TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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bat-rss
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TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

Post by bat-rss »

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While Batman season one seemed to have a consistent view of women -- incapable of being hardened criminals, attracted to luxury items (and Batman), etc. -- season two (as is true in many respects) tends to be less consistent. While some molls are ditzy and childish, others not only have agency, but seem more intelligent than the villain. Ma Parker and Marsha appear as the first two truly villainous women (aside from Catwoman) of the series. Even Aunt Harriet shows herself to be smarter and tougher than we'd previously seen. In this episode, we're once again joined by novelist Nancy Northcott to talk about women on Batman, this time in the first half of season two.

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"I'm half-demented with whimsical outrage!"
-- The Joker, in a line cut from "The Joker's Epitaph"
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High C
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

Post by High C »

Excellent show. I look forward to Nancy's next appearance. I always enjoy her perspective and insight when she drops by.

Let's face it, the elephant in the room is the one you mentioned in your 'Slide' episode of many moons ago--Charles Hoffman. As with everything else post-Semple, there is no clear vision with the molls in season 2. There is not one scene of a young moll reforming and being invited to stately Wayne Manor, a la season 1. Perhaps the closest analog is Aunt Hilda doing the home ec class, and she's helping Marsha again later on in S2 anyway!

The molls seem less important. Their stories rarely, if ever, get wrapped up, unlike season 1.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'

My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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High C
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

Post by High C »

To add to my previous comment, I would say the attitude toward the molls in the first half of season 2 is equally misogynistic as season 1, but with the unfortunate added caveat that they are less important.

In one sense, perhaps, that could be construed as a good thing. They are not being treated as 'poor, deluded creatures' who have somehow been duped or lured into a life of crime by the promise of money and pretty jewels. They apparently made a conscious decision, all on their own, to be evil. So I suppose that is an improvement.

Yet, at the same time, they are imbued with less importance. As I noted, rarely do their arcs get a final-act wrapup in part 2. No more chances to get all 'gussied up' and hang out at a party at Wayne Manor before going back to the slammer or to 'Bruce Wayne's Reform School For Wayward Girls' or to join one's brother as a sheepherder overseas.

In season 1, you got that opportunity by reforming, or at least helping The Duo at the end. Maid Marilyn does this, yes. But note how 'sexy dame' Octavia, who even Robin admits is 'gorgeous,' attempts to surrender to Batman. He rejects it and sends her back to Minstrel with a listening device planted in her purse.

Think about that for a moment. Season 1 1966 Batman would've wanted to extricate a 'poor, deluded female' from the clutches of a clearly unbalanced arch-criminal. There is no telling what might happen to her, he might reason. But season 2 Bats doesn't blink--if an evil henchmoll can be used as a pawn to checkmate a villain, even if she is trying to give herself up to the law, she is fair game to be taken advantage of. That is not the code he went by just a few short months earlier. Did Batman ask the powers that be to give her special consideration because she tried to surrender earlier? We'll never know.

Had this been a first-season episode, we might have gotten more of a back story on Octavia. Perhaps she was an aspiring but frustrated singer who turned to evil and joined Minstrel's criminal group. But she disappears after she discovers the 'bug.' To be fair, the same thing happened to the moll in husband-and-wife writing team Francis and Marian Cockrell's first-season arc as well--she vanished 15 minutes before part 2 ended.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'

My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

Interesting show. I do believe there might be too many modern day expectations employed to judge a show over 50 years old. That, and forgetting that most secondary characters on Batman--male or female--rarely had an arc at all. They were there primarily to trap the heroes, then fall to their fists in the second part. Even if one considers the "poor, deluded child" / redemption-bound characters from season one, you'd be forced to acknowledge that they were not the focus of the story--rather, it was another way of building up Batman's heroic/romantic aura by having molls gaze Heavenward and wish they could see Batman one more time.

If anyone had an interest in seeing female characters with greater development or a sense of independence on 1960s TV, they were not going to watch Batman, simply due to its focus never being about secondary characters. Heck, O'Hara was one of the main characters (with Stafford Repp listed in the title sequence), yet across three seasons and a movie, I'm willing to bet fans could not list ten solid facts about his background or details about his character, (being a cop is not one of them) other than he's married and...? You would be better off with series such as The Fugitive--where so many characters were written to bring the drama and depth for David Janssen's Richard Kimble to play against; you had the occasional love-struck woman sympathizing with Kimble, but you were never going to see an actress go the "poor, deluded child" route, or take the breathy Terry Moore lane of characterization.

Look at it this way: in the 70s, if you were looking for more realistic, independent portrayals of women, would you watch Three's Company, or The Bionic Woman? In the 90s, Baywatch or ER? The point being is that nuance where female characters were concerned simply did not fit into the formula of certain TV series, and Batman's was certainly using that formula.
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES #174: Women in Season 2, pt 1: From the Childish to the Bada$$

Post by clavierankh »

Its too bad you didn't get to talk about Chickadee. She was one of the most dangerous molls. She threatened to shoot Chief Ohara in the Batfight at Gotham City Jail in part 1 and then threatent to blow Aunt Harriet's brains out in part 2.
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