Catwoman as a woman of color and sex worker

[sarahcampva]

Hello everyone! So, this is my first post here in the cbr community forums, and I had a question to propose...

For an upcoming paper that I am writing, I am looking at the response of the Catwoman fandom toward the idea of Selina Kyle as a black woman, but also a prostitute, and what the (mostly negative) responses to this notion say about American culture/society and its response to race and employment as a sex worker. It has been my experience amongst the inter webs that the majority of people prefer the white, classy, pearl wearing cat-lady to the woman with actual motivation to become a thief turned hero/villain tight line walker.


thoughts? opinions?

[Jeff Brady]

She wasn't black in Year One.

[The Red Monk]

Catwoman was black in Batman: Year One?

That's the first time I've heard someone propose that.

[napolid]

My best guess the colouring of the book confused op.

[Jeff Brady]

My best guess the colouring of the book confused op.

Probably. Except that when she shows up in the Catwoman costume, she doesn't look black AT ALL.

To the OPs question: I don't care either way.

[Kurisu]

To the OPs question: I don't care either way.

This.

I actually wish they would have made Eartha Kitt!Catwoman a legit thing with the New 52, but alas.

[godisawesome]

I didn't quite realize she was supposed to be POC until a few years ago when I read something where Frank Miller and the artist clarified that yes, Selina Kyle was supposed to look ethnic in an ambiguous way, and I do think Eartha Kitt was name-dropped. Since I was taking a class on sociology and anthropology at the time, it kind of tied into the lessons we had on race portrayals in media. Since I was accustomed to a stark white Catwoman, and since I knew that was the Catwoman portrayed in the solo series at that time, I just thought the artists gave her a really weird haircut.

However, far more focus in the fan community has been in the sex worker angle than any implied "race" for the character. It was the first major attempt to give Selina a dead-serious and modern origin, but a lot of people found it distasteful. Others found it to add a nice complexity and real world drama to the issue. Since then, however, two issues of the story have stood out; Frank Miller's reputation as a guy who thinks "hookers hookers hookers" (as well as his portrayal of Selina as a haggard madam in DKR) and the perception that Selina dons the costume for very little reason and is immediately able to move past her old life in hackneyed way. Whether either complaint is accurate is for the reader to decide.

I think by now, the Woman of Color angle has been largely forgotten, while the sex worker angle has been (somewhat?) grudgingly accepted. At the least, it is now expected that Catwoman's confidants include women in the sex trade, and that she has some kind of rough childhood. However, just about every single time they talk about her past, they will retcon it out and in. It's now more like a vague association than anything else.

During Post-Crisis continuity, it waxed and waned for some time; at first, she was a former prostitute, than suddenly not at all, then she was a dominatrix but only a dominatrix, then she was a film-noire style prostitute complete with a hard boiled beau. Meanwhile, Batman Returns and the New 52 have magic cat-licks on some woman in dire straights, while TDKR only implied a hard and stained life on the streets. Gotham seems to be going for the pick pocket and street rat origin. So the overall idea of Selina as a young girl who turned the city's darkness on itself seems to be the only agreed upon narrative.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

Hello everyone! So, this is my first post here in the cbr community forums, and I had a question to propose...

For an upcoming paper that I am writing, I am to look at the fan communities opinions and thoughts about the portrayal of Catwoman/Selina Kyle as a black prostitute in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One.

Soooo, what are your thoughts/opinions/feelings on this topic?

She was white and a dominatrix, but you can write a paper on how you got confused... Which is not uncommon at all, by the way.

I think Batman (1966) pretty much set the precedent for characters changing race and appearance adaptations.

As for the sexuality. I think:
*It is so passé.
*Even from the start it was indulging writing.
*It makes some sense to have Selina doing adult entertaining. I wouldn't mind the idea of Selina grudgingly going through a stripper face, hating every single second of it, just like a stoic cat walking among dogs, right before being inspired by Batman beating one of those dogs. I think being a dominatrix, instead, would be too annoying to her.
*I think a best option would be to have Catwoman's origin vague and unexplained. A mysterious thief, sometimes doing the cat thief herself, sometimes manipulating men. Someone who comes from nothing, and as Selina Kyle, she's sometimes seen in the same parties as Bruce Wayne. I'm not a big fan of Long Halloween / Dark Victory, but Loeb definitively got her right.

[Carabas]

My best guess the colouring of the book confused op.

Bruce Wayne has darker skin than Selina there.

[Pharozonk]

Isn't Selina of at least partial Hispanic descent?

[K. Jones]

Italian, almost to be sure, these days. Italian enough to make mafia princess claims.

I kind of prefer the idea that she's black in Year One just from a weird insular standpoint where like it fits as part of the Millerverse, not necessarily the greater DCU history that Year One supposedly fits into. As for being a dominatrix, well the BBC Sherlock crew pretty much borrowed that one for Irene Adler, didn't they? But Brubaker spent quite a while backpedaling that whole aspect.

I guess part of it depends on shaming versus respecting sex workers, a lot of people's thoughts on that storyline. But personally, I just felt like "sex worker" as a secret origin for "cat burglar" made zero sense. Why because the leather and whips? Newsflash ... society girls like leather and whips, too. Nolan's class warfare angle wasn't terrible because it slots into some preexisting angles. I mean I grew up poor, the appeal and romanticism of scheming and heisting some diamonds or art and pedaling it and living large isn't hard to understand. And Batman needs to face at least one damned white collar criminal.

[Carabas]

Isn't Selina of at least partial Hispanic descent?

Somebody retconned that in but it didn't really stick. Then somebody else tried to retcon in her being an illegitimate Falcone, but that didn't stick either.

Italian, almost to be sure, these days. Italian enough to make mafia princess claims.

I kind of prefer the idea that she's black in Year One just from a weird insular standpoint where like it fits as part of the Millerverse, not necessarily the greater DCU history that Year One supposedly fits into.

Selina was in Return Of The Dark Knight though, and she didn't seem to be black.

[Arnoldoaad]

I thin Haley berry´s Catwoman´s movie killed the posibility of a black catwoman ever happening again

[Toreador]

I think the confusion was the coloring and the crew-cut hairstyle Selina wore to wear the wigs easier that made it look like a close-crop Afro that some black women wear.

[Maxpower00044]

She wasn't black in Year One.

Was going to say this. Her skin tone is never darker than any white character when in comparison. It's definitely the way the hair is drawn that's misleading.