The Conflict Behind the New 52

When DC first announced that they were going to reboot the DC Universe, everyone was very excited and eagerly awaiting for what the artists would bring to the table this time. Once the first issues of the DC 52 were published there was a huge backlash specially surrounding the female heroines. One of the most talked about scenes was Catwoman and Batman’s sex scene in the first issue of Catwoman.

The controversy began because DC portrayed women in an intensely sexual context that seems demeaning even to the most sexually liberated woman. Before Catwoman’s face is revealed there are shots of her red lingerie and then a couple of booty shots when she is wearing her extremely tight leather pants. This belittles females around the world because women are just shown as eye candy as if they have no purpose but to serve as window dressing.

Although the frequent lingerie and booty shots are demeaning, feminists are not as bothered by them because these kind of shots that sexualize women are quite common in the comic book world, but instead they are outraged by the love scene between Batman and Catwoman. They question why the artists had to dedicate a whole page to the Batman- Catwoman action instead of just omitting it like they usually do. The answer probably is that DC wanted to portray “sexually liberated” woman who are in control of their sexuality, but in turn ended up portraying what men want to see.