Male Gaze / The DCU

The DCU

Comic Books

Comic Books

• Pre-Crisis adult Supergirl got this a lot, depending on the artist. In Krypton No More, drawn by José Luis García-López, many panels prominently featured her cleavage or her long legs.
  • One time even Superboy got distracted by Matrix's bosom◊.
  • Supergirl's updated origin from The Supergirl from Krypton (2004) is pretty (in)famous for this as not only does Supergirl emerge from her rocket in her birthday suit with only a coat and later Superman's cape to cover her naughty bits and later trains with Amazons in full detail. After enough complaints from people about sexualising a teenager girl DC eventually toned down the Male Gaze with Kara.
• All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder features an issue in which Vicki Vale spends a scene standing around posing in lacy pink underwear for absolutely no reason. The script for the scene (included in the trade paperback◊) contains a blatant admission from Frank Miller as to what he was doing: "Okay, I'm shameless, let's go with an ass shot."
• Black Canary: Frequently. As strongly written as she was in Birds of Prey, she also spent the entirety of the run pretty much constantly with a wedgie so that her ass popped out of her leotard better.
• Power Girl frequently, lampshaded herself at one point when she saves a kid but he's too focused on her magnificent bosom to even say thank you. Power Girl kindly suggests he should find himself a girlfriend.
• Justice League of America drawn by the aforementioned Ed Benes has plenty of this. Particularly in Justice League of America vol.2 issue #14 where Lex Luther reveals he’s got most of the league captured to Superman and most of the splash page is largely focused on Wonder Wonder, Black Canary and Vixen being bound up with their curves prominent. Fans even dubbed it “Lex Luthor's Cheesecake Pillar”.
• One of the first things we see of Starfire in Red Hood and the Outlaws is her buttocks. And only her buttocks, since the panel cuts off her body from the waist up. To say nothing of the fact that the swimsuit scene in the first issue was supposed to have her in a semi transparent bikini◊, though the editorial shot that one down.
• Also in the New 52, the first issue of the Catwoman solo title was criticised for opening with an action scene that spent two full pages on close-up images of different parts of Selina's anatomy before bothering to show her face.
• Averted in one issue of Identity Crisis (2004) where Wonder Woman is interrogating a prisoner about who tried to kill Ray Palmer's wife. The prisoner is said to be smart because he's focusing on Wonder Woman's lasso, not her cleavage. Diana in general has gotten◊ tons of◊ this over the years, every artist does their best to make her as voluptuous. Hell it goes back to Wonder Woman's earliest appearances where she'd often be Bound and Gagged in questionable positions, her creator William Moulton Marston was a known bondage fetishist.
  • Later comics in DC Rebirth have toned this down somewhat with Diana due to adopting her more modest outfit from the DC Extended Universe. Although even then artists still have put Wondy positions where she’s angled upwards to the reader giving them a view right up her thighs and skirt.
• Green Lantern: Red Lantern Bleez. It's often been pointed out that she's frequently drawn in ways that emphasize her curvaceous rear end (though it's worth noting that this was most prominent when Ed Benes was drawing her).
• Harley Quinn, especially in the New 52 solo series. Special mention to Issue 13 where she use this to distract a mugger and a scene in Issue 26 that has Harley and a leering guy with a metal detector who makes an unwelcome comment about her butt as she walks by.
• DC took a lot of criticism for the leaked, unfinalized cover of Tom King’s Heroes in Crisis #7 by artist Clay Mann which depicting a dying Poison Ivy in a sexual manner. As fans on Twitter noted, it's bad enough killing off a beloved character (or threatening to at least) but the fact that in even death Ivy isn’t free from the Male Gaze is undignified and insulting. DC acknowledged this and the cover wasn't used nor has Ivy been killed off.
  • Heroes in Crisis in general is rife with this as the artwork is more focused on curvaceous physiques of the female characters, regardless of how jarring it is with the tone of the scene. For example, during Batgirl’s confession she shows off the bullet wound The Joker gave when he shot her through the abdomen. It’s supposed a disturbing scene but the art seems more interested in Babs’s breasts, crotch and butt than her traumatic injury.

