La Ron S. Readus
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The Woke Women of Batman Caped Crusader (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 20:00:05 +0000 UTCReaders, I know that what I'm about to say is a known given, but people are weird.
Because when it comes to something like Batman Caped Crusader, these dumb bitches had since 2021 to cope with the fact that both Jim AND Barbara Gordon were gonna be black
That BRUCE TIMM’S OWN ORIGINAL CHARACTER Harley Quinn was gonna be reworked to exist as her own entity
And that while it has the feel of Batman: The Animated Series, it is NOT Batman: The Animated Series
/Yet despite all of these warnings and alerts, once Season 1 of Batman Caped Crusader hit Prime Video instead of Max in August of 2024, these people still wanted to act like their childhood was ruined/
Which is funny, because the man who made THIS show, is more than likely the same motherfucker that’s responsible for why their childhood was tolerable in the first place
And it's not like he’s changed his approach when it comes to seeking peeps that can tell good, entertaining, and heartwarming stories that just so happen to be left-leaning on the social justice political scale in a way that made soon-to-be conservatives grow up to believe that there’s a difference between the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare
/BECAUSE HE’S BEEN DOING THIS SINCE 1992./
For THIS show, he found plenty of writers that not only understand the appeal of Bruce Timm’s contribution to Batman, but also the director and overseer of the “The Batman” Elseworlds franchise Matt Reeves being one of the executive producers
/And in that understanding, they were able to create excitingly unique stories that provided new takes of the source material in ways not even the comic books were able to convey/
Now I know what you’re thinking: Does that mean I caught the fact that the entire season is focused on Harvey’s character arc and is what this video is about? Not exactly
/While this is something I witnessed after I rewatched certain episodes and do wanna eventually talk about if THIS video does well enough, the way that certain social commentary has been made in Caped Crusader was refreshingly relevant despite the show being set in 1940s Gotham/
Everything from racism and misogyny in the workplace, the overabundance of greed spawned by capitalism, and the privileged use of the systems of law and order.
These aspects presented in the show helped amplify Harvey Dent’s arc regarding his relationship with how the system corrupts, but were never really given his prime focus because of it
/Instead, they were given to the most prominent female characters in the show. All ones that have either had their presence and personality amplified, or had the message their arcs gravitated around amplified simply because we saw non-white depictions of these usually white characters. Let’s begin./
_______________
Hey, Readers. La’Ron here. Offering you analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media
If it wasn’t obvious from the intro, this video will in fact contain spoilers for season 1 of Batman: Caped Crusader. It’s currently available to stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, so give it a watch if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want me to spoil pivotal points of it for you in this video.
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That’s the syllabus. Now onto the lesson.
Let's talk about Renee Montoya
First of all, yes. Despite ALSO being a Bruce Timm original character, a small subset of fans found what he did with his own shit unacceptable.
/Mostly because they made her plus-size./
I know what you're thinking: What kind of coward would have a problem with a woman being plus-sized?
Well for one, the type of coward -- specifically of the male variety -- that will completely ignore her queerness just to keep their ability to objectify her body and to fetishize her skin tone.
And the moment that’s gone -- ie gain enough weight for America to start actively practicing its fat-shaming on you -- it'll be like they no longer exist to you.
/Batman: Caped Crusader’s version of Renee Montoya did all of this for the Timm-cels that get off to the 1940s style of female body shapes he typically likes to draw them in, and Renee being a big girl this go-around disrupts that to the point of frustration for these losers./
But in a way, the case of “I don’t want to play with you anymore” syndrome properly reflects what women go through in order to fully exist and find self-purpose, all while in a society where its bourgeois-led system thrives off of patriarchal capitalism.
Now outside of being a great example of how a masc/butch presenting lesbian latina would fucking rock 40’s detective noir fashion, this reimagining of Renee Montoya provides a great vehicle to deliver multiple story tropes that coincide with the parables of bigotry and corruption.
/Thanks to the non-patriarchally motivated actions of Commissioner James Gordon -- the BLACK head of Gotham Police who was made so just so the current mayor of Gotham could prove to the nation that he’s NOT racist.../
(I want good headlines Gordon! Wasn’t that the whole point of you in that job? Good press???)
/Renee Montoya is living the life she always wanted to live as a police detective, despite being surrounded by those who think the closest women should ever get to the role of detective is to be an in-office secretary./
Now this is to be expected considering the ones that are ACAB denyers’ “few bad apples” representatives in Caped Crusader are Harvey Bullock and Arnold Flass...
