RANT INCOMING!!
The way people talk about Barbara on social media genuinely baffles me. I don't think I've ever seen another DC hero get this level of constant, irrational hate.
You have people slut-shaming her over adaptations they supposedly despise but somehow make content about every single day. You have Dick and Kory fans who treat her existence as a personal offense. Hating her is practically their lifestyle at this point. And then, most unexpectedly for me, there are the people who cannot let a single Barbara post exist without bringing up Cassandra.
I'm serious. Every time I see a post complimenting Barbara, there are immediately comments comparing her to Cass, explaining why Cass is "better," or acting like Barbara's accomplishments/position should belong to someone else. I once saw people arguing under a TikTok about a figurine. A figurine.
And what gets me is that it rarely feels like simple preference. A lot of these people don't just prefer Cassandra; they seem genuinely bothered by Barbara's place in the Batfamily. As if the ideal version of the Batfamily is one where Barbara never existed and every role she's ever played was given to someone else.
Which is especially bizarre because Barbara is one of the most important female characters in Batman's mythos. Whether you like her or not, her impact on the Batfamily as Batgirl and Oracle is undeniable.
At a certain point, it stops feeling like criticism of a character and starts feeling like people have built an entire personality around hating her.
Maybe it's just my corner of TikTok, but I've genuinely never seen another DC character inspire this level of bitterness. What's even more frustrating is that it feels like it's never going to get fixed. The discourse just keeps getting more hostile, more revisionist, and more determined to reduce Barbara to the worst possible interpretation of her character.
It's so exhausting. And honestly, it makes me really sad.
