Batman in Love
So, I’m reading Pop Out: Queer Warhol, edited by Jennifer Doyle e al, –is a mostly useless academic wank job about Andy loving other men–there was a line here or a line there that might be useful, but I was disappointed until the last essay–that was about Batman and not Warhol, didn’t even really mention Warhol.
It said something really interesting and something I never really thought of before–there was a homoerotic subtext to the comics, and later the movies–but it didn’t feature Robin–using Lacan and the mirror stage as an example, the argument was that its impossible for him to be in love with his ward b/c s impossible, because Batman is in a permanent self completing loop W. Himself–Batman the butch god of dark alleys, of midnite cruising, and the effete Bruce Wayne of the manor, the night clubs and the butler.
It might also explain why any attempt to get Batman into a heterosexual relationship fails (cf Catwoman or Batwoman) and also explains why Batman will never be resolved, any attempt to hypermasculinize r camp him up will hide but not eliminate the other half–look at Frank Miller’s Dark Night and you see the hardness and sadness of the mansion, and see the Batman television series and see a manic frugging, in an attempt to ignore the murderers in the living room.)
I wish Sasha Torres spoke more about this–because its brilliant.