viz.

Image Credit: Dark Knight News

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Imagine: you're a tough, streetwise individual at the peak of your physical prime. You've got a flair for the dramatic, a go-get-'um attitude and a highly developed sense of justice. So, you've probably figured out, you're a superhero. In the world of comic books, and, increasingly, television and film, a few critical questions remain: what's your modus operandi? Your motivation for fighting crime? Do you have superpowers? If you happen to be a woman, you also have before you a seemingly trivial but, in my humble opinion, tellingly crucial decision: what sort of footwear do you sport with your obligatory flashy costume?





When I was a kid I was active in track & field, positively obsessed with superheroes, and more than a little unimpressed with girl culture. Nothing irked me more than seeing my favorite female characters with high heels strapped to their feet. Highly impractical, my awkward, prepubescent self scowled. Dashing across rooftops and delivering roundhouse kicks simply couldn't be accomplished in stilletos, and artists doubtlessly depicted women this way only to emphasize their weakness and narcissism. Batman: The Animated Series featured a Catwoman in flats, and for this sage move I awarded this brilliant, noir 90s show much credit.



Nowadays, along with picking up a shameless delight in many aspects of “chick culture,” I have a few more gender studies perspectives in my utility belt to bring to this ongoing conversation. In part 1, I'm going to stick with the serviceable, androgynous flats my childhood self would have admired. Part 2 will examine the potential for another brand of feminism in more distinctively feminine footwear.



So what does it suggest about their brand of empowered women when character designers choose shoes? For the sake of thematic continuity, let's stick with the Batman DC universe and take a look at Batwoman. Batwoman was revitalized by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman in 2010 with a self-titled series all her own, and their boot selection goes a long way towards characterizing this highly independent, powerful, no-nonsense hero. As a side note, to be fair, These babies are tailor made for the pragmatic crime fighter and include a flat heel to facilitate ease of movement, an inch or so on the bottoms to give her some height, some grip on the sole for leaping across rooftops and some overall heft to give kicks some weight. There aren't any straps or laces threatening to come untied at the worst moment. These shoes emphasize the sheer physicality of derring-do-gooding and offer little in the way of distinguishing their owner's gender. The subtle V at the top might be considered a giveaway, but when we look at them next to a pair of Batman's footwear, said V becomes an interesting inversion of his own boots style.





 Image Credit: Batman Wikia



Granted, every artist will have their own renditions of Batwoman and Batman, but the boots seemed to hold steady over a few Google searches. Now, back to the inverted V. We could step into some Freud and infer phallic/yonic imagery going on here. We also, however, can't ignore the visual suggestion that Batwoman is a hero of Batman's ilk with her own personalized twists. If something as simple as boot top design tells them apart, there's not much gender space between them, at least not in the shoe department.



I suspect that in this particular comic cover (issue 0, the very first Batwoman title), Batwoman's boots are also performing some hefty symbolic work. The spiky bat on the sole doesn't need much explication, but what about the large W on the heel? Given that this area is where other female superheroes have sported steep stilletos, their erasure and replacement with a much more subtle indicator of gender, only visible when you're being violently assaulted with it, suggests a rejection of the old world of fashion-first lady heroes and a wholehearted embrace of the empowered (importantly, physically empowered) woman. Did I mention that Batwoman's current backstory involves being booted out of military school for violating don't ask, don't tell? In Part 2, I'll look at whether superheroes in high heels are doomed to objectification and weakness or have opportunities to make girl culture another imposing weapon in their arsenal.