Films

Films

• DC Extended Universe:
  • A major criticism of Justice League (2017) was how the camera treated Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, in that it was more interested focusing on her buttocks◊ or up her skirt◊ than her face. This was especially jarring as her solo movie (directed by a woman) averted this effectively, and even Diana’s attire incorporated more cleavage compared to the previous movies.
    • Wonder Woman isn’t the only one as the Amazons in general were redesigned with the Male Gaze in mind. Fans speculate the production company behind the movie RatPac-Dune Entertainment owned by the controversial Brett Ratner may be to blame which raises several Unfortunate Implications.
  • In Suicide Squad (2016) multiple scenes of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn were shot with this trope in mind, especially when she goes window shopping◊.
• In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, our first sight of Wonder Woman is a shot centered on her buttocks.
• In the Direct-to-Video Wonder Woman movie, her "suit-up" sequence includes a close up of Diana's uncovered chest as she pulls her one-piece up.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Smallville: Camera focusing mostly on Lana Lang's body (her body-double's, actually) doing cartwheels in a tiny red bathing suit in episode "Nicodemus". Half of the episode "Exposed", which features plenty of gorgeous, mostly naked strippers, including Lois Lane. Half of the scenes with Lois Lane in general, e.g. "Aqua": Lois getting out of the water, wearing the tiniest bikini that could be found while the camera crawls lovingly over her body in (what else) slow motion.
• Wonder Woman (1975): Surprisingly rarely used. Both Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl get this from lots of people in their first appearances. Generally averted after that as the entire world seems to accept a gorgeous woman in a swimsuit leaping tall buildings and lifting cars as the status quo.

Video Games

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Series:
  • Used with Harley and Poison Ivy in Batman: Arkham Asylum. The latter could be considered part of her powers, but the former is clearly just fansevice, as she herself points out.
  • In Batman: Arkham City, the "slide" maneuver used while playing Catwoman to move through very narrow, low obstacles involves Catwoman sliding on her knees and leaning back with her arms spread just so, giving the player a perfect view of Catwoman's cleavage...
  • Also in Arkham City, while Talia and Batman walk down the Chamber of the Demon, the camera has a pretty good view of her behind while walking down the stairs.
• In Gotham Knights (2022), many players both male and female picked up on the fact playing as Batgirl is worth it simply because how of just much attention is inextricably drawn to Barbara's finely sculpted butt cheeks. Sometimes her cape glitches out, just so the view of her sublime bum can be unobstructed which may or may not have been a case of Throw It In! from developers. In fact, many gaming sites, theorize that a lot of people may only be playing the game for sake of Batgirl's ass! Of course, there's plenty Female Gaze as well, mainly thanks to Nightwing (as per usual), even if his former girlfriend has undeniably stolen most of ass service limelight away with her own butt.
  • Yahtzee in his review claimed this was the reason why he didn't play as Batgirl.
  I was afraid if I'd had to watch her riding the batcycle for too long I'd eventually fall asleep and poke both my eyes out on her buttocks.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• DC Animated Universe
  • Batman: The Animated Series: This show is very generous with it, especially in regards to all the attractive villainesses. The most noteworthy example is in the episode "Pretty Poison" where Pamela Isley's sensuous, hip swaying departure from a fancy French restaurant garners the attention of every male customer nearby.
  • In Justice League, both super-heroines and villainesses are often subject to camera angles focusing on their busts or their derrieres.
    • Wonder Woman tends to get subjected to these, mainly through shots that present her very athletic build, bust, toned shoulders and long legs.
    • When the The Royal Flush members were being introduced one by one, Joker gave a "Hmm..." when the camera panned to Queen's legs before rising to display her face.
• DC Super Hero Girls 2019: This trope is normally averted completely due to the all-ages nature of the series, though there are some moments where the trope is used.
  • Supergirl has quite often where the shots focus on her prominent breasts and her huge behind. This is most noticeable when Kara is in her civilian identity either in profile or behind her.
  • Zatanna also falls into this trope due to her curvaceous figure, since after all she has a generous and more prominent bust compared to Supergirl.
  • While Diana doesn’t normally get a lot of focus, she has one deliberate shot in "#SoulSisters" where she gets a closeup of her packed abs while working out.

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