Catwoman as a Black Woman, problematic stereotyping?

[Mistah K88]

Catwoman has been depicted as black waaaaaaaaay back in the 1960s.

It's funny how America has some become simultaneously more and less racist over time.

Yeah… in fact I’d say that most of the time that Catwoman is portrayed as black, they normally have the voice actress (Cree Summer) do an Eartha Kitt impression as a clear homage to the actress. I’m thinking the concern over her background being seen as stereotypical (which we have never really seen too much of in things like the Harley Quinn animated series [where it “started”, despite Eartha Kitt playing the character decades beforehand]) seems a bit… I don’t know…disingenuous?

[kcomics]

In recent years, we have seen a big boost to remake Selina as a black woman. It started in the Harley Quinn cartoon, then the Batman movie, now even the comic solo is giving her more African American features. Of course, Catwoman is a renown thief , who enjoys the finer things thanks to her loot. Meanwhile, a popular stereotyping of black people, by the KKK and such, is that they enjoy stealing and looting people for their own riches.

As such, making Selina a black girl could be reinforcing the stereotype in people's mind. Unfortunately, many incel Q-anon types read and worship Batman. So, being exposing to such stereotyping could be problematic to racial relation. Especially now, as Selina features are getting more African American in her solo, she is cheating on her lawfully wedded husband, Bruce Wayne, with another sketchy character. A black woman as a thieving, cheating girl is not a good look.

But maybe, DC does not care at all. Discovery is buying WB, DC parent company. Discovery big boss is a big MAGA type guy, and he is aggressively revamping CNN to be more like Fox News. So, I guess enabling such negative stereotyping of black people is a huge win in the subliminal messaging department

What do you think?

Can we not turn DC into Disney? As others have pointed out, there will be problematic political messages found everywhere in comics if you read too much into it. Was it PC to portray Joker, one of DC Comics' worst super villains as a legitimately mentally ill/disabled guy since it's a well-known stigma (or really a lie), perpetuated by Hollywood, that mentally ill poor folks commit the worst crimes? Probably not, but it was an interesting take on the character, and it still provided somewhat relevant social commentary without being too preachy. In this case, I could argue that Batman is also mentally ill; the main difference between him and Arthur is that Batman is rich. In that context, it becomes less "mentally ill people are evil" and more "poor folks struggle more than rich ones and are likely to experience more negative outcomes."

I would think that portraying a POC as an expert thief and a street-smart anti-hero is only problematic if the comic series implies that ALL POC are like this, and no, the comics are pretty careful to balance it out. For example, you have Selina Kyle, but you also have characters like Duke Thomas. Personally I think a good story is better than a politically correct one. Take the Joker movie, for example. I as a mentally ill person was actually happy to see Joker portrayed in a somewhat positive light. Sure, he's not to be taken as a role model, but there were certain parts in the movie where you could empathize with the character's struggles, and he felt more human. I even felt like his struggles were realistic; I've been teased on jobs and bullied for my disabilities before, too, only in my case it was stuttering. I feel like making changes like those, that give the characters depth, makes more sense than scrapping the whole idea--ie mentally ill people who commit crimes--in favor of not offending someone. Sure, the Batman comics do portray a fair amount of mentally ill people who are super criminals, but they also portray a few as heroes and anti-heroes as well, and you could also argue that the super criminals have a place of honor since Batman stories deal with gray morality.

[Triniking1234]

I don't know why we're blaming the Joker movie for portraying him as mentally ill when he's been like that since the 40s.

[kcomics]

I don't know why we're blaming the Joker movie for portraying him as mentally ill when he's been like that since the 40s.

You're right, but the Joker movie was really obvious about it, and I'm assuming a lot of people watched it.

[BooCoo]

In recent years, we have seen a big boost to remake Selina as a black woman. It started in the Harley Quinn cartoon, then the Batman movie, now even the comic solo is giving her more African American features. Of course, Catwoman is a renown thief , who enjoys the finer things thanks to her loot. Meanwhile, a popular stereotyping of black people, by the KKK and such, is that they enjoy stealing and looting people for their own riches.

As such, making Selina a black girl could be reinforcing the stereotype in people's mind. Unfortunately, many incel Q-anon types read and worship Batman. So, being exposing to such stereotyping could be problematic to racial relation. Especially now, as Selina features are getting more African American in her solo, she is cheating on her lawfully wedded husband, Bruce Wayne, with another sketchy character. A black woman as a thieving, cheating girl is not a good look.

But maybe, DC does not care at all. Discovery is buying WB, DC parent company. Discovery big boss is a big MAGA type guy, and he is aggressively revamping CNN to be more like Fox News. So, I guess enabling such negative stereotyping of black people is a huge win in the subliminal messaging department

What do you think?

Eartha Kitt played Catwoman in the 60s series. To me what's more annoying is the female/cat trope, slinky/sexuality and scratching/slashing ability. Why is seemingly every cat character female?

[Nite-Wing]

Its funny how America has become so much more racist in that they care about the skin tone of fictional characters that are not real and so much less racist in that they will cast POC for roles and characters traditionally set as just default white


What bugs certain people is a faithful adaptation but what bugs other people is that none of this is the source material where the true vision is still present


Catwoman as a thief is not a stereotype making her a different race and saying she is a thief because she's black or whatever non default race is a stereotype

[OopsIdiditagain]

In recent years, we have seen a big boost to remake Selina as a black woman. It started in the Harley Quinn cartoon, then the Batman movie, now even the comic solo is giving her more African American features. Of course, Catwoman is a renown thief , who enjoys the finer things thanks to her loot. Meanwhile, a popular stereotyping of black people, by the KKK and such, is that they enjoy stealing and looting people for their own riches.

As such, making Selina a black girl could be reinforcing the stereotype in people's mind. Unfortunately, many incel Q-anon types read and worship Batman. So, being exposing to such stereotyping could be problematic to racial relation. Especially now, as Selina features are getting more African American in her solo, she is cheating on her lawfully wedded husband, Bruce Wayne, with another sketchy character. A black woman as a thieving, cheating girl is not a good look.

But maybe, DC does not care at all. Discovery is buying WB, DC parent company. Discovery big boss is a big MAGA type guy, and he is aggressively revamping CNN to be more like Fox News. So, I guess enabling such negative stereotyping of black people is a huge win in the subliminal messaging department

What do you think?

I don't think the people who agree with those stereotypes are thinking of Catwoman when they think of crime. Catwoman commits crimes but it isn't presented in a negative way, if anything she gets praised for it. Catwoman fits into the gentleman thief trope alongside Arsene Lupin and Robin Hood.

As for cheating, it's whatever. It's bad but it's a classic drama trope.

Incel Q-anon types aren't changing their minds because of a comicbook lol.

[Will Evans]

I’m so used to her being half Cuban since the 1990s

[Majesty]

Whatever arguments the QAnoners make doesn't deserve attention or platform.


Catwoman's been multiple races and was played by Eartha Kitt in the 60s. So Selina could be any race and still be Selina.

Those peeps only have a problem when a character that was originally 'white' isn't played by a white character. Meanwhile they will be silent as heck about Percy Jackson and Scarlet Witch's casting. But they'll torment the black girl cast as Annabeth and get her social media taken down.

To heck with those people :P If they try to make Catwoman an 'example' for how they view people of that race, they got way deeper problems and shouldn't be paid attention to.