/One being a character that has a history of letting corruption and institution sway him, and the other just being a corrupt piece of shit in every universe he’s in. Not only can their allegiance be bought by any mob head of Gotham, but they react similarly to men who hate the idea of seeing women as equals./
But this is only within her station. LITERALLY.
/Because, yes there's the easily identifiable corruption and sense of brotherhood among the majority male police force that Montoya deters from assimilating into -- this trait more than likely why Gordon made her detective upon claiming his Black Job/ (You took a big risk making me a detective. I’ve let you down)
But there’s also how she handles those that have been corrupted in other institutions surrounding the profitable paranoia of crime.
/People like -- you guessed it -- Harvey Dent, who care more about getting a significant amount of “criminals” behind bars to give the middle and upper classes the illusion of safety, in order to advance his political career./
(You give me an arrest and I can put on a hell of a trial. Make us both look good. Will anyone do, or should I focus on finding the actual murderer?)
Now while these are understandable reasons thanks to how he looks on the bright side of policing, one could say that these aren’t the ONLY reasons why Gordon picked Renee.
Like her family was depicted in Gotham Central -- the series that first revealed that she’s a lesbian upon her official introduction in the comics -- Renee represents the Gothamite that has been from the side of town people like Dent write off as criminals and election fodder.
/She’s the one who was born and raised in the city and has to watch its midtown and downtown areas be changed and gentrified by the offspring of White Flighters who still consider neighborhoods mostly populated by its black and brown citizens “dangerous.”/
She’s seen what happens when lack of local resources and services amplify the desperation that drives people to crime firsthand. She’s seen how easy it is for not just institutions of law enforcement, but also society itself to write off those who live in public housing and the like.
And because of how much she’s wanted this opportunity, her role in Batman: Caped Crusader tells us that she’s seen what happens when nobody who looks like you are in positions that can help inspire you to both be better and help out your fellow man.
/And that’s mostly because, as I stated earlier, Gotham -- like other real-life cities here in America -- caters more to the permissions of the privileged than it does to the poor./
(Richies can’t stomach the real Gotham, so they just leave instead of making the city better. Go to the suburbs where it looks nice)
And speaking of the privileged and the poor, Harley Quinn did nothing wrong.
Just like with Renee, Harleen’s reimagining has been met with the age old cis-hetero male critique that is “I can’t fap to this shit!”
That’s right, theydies and gentlethems. It’s another case of wishing a female character better catered to the side of the fanbase that believes wiping your ass is something only queer folk do.
Nowadays they hide behind the argument that the original design for her is just so iconic at this point that you can’t even imagine her in anything else.
In which, I say... (Gurl)
/But as you would soon come to realize, this shield is guarding the fact that this version of Harley just isn’t as easily objectifiable as they want her to be./
It’s like a lot of them saw the new look and went:
Why doesn’t she look sexy? She’s SUPPOSED TO LOOK SEXY! That’s why I’m giving that she’s Asian now a pass, mind you. BUT SHE’S STILL SUPPOSED TO LOOK SEXY!
Of course this -- while still very loud -- is a minority in regards to the consensus about her rework. A lot of people were really excited to see a version of the character that didn’t rely on first being Joker’s sidekick to gain relevancy.
/Because of this, I believe there was power in removing the control that the male gaze once had on both Renee and Harleen. And I especially felt that when they used the decision for the two to possibly explore a romantic connection for as long as it lasted/
/It was just as authentic as the platonic relationship she had with Barbara and that we constantly saw play out so that the ending of their friendship during her villain episode felt more real./
/The same can be said about having to ditch Renee./
The buildup of seeing the type of person she is with her friends versus on the clock before getting to the main event definitely helped make this reimagining of Harley feel real. Especially when we see the main motivation for her crusade against those who gorge on capitalism.
/That’s because this Joker-free iteration of Harley helps us further see the clear class divide in Gotham that would soon be proven relevant with the introduction of the East End and the like. It’s hinted at in her introduction episode when she acted as Bruce’s evaluator by court order/
(Life is just different for people in my position. Someone wealthy, you mean? I’m sure it is)
/But soon we see that she -- and possibly all her homies -- hates the concept of trickle-down economics that Reagan will introduce in 40 more years, and has created a very efficient system regarding how to handle those who only believe in Socialism as long as it’s only among the rich. This includes breaking the minds of the out-of-touch millionaires after they spent years breaking the back of the working class, have them willingly redistribute all of their wealth down to the penny to the communities they hurt and tortured under threat of poverty for YEARS, and then make them so far gone in their mental break that the very thought of her makes them wanna unalive themselves because they think they’re finally reuniting with their mama./
I remember seeing people on TikTok celebrate how more menacing this version of Harley is.
/However, the common denominator in the equation regarding why it worked outside of how easily she could turn on and off the persona is that every single one of her victims were those who constantly got rich off the labor of others and refused to give them a single fruit that grew from their efforts./
Because it’s Gotham’s most wealthy yet most greedy that are helping perpetuate the growing crime rates. Not providing proper wages to their employers forces the desperation of crime on others who are simply trying to survive.
Their greed stealing the money out of the pockets of the poor and working class via inflation whenever “Supply & Demand” are treasured more than humanitarianism and empathy do nothing but prove that profit no matter what is the only drive
/It’s even in those -- like Bruce did -- that present as if they’ve only ever been used to others that have immediate relatability with their own sense of privilege./
While her tone and personality did change to fit the way she got in people’s heads, and while it was impressive, this sense of menace -- personally -- didn’t make me feel was the reason why everyone was digging her.
/After seeing how she handled all of her victims, the more I realized that part of the shared enjoyability of this version of Harley was the sense of cathartic envy she provided./
Making a billionaire that would rather lay off an entire department’s worth of workers in the industry they built on their backs just because they need a bigger end of the year bonus mentally suffer until he distributes his OWN wealth and guillotines his OWN head, is something that a lot of us who have been holding the “Eat The Rich” protest signs for a while now recently found out we’re into.
(whispers) And no, we don’t feel bad about it.
Considering how the diaspora has been spread across and has proven to be a huge problem in a lot of the other social commentaries Batman: Caped Crusader season one makes, the act of wish fulfillment that Harley represents in this show makes it incredibly hard for anyone to say that she deserves jail time.
Those who still think that it’s possible to accommodate that much wealth with no help and in such a short time ethically might disagree, but you should also consider that they’re stupid.
However, despite a lot of us choosing to live through the likes of this iteration of Harley Quinn considering all she was doing in the show, there’s a reason why -- despite what this version represents to a lot of people -- she is not the main focus of discussion when it comes to this topic.
Because if the one-two combo of class, race, and women’s struggle and how one wishes to act when forced to entertain a moral-free resolution to capitalistic corporate greed tell us anything in this show, the actions of both Harley Quinn and even Renee Montoya have absolutely nothing...
...on Barbara Gordon.
Yes, it’s the rejects who always buy Neapolitan but only just eat the fucking Vanilla that have a problem with this iteration of Barbara.
/And yes, it is, in fact, because she’s black./
Do they hide behind the social justice shield of ginger and redhead erasure in the media? Oh, every time! Do they ever truly care about ginger and redhead erasure in the media? NEVER IN YOUR FUCKING LIFE!
While the issue is easily understandable in relation to how representation is concerned, at least 90 percent of the people claiming this specific form of representation that only 45 percent actually realistically care about, eventually buckle when they can no longer defend their points and enough wear and tear was done on the package to display the racist behind the wrapping.
The tea here is that I actually also just described how white liberals work. But you didn’t hear that from me, though.
And once again, them choosing race over relations when choosing what bigotry to claim in these situations continues to confuse me.
/Because while they wanna be a Karen about the abruptness of Barbara’s blackness, Batman: Caped Crusader utilizes her in a way that actually matters. Especially in regards to the themes of corruption, capitalism, and systemic oppression due to the divide between the working and poor, and the upper and elite./
It definitely helped that the show made sure to establish her as the antithesis of Harvey Dent right off the gate.
/Seeing her as a defense attorney who understands that the reason people resort to crime is thanks to the lack of resources and services among the poor and working class that aid in their survivability and human rights truly was an extremely goated choice./
(Come on. You know this kid’s been set up to take the fall)
/Especially in comparison to this interpretation of Harvey Dent, who’s desire to become mayor has caused his place as Gotham’s District Attorney to be nothing more than his assimilation into the system./
(Its all politics for you now. Every conviction, another ad for your campaign)
And this choice especially matters, because it also reflects the hard work and dedication a lot of black women have displayed in real life in trying to find ways to do some true good through these institutions we know will either consume us or convert us.
It also helps that the very show itself made sure to serve Alan Burnett -- the REAL culprit behind the Bruce and Barbara ship in the Timmverse as I explained with proof in one of my older videos -- a much needed restraining order.
/That way, the avenues Barbara Gordon explores in the ways that they were could be properly explored, without some weird guy who’s one step into tumbling down the Man-O-Sphere hole come over and scare the hoes./
Instead we have Jase Ricci, Ed Brubaker, Adamma and Adanne Ebo all providing excellent stories that allowed Barbara to display this sense of corruption running rampant in the city via systemic oppression of the poor and working class...
/As well as find ways to show the distrust of the police to do the right thing in the form of the dynamic presented between one who knows the system is broken versus one who thinks it can be mended by the right welder/
(And you wonder why I don’t believe in the system)
The best part is that they did it all without having Alan Burnett’s problematic ship in his ear, establishing a more understandable yet satisfying working relationship between her and Batman over the course of the 10 episode season.
/And because Burnett’s not here to ruin the vibes with his brown liquor, we can also see the differences between Bruce’s direct and unforgiving way of handling the problem by unabashedly punishing those who use and take advantage of the manipulation, and Barbara empathizing and sympathizing with the victims of circumstances as she calls them, in order to find ways of helping them under the same accordance responsible in the first place./
Barbara is the strongest among the three women I explained in this case.
Because while what Harley does is the outside expression of an inside thought a lot of us sufferers of capitalism fantasize about regularly, and while Renee Montoya is still a cop at the end of the day, Barbara is a fictionalized depiction of real-life work performed by a good amount of black women every day in America.
/And it says a lot that even if she’ll never see her own cape and cowl like the Robins at Doctor Thompkins’ orphanage, it says a lot that the writers of Batman: Caped Crusader decided that Barbara Gordon would still find a way to do her part in saving Gotham./
Conclusion
Now before you ask, no. I promise you that if these three characters stayed either their original white or skinny selves usually depicted in Batman: The Animated series in Batman: Caped Crusader, the impact that Renee, Harley and Barbara made would not be as impactful.
That’s because thanks to systemic oppression and capitalism working hand-in-hand in real life to make suffering the commonality between marginalized people and the working class...
Seeing this type of action against these problems made by women that don’t cater to European beauty standards and/or the male gaze -- regardless if it’s socially accepted or morally frowned upon -- just won’t work.
Hearing a beat Latina cop who grew up in the projects with other BIPOC that the rest of the city deems as dangerous talk about the White Flighters and the like that abandoned the city for the suburbs, is more real and believable than it coming from Michelle Rodriguez in her Wild Things era.
Seeing an Asian psychologist kidnap, mentally break and drain the accounts dry of every businessman in Gotham that channeled the republican party from 1980 onward makes more sense, because the usual blond haired blue eyed depiction of her -- especially in 1940 -- wouldn’t care about the wealthy not paying the poor a living wage as long as she got hers.
And given everything the show gave us in regards to scenarios and situations, white Barbara in this show would care more about white feminism instead of black Barabara being capable of seeing that the true enemy of feminism as a whole is patriarchy, capitalism and true inequality.
/When you add these aspects of the show moving in the background, it not only enhances the new updated feel that this 1940’s stylized take on Batman delivers, but also the progress, journey and change you feel if you follow Harvey Dent’s arc throughout all 10 episodes/
It’s sharp, its tactical and its current. Especially with how things regarding Batman and Gotham in modern media are being explored to highlight the systemic problems in our own shit.
But of course, that means nothing when trying to inform a small group of very loud people that are just bigoted. Bigoted and horny
And because they’re doing it online, you just KNOW that their mentality regarding the former isn’t helping them handle the latter.
So they can stay that way until their balls turn Violet, Violet.
Meanwhile, I’m going to enjoy these great, refreshing takes on characters that I’ve grown up with that have incredibly relatable goals and arcs thanks to living the life of society they represent in the show, AND get my dick sucked.
Because unlike them, I have people in my life that genuinely like me enough to do that for me.
But I digress, Readers; your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what you thought of Batman: Caped Crusader if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a reimagining of a character you’ve seen in film or tv that left a better taste in your mouth than you thought it would.
Like, you weren’t expecting the Grape flavor to really POP OUT like that. Because it’s always the grape one that TRULY surprises us.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
/A HUGE shoutout to my Patrons both big and small for helping make this channel possible.
Make sure you check out the card at the end of the video to join, or click the link to it or any of my affiliates in the description box below.
But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed./
