Gotham City is really not a very good place to be a woman. Gothamites who happen to be female have very few options beyond being a damsel in distress, a sex object and/or dead. With the possible exception of Batgirl and officer Anna Ramirez all the women on this list fit into one (or more) of these narrow categories. Plus, of course, Ramirez ends up as a traitor whose life is only spared via a random coin toss. There are a few other women who briefly appear in the Batman movies (including the five unnamed women who hang on Bruce Wayne’s arms in the Nolan films) however since their roles are so minor and unimportant to the plot I’ve elected not to included them on this chart. As Elisa Kreisinger recently pointed out on her blog the stereotypical Hollywood roles for women coupled with the male gaze behind the camera poses a big problem for video remixers wishing to create alternative visual stories. Because there is so little to work with in the original source its extremely difficult to re-imagine stronger or more complete female characters in a Batman Universe remix. That said I’m carefully searching the filmographies of both Uma Thurman and Michelle Pfeiffer looking for creative ways to include them in this project without all the sexist tropes.
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Gotham City is really not a very good place to be a woman. Gothamites who happen to be female have very few options beyond being a damsel in distress, a sex object and/or dead. With the possible exception of Batgirl and officer Anna Ramirez all the women on this list fit into one (or more) of these narrow categories. Plus, of course, Ramirez ends up as a traitor whose life is only spared via a random coin toss.

There are a few other women who briefly appear in the Batman movies (including the five unnamed women who hang on Bruce Wayne’s arms in the Nolan films) however since their roles are so minor and unimportant to the plot I’ve elected not to included them on this chart.

As Elisa Kreisinger recently pointed out on her blog the stereotypical Hollywood roles for women coupled with the male gaze behind the camera poses a big problem for video remixers wishing to create alternative visual stories. Because there is so little to work with in the original source its extremely difficult to re-imagine stronger or more complete female characters in a Batman Universe remix. That said I’m carefully searching the filmographies of both Uma Thurman and Michelle Pfeiffer looking for creative ways to include them in this project without all the sexist tropes.

Film stills of The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler and Catwoman taken from Batman: The Movie (1966). Don’t worry I will not be using any source material from this übercheesy Batman incarnation in my remix project. It is worth noting however that 1960s era Batman reruns were my very first exposure to the Batman Universe, in fact the show was one of the only things I was allowed to watch as a child. Growing up in an extremely religious and conservative household, TV was all but banned until I was about 10 years old. After that it was still severely limited, monitored and restricted throughout my tween years. Batman reruns were one of the few things on the approved list - largely because my Mom had been a fan of the show when it originally aired. Other shows deemed to have the appropriate “family values” were Family Matters, Star Trek, The Cosby Show, The Disney Afternoon and then later in 1992 Batman: The Animated Series.

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