I Love You, Batman

If you’ve spent any time at all around our two and a half year old Joy, you know one thing.

Girl is obsessed with super heroes.

I’m not even exaggerating.

Here she is on Phil’s first day of Kindergarten just a couple of weeks ago, wearing her favorite thing. We got this Batman dress from Walmart a few months ago, and it’s become her go to every single time it’s clean.

When she finds out I’m doing laundry, her first question is “So you can wash my Batman dress?”

“Yes, so I can wash your Batman dress.”

“You make it all clean muhmuh?”

“I make your Batman dress all clean baby.”

“Ohhhh, tink too muhmuh!”

Speaking of… I need to go throw in a load of laundry.

So that Batman dress… God help you if it’s dirty on Sunday and she can’t wear it to church. A few weeks ago, that exact disaster happened, and I was the most evil super villain ever to grace the DC Comics universe when I suggested she wear her popsicle dress. That morning, I had to threaten to leave for church without her before she’d finally concede and put the popsicle dress on.

Since then, she’s realized other dresses are okay. But she’ll still add a hit of super hero action – recently she accessorized with these Spiderman boots.

And while I’m a little sad she and Phil have been scratching off the sweet eyebrows I painted on this Batman mask for my Adam West Halloween costume last year, I can’t be too upset when she looks this cute.

And when she sees me putting Phil’s old Superman shirt with a cape that doesn’t fit in a pile of old clothes to tuck away or donate to Goodwill, and she gets super excited… What else is there to do but let her have it?

Don’t you dare call her Supergirl or Batgirl. Cuz she will correct you.

Joy’s got a big brother who loves super heroes. She