I can definitely agree with you that BTAS Catwoman is not exactly a great standard to hold for her characterisation. Like you said, it's levels better than what I've come to know as the norm of how she is portrayed but there are definitely flaws to how she is portrayed and framed (quite literally in this case) and it still isn't good enough to say it's a stellar portrayal of her. I think we can blame Bruce Timm partially for how she was presented in that show since we now know he is quite creepy to say the least, and I'm aware that he regularly sexualised multiple female characters (like Harley since she's our comparison in this conversation and whom Timm helped create, I might add)
I think that earlier portrayals of female characters specifically (and during certain time periods) have had a lasting effect on how they're viewed now, going back to Harley she's had a bunch of development and is even in the Bat family now? However, even though she has been given more development past 'Jokers girlfriend' and is now apparently a hero/vigilante she is still largely looked at as dumb, ditzy, brash, she's still got her breasts out and is now in a lesbian relationship that, in my humble opinion, I think was just an attempt to further capitalise on her character (but that's another discussion for another day). My point is, I agree with you on the front that her sexuality isn't integral to the majority of the stories she takes place in. Like I critiqued in my first post about her, A Death in The Family had a quite frankly egregious amount of scenes of her in a state of undress considering her section of the comic book was merely a fraction of it in its entirety. Those scenes of her undressing were unnecessary. They didn't add anything to the story. Dare I say not much, if anything, would have changed if she hadn't been included at all, she wasn't there at the end of the story with the rest of the Bat family (and yes, she promised the Joker she wouldn't see Batman again, but you could have easily gotten away with ommiting her from the second part of the story entirely considering Batman doesn't even have a thought bubble of 'Where is Selina? I hope she's okay!' And, like I also mentioned, similar things happened with Barbara and Harley but I doubt I need to detail every panel I thought was unnecessary.
Considering Harley was written as a woman who knew how to get her way using her body (seducing her proffesors in Uni) it does make sense that she would dress and act provocatively, I understand that, I get a bit iffy about it but it's part of her character and that's fair game! BUT what I don't like, as you rightly pointed out, is when she is pushed into a story and she is the token 'sexy' character. We see her performing cool stunts but again, like you mentioned, provocative poses ALL. THE. TIME.
I haven't finished dark prince charming yet but I do remember reading some of her scenes (specifically the one where she calls Bruce Daddy and he gets upset at her or something, that may be one of two scenes) and just being completely taken aback. It felt incredibly out of place for her to say that considering the context behind her calling him that and also the sexual implications of that word (unfortunately).
I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, I'm sorry 💔 The level of sexualisation may be lesser than normal but that doesn't make it easier to sit with (in my opinion) and mens ass cheeks does not balance out multiple women in states of undress, nudity and suggestive positions. I haven't read the entirety of the comic book yet, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that those men, even while naked, are being portrayed the same way those women are. A man in a comic book and even real life can walk around shirtless and no one will think twice but a woman does it and it is 9/10 times meant to be portrayed as sexual. Non sexual nudity and sexual nudity are nowhere near the same, if the intent of showing these men with their asses out was meant to illicit arousal from the viewer then I would agree that it would help balance out the female nudity but I am almost 90% sure it would have been for laughs as opposed to catching a certain kind of gaze from the reader. Okay, tangent over now sorry 😭
That's fair, honestly I wouldn't mind their near constant will they won't they if they had a bit of variety. The same character, whom has had little to no work being put into making her an individual character alongside batman, being constantly paired time and time again with him is what makes me annoyed. There is nothing interesting about her, she's a cat burglar, funny pun but that's about it. She is not comparable to the likes of Talia Al Ghul, as an example. I have to say I absolutely despise the way Damian's conception was brought about, I think it was completely unnecessary considering I haven't heard of a single comic book that shows Bruce coming to terms that he was violated by her, and while I hate that aspect of their relationship, I think they can serve as an interesting dynamic. Again, there's the clash of morals but there seems to be genuine care on both sides of the relationship. I'm talking specifically about the Arkhamverse now, but Talia and Bruce interested me so much more than Catwoman and Batman, if only because they had more personal struggles and conflicts that made them interesting to watch (plus I really liked Talia's VA)
Even ignoring Talia, Vicky Vale is another love interest that I think works better than Catwoman and Batman. In the book I'm currently reading, you can kind of insinuate what happened between them, Bruce's work got between them, Vicki didn't feel safe, etc etc. But beyond that Vicki and Bruce work well together, they care for each other, she's a reporter and he's a detective, it's such a classic case for them to clash and but heads and play against each other but also help each other with Batman's cases and insider scoop. Not even to mention the potential that would have been Vicky Vale AKA Lady Arkham and Bruce/Batman in the Telltale games. You still have the detective/reporter conflict but again, like with Talia, you have internal struggles like Vicki wanting revenge on Bruce Wayne, or potentially like the Joker, wanting to prove to Batman that he's just as bad as she is for not killing and allowing bad people to continue doing bad things. Of course I don't know exactly how it would work in theory, but those three dynamics seem so much more fresh to me than whatever Bats and Cats have going on. They've been struggling to commit to each other for years now, I would really like to her become fleshed out with Batman in a story. I wouldn't have a problem with her being a love interest that is so heavy pushed if she was just more. She feels like she's just been dropped into the story a lot of the time. In Arkham City she talks to Batman, what, once? The entire game and yet we have a whole dlc for her. But why? It was only 4 or 5 episodes long and they lasted maybe 10-20 minutes each. She plays a minorly bigger role in Arkham Knight but she's simply a damsel in distress, she's sassy, she's got her boobs out, you can play as her. That's it. You're right about her being shoehorned into things and that's also partly what bothers me, if the rate at which I was being bombarded with Catwoman was lesser I probably wouldn't give a damn but Arkham, Telltale, ADINTF, The Batman, Dark Knight Returns, every single one of these franchises just had to get Catwoman in there whether it made the media itself better or worse.
I'm absolutely not saying all of these are shit because of their inclusion of Catwoman, I love all of these, but did we really need Catwoman in some of these when her function is to look hot and then fuck off? If she's gonna be there I either want her to be an actual character who's whole purpose is not being there for the sake of being there, or maybe just give her her own shit to do. Don't constantly make her the focus of Batman's romantic attention and lust because that is not all her character should be. Justice for Catwoman yo
PS I hope this all made sense 🙏🏻
