Review: Batgirl - Spoiled (Blindside)

Well, now. Where to begin. I guess we have to talk about rape.


Batgirl: Spoiled episode 1 has gone up, which would be difficult to miss. It's been heavily promoting itself among geek circles for some time now. Now that you can see the first chapter, reception seems to range from OMG TEH AWSUMZ MOAR to DIS SUX DIE IN A FYRE. But to be fair, very rarely is any meaningful discussion possible in reply threads. Most statements and claims made are easily refuted by basic 101 research, which by extension means you'll often find yourself debating with someone who is either behind on core concepts, or willfully ignorant.

Put simply, that makes most responses not much more than digestive noises. YouTube is a special brand of 'discussion thread' though, which can often make it more akin to a sewage drain backing up. This can be verified by watching any first-person shooter video and reading the comments, but hitting yourself in the forehead with a frying pan is quicker, and will pretty much have the same effect. Ba-zing!

Batgirl : Spoiled leaves me a little confused over the choice of title. I'm not sure exactly what it refers to, if anything, yet. But I'll remain optimistic that it does refer to something. Is it her devil-may-care attitude toward the ugly world of crime? I'm going to assume that's the answer.

Production values, dialogue and acting are great for a fan film; they're a cut above most others, and only falling just short of a lot of t.v. level work. Marisha Ray is more than likable and plays with the script well (Shut up. Yes. Shut up!), the fight scenes are choreographed well enough, striking the right balance between 'real' and 'Hollywood', and bonus points for no cliche moments involving blatant 'heroic poses'. Plus, watching the first half of it made me want doughnuts. Now we must move on to the second half, and a depiction of attempted rape.

First, to be clear, I will usually try to consider a work by merit rather than content. To do otherwise risks black-and-white thinking more compatible with 'good-and-evil' religious fanatics, rather than the ambiguous grey colors of the art world. Let alone the real world. As far as fiction goes, there are several possible problems with using rape as a plot device. 

One is sexualizing, or eroticizing a rape. If you stumble across a 15 watt light bulb who claims that you can't sexualize rape 'because rape and sex are already essentially the same thing' (I've seen guys state this more than once), you could  try to explain to them that using a hammer to hang a picture on the wall and using a hammer to beat somebody's skull in are not the same thing, even though both involve a hammer.

You could try that. I would probably just get creeped out and get away from them as quickly as possible. 

Another problem is the Women in Refridgerators syndrome, which involves treating female characters as disposable devices, often for the sake of motivating a male character. This particular problem has been a reoccurring one in the comic world, to say the least. Lazy writing is sometimes leveled as an accusation when rape is used as a drama device. If any sort of emotional investment at all has been built with the character, it is a profoundly-emotional stomach-punch, potentially giving a writer an easy shock button to push, and provoke a reaction from the reader or viewer.

'Blindside' is a short video, clocking in at about 11 minutes. With that serving we get 5 minutes of character-building fun with Stephanie, and 1 minute of watching her kicking ass. Then a switch gets flipped and we get 1 minute of watching Stephanie getting her ass kicked, 3 minutes of a criminal speech, and about 1 minute of attempted rape / sudden rescue, which really needs a trigger warning for the 10:00 mark. That urge to vomit can last hours, which is something I would rather just avoid. If I see a 'The Following Portrays Scenes of an Adult Nature', I equip / reinforce myself in a psychologically guarded way that's much different than how I let my defenses down when I think I can relax and let the little kid in me out for fun.

It's true that there are a disproportionate number of female characters that suffer brutalization and sexual assault in comic books, and those depictions are often handled in a poor, clumsy way, or worse, used in an attempt to titillate and exploit. The question that arises is whether or not 'Batgirl : Spoiled' falls into this category. Portraying a rape for the purpose of emotional drama does not always automatically equate exploitation. But eroticizing it (such as attempting to provoke the audience into 'enjoying it' from the rapist's perspective, or portraying an attacker 'convincing' the victim to desire it) does equate exploitation. 

'Spoiled' dances on the edge between suddenly-horrifying and suggestively-skeezy with this point, with a strange tone that went from fun, to serious, to the epitome of ugly, only to jump back at the last second with an attempted 'fun' moment....sort of (it did not give a comedic twist of expectations). I guess I felt strangely mislead afterward, which left me with a scattered impression, and no clear opinion of the work as a whole. It could be argued that 'Spoiled' dances just outside the reach of WiR accusations, because Stephanie seems to be the main character, instead of a throw-away device to drive the motives of a male protagonist. As to 'lazy writing', I'm not convinced yet if that is the case, or if the writer was simply trying to convey a verisimilitude in the context of that situation. Some people prefer such instances in fantasy fiction, to lend it the weight of reality, making feel more immersive. Others abhor it. I would imagine because fantasy is something many people use to escape our frequently ugly reality.

Stomach-flipping moment aside, I was tentatively left wanting to see more, with caveats. If 'Batgirl : Spoiled' becomes a glorified parade of cosplay girls vamping and posing teh secs-z for the camera, and using this show as a thin guise to do it, count me out. Also, if it becomes apparent that the writer DID use rape as a cheap gimmick (which I'm unsure of at the moment) by exposing poor writing in the chapters to come, count me out as well.

You know what would be cool to depict in a future episode, though? Give us a flashback showing Barbara getting her (much more serious) Batgirl on. It would make an interesting, brief, comparison dynamic. But do it showing her in a strong moment. Depicting 'that night' (we all know what I mean) would be just about the worst decision possible. Particularly in light of this first episode.

I will say this. It's a good thing Batman didn't show up to do the rescuing. If that would have occurred, I might have been compelled to throw my laptop through the nearest window.