#Batgirl 2009 is a great example of judging a work's level of feminism

[mzminola]

Saw someone claim that canon Stephanie Brown has the character arc / development that "fanon [redacted]" has and buddy I hate to break it to you, but Preboot era Stephanie has the character development of a flat tire.

Stephanie starts out as a decently rounded supporting character who acts as a foil & peer to first Tim and then Cass. She's abrasive, pushy, and impulsive, which works for the narrative role she's in. She has some interesting moments of minor growth and glimpses of potential for more that unfortunately don't really go anywhere.

Then she gets screwed over by editorial's desire for grimdark edginess, dies, turns out not to be dead, and comes back having learned absolutely nothing from her mistakes (including, frankly, the mistake of thinking Bruce Wayne knows what he's doing).

Her following solo title insults other women characters to prop her up, acts like her past mistakes which got people killed are just a minor whoopsie that doesn't need to be addressed, and by the end of the run she's in the exact same narrative place she started.

I suspect if Stephanie hadn't died, or even if she'd died in a different way, she'd have continued to be a decently rounded character. Maybe she wouldn't have learned from her mistakes, but she'd have been allowed to be wrong. Maybe some of those glimpses of potential growth would have finally been followed up!

As-is, it feels like once she came back, DC didn't want to let the narrative criticize her at all, in case they be accused of victim blaming.

Which makes for a very flat character.