Batwoman

[stevenpiziks]

In non-rioting news, we got word that Ruby Rose, the first LGBT person to play an LGBT lead on a super-hero show, has decided to leave BATWOMAN after one season. Rumor has it that the punishing schedule proved too crushing for her. The CW has announced that, rather than recast the role, they're creating an entirely new character to become Batwoman. They're still planning to hire a lesbian, and Batwoman will continue to be an out LGBT super-hero. Well, cool, then. I would rather they had recast the role and gone ahead, but this could work, too.

But that's not what I really wanted to talk about.

This incident potentially sheds light on something I'd noticed about BATWOMAN. Did anyone else see it?

They seemed almost afraid to have Batwoman appear on her own show.

No, really. The show seemed to be working overtime to keep Kathy Kane out of the cowl. When Alice persuaded/forced Kathy to break into Arkham with her, for example, the show twisted the plot so that Kathy wore a rabbit mask instead of her Batwoman costume. In another show, they had Kathy be so upset about killing someone that she couldn't bear to put the costume on, and only wore it in the last couple minutes of the show. In fact, on multiple episodes, Batwoman showed up only in the climactic scene.

I started getting ticked. Why wouldn't they let Kathy be Batwoman? Supergirl spends most of her episodes wearing the big red S. The Flash and Green Arrow both wore their costumes at least half the time. Why didn't Kathy get into her costume more? Are they depowering the lesbian, perhaps? It seemed possible, even likely, given the history of LGBT characters in the media.

But with this bit of new news, I'm wondering if Ruby Rose actually had something to do with it. Perhaps getting into and out of the costume was more time-consuming than she was willing to handle, and she pushed the writers into changing the stories around so she could wear it less often.

Did anyone else who watched the show notice this, or was it just me?