminist criticism (n.d.), they propose questions on what to ask when reading a text; there is an emphasis on what constitutes masculinity and femininity and if characters take opposite traits from their sex. Kate is shown attending a formal event in a suit, taking on a more masculine trait much to the chagrin of her stepmother. She has her hair cut short as a civilian and she is seen wearing baggy clothing and lifting weights, all considered more masculine rather than feminine. In contrast, as Batwoman she wears a skin-sight outfit that accentuates her feminine figure, and she wears a wig that matches her natural hair colour but is long and traditionally feminine. Even her boots have heels, something she questions to her father when he presents to her the uniform he designed (Rucka et al., 2010, Chapter 7). When considering that her vigilante uniform was designed by a man, it is interesting to note how it takes on traits of traditional femininity that Kate does not gravitate toward in her day-to-day life. However, this contrast between civilian Kate and vigilante Batwoman suggests that lesbians must take on masculine traits, which is othering in and of itself. There is a lot of emphasis in Altman’s analysis of The Second Sex on how Beauvoir discusses lesbians in this sense. “Nothing can be further from the truth … than this confusion between the invertie and the virago: lots of lesbians are feminine, and many of the most masculine women are heterosexual. ‘Anatomy is not sexual destiny’.” (Altman, 2007, p. 215) Trying to tack on masculine traits to lesbians when it is not a deliberate choice creates a further division between the sexes and sexual discourse. Regardless, the norms emphasized by a patriarchal society have othered Kate and not only cost her a career in the army but leads to a true double life where she is forced to present more feminine as a vigilante due to the costume designed by a man.

Batwoman is also othered throughout through allusion and intertextuality to Batman. Simply as a concept, Batwoman is an “Other” to Batman’s “Subject”; he is the original character she is based on and he is also a famous character in pop culture. Allusion is defined as “a literary device that references another … work … without discussing or explaining the connection explicitly” whereas intertextuality is “used to describe the multiple ways any one literary text is made up of other texts…” (Song, 2021, Slide 9; 10). Both concepts are important in comics as they often share the same world and events; a reader who is familiar with Batman can make the connections between him and Batwoman without the text explicitly making those connections just through her name, her design, and her home of Gotham. Even those who are not comic book fans are likely to be aware of Batman. More important are the allusions in the actual text. As Batwoman goes to confront her nemesis, Alice, her father reminds her “Batman rule in effect, Kate,” (Rucka et al., 2010, Chapter 4), alluding to how Batman had a rule not to kill his enemies. While Batwoman does not kill Alice herself, she cannot prevent the death of Alice and because her father alluded to the Batman rule beforehand, she now appears to be inferior to him. Batwoman also alludes to other Batman texts when she meets Alice for the first time, saying “Didn’t anyone give you the memo? Gotham already has one Carroll-inspired freak.” (Chapter 2) While Batwoman is alluding to a Batman villain named Mad Hatter, who much like Alice is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he is a lesser known villain in the universe. However, Alice also shares similarities to Batman’s nemesis, The Joker; they both have painted white faces, red lips, and are depicted as insane. This forces reader to compare Batwoman-Alice to Batman-Joker. The underlying message here is that “…man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being.” (Beauvoir, 1949, para. 8). Batwoman simply mirrors Batman and is not given her own original nemesis, design, or even name. While Batman only appears in this comic on two pages, through allusion and intertextuality it is made clear that despite being the focus of these seven chapters, Batwoman is just an “Other” to his “Subject”.

Overall, while Batwoman: Elegy attempts to portray a story of a strong, female character, the writing results in establishing her as an “Other”. Being a lesbian woman has othered her as a character, taking away opportunities from her and forcing to live a double life as Batwoman. She is also considered an “Other” just in the universe when the reader regards her in comparison to Batman; she falls short of rules established by Batman and has a similar enough nemesis to Batman’s, forcing the reader to make these connections while always viewing it as Batman being the true subject.

References

Altman, M. (2007). Simone de Beauvoir and lesbian lived experience. Feminist Studies, 33(1), 207.

Beauvoir, S. d. (1949). The second sex. Actively Learn. https://read.activelylearn.com/#student/reader/3271618/notes

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Feminist criticism (1960s-present). Purdue Online Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/feminist_criticism.html

Rucka, G., Williams, J. H., Stewart, D., Klein, T., & Kane, B. (2010). Batwoman: Elegy. DC Comics.

Song, A. (2021, March). Class Meeting 11 – HUMN 1022 – March 31 [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard @ GBC. http://bb-gbc.blackboard.com