"Batwoman and the Male Gaze

So, I watched the long-awaited pilot for Batwoman, the CW's replacement for the long running Arrow show.

It was not perfect. It had a certain amount of what I hope was pilot-itis (the storyline was a bit cliched and I wasn't too keen on the flashbacks).

But it had something else that makes me hope this show soars.

Kate Kane, ably played by Ruby Rose is, in the comics, Bruce Wayne's cousin. She's also canonically a lesbian.

Batwoman has thus been marketed as the first TV superhero show with a lesbian lead. Which it is, but this show goes past that.

This is our girl in street clothes. Look at that aesthetic.

Kate isn't just the first lesbian superhero to lead her own show.

She's unashamedly, completely butch.

This is a female character who won't be weaponizing her femininity, because she doesn't have any. If she does something feminine, she'll be wearing a costume as heavy as the batsuit. (The trademark red hair over the cowl does not show up right away, but apparently will later, there are pictures).

It's not just the hair, the clothes. Ruby Rose, who is non-binary and exclusively attracted to women, moves and sounds like a butch woman. (Although she identifies as genderfluid, she still uses she/her pronouns as far as I can tell). She brings a gender ambiguity to the role.

The second really huge thing the pilot does is this:

The bad guy, Alice, played by a brilliant woman named Rachel Skarsten, gets into a fight with Kate.

It is something you almost never see:

A fight between two women that is not a chickfight. (Now, I have to admit. The bisexual part of my brain enjoys chickfights. But...) When the two get together physically it is a knock down, drag out brawl. It is ugly.

This is female characters being allowed to be ugly in a fight.

There was nothing in the pilot that was put in there for straight men. Nothing of the male gaze. It does not put a lesbian on display, it does not make of her kisses and loves something for others to enjoy.

Batwoman is seen entirely through the gaze of queer women. It is by us. It is for us. It's not as good as Black Lightning.

Yet.

And if it fails it certainly won't be the fault of Ruby Rose.

(And, of course, it is being utterly panned on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe we need to go give it some love).