Batgirl #4

[aeka]

Batgirl has an interesting chat with....Oracle?

Comments

[kenn_el]

This sequence was SO overwrought! While the writer fixates on Babs' physical recovery, she ends the issue having a chat with the roommate who should not exist and acts completely as if TKJ had never happened!

[icon_uk]

It's a dream, aren't they usually a bit over-wrought.

[darkknightjrk]

Why shouldn't her roommate exist? And how does she act like TKJ never happened?

[kenn_el]

Barbara, post TKJ, having a stranger as a roommate, makes no sense, just on the level of security if nothing else. I was referring to her final action in the issue, which I didn't realize had been posted earlier, which made it seem as if she'd learned nothing from her ordeal.

[benicio127]

There's a whole lot of victim blaming coming from your comments. I'm getting this sense from what you're saying that if Babs does not live her life extremely cautiously following the shooting, then the next time she gets shot, it's completely her own damn fault.

Not everyone who has been a victim/survivor of a tragic event needs to live their life cautiously trying to avoid another tragic event. Victims don't have to live their lives defined by the fear that something might happen again. And if another tragic event were to happen, it would NOT be their fault. The onus is not on the victim to avoid being shot, the onus is on the perpetrators out there to not shoot.

[starwolf_oakley]

What you say makes a lot of sense. But there's something to say about the importance of safety measures. I'm still remembering a line from Brad Meltzer's JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA run:

"After Barbara (Gordon), we got organized. After Sue (Dibney), we got armed."

I'm not the biggest Brad Meltzer fan, but that line was cool.

[benicio127]

There is something to say about the importance of safety measures; however, if a family had been robbed, and say remained in that neighbourhood because they couldn't afford to move out or whatever, and could only afford getting new locks, but not a high level security system and/or bars on the windows, that does not suddenly make that family at fault for being robbed again.

[kenn_el]

In real life, yes. However, since the writer has chosen to make TKJ the defining moment in Babs' life, her behavior seems off when it doesn't reflect that. I would appreciate if the character moved on and never mentioned TKJ again, but the writer fixates on certain things as having had an effect, and expects us not to notice when mundane things which OUGHT to have a reaction do not.

[benicio127]

Well, no, not just in real life. When victim-blaming comments are made about fictional characters, it's really not that far off from comments real people have made about other real people. These attitudes are pervasive.

Not only that, but just because TKJ is a part of Babs' storyline doesn't mean that her current storyline needs to be about her being defined as a victim. What if the next gun shot that comes at her does not come from her frontdoor? What if it comes from walking down the street? Does she need to do things like constantly look through a peephole in order to fit a proper "I was once victimized" profile? How long does she have to stay a victim?

[kenn_el]

First off, there's no need to be rude and assign me 'victim blaming' status when I've done no such thing. And second, as someone who has been a victim of crime and witnessed such treatment first-hand, I do NOT need you to educate me on on the subject or how 'pervasive' attitudes may be.
And my statement wasn't that TKJ was a part of Babs' storyline, but that the writer has MADE it the defining part of her new title.Ms. Simone has Babs act a victim in a variety of ways throughout. I was not commenting on whether or not those were appropriate, but that her seeming to act incongruously in other situations shows an inconsistent characterization.

[sadoeuphemist]

Seriously though I don't know what the roommate has to do with anything, because it's not as if the Joker posed as a friendly face to get to her the first time?

[benicio127]

I'm sorry that you have been a victim of crime, but you have still made victim blaming comments in this post here when you suggest that it is stupid for Barbara to have a stranger as a roommate because doing so would seem like she has learned nothing from her ordeal (and thereby alluding to the idea that if this roommate is a bad person, it's Babs' fault because she didn't "learn the first time around"); here -- that because she has moved in with a roommate, she is "stupid or possibly suicidal," and, here where you suggest that by opening the door to the Joker, Babs made a "mistake" by not checking the peephole first -- thereby, laying partial blame on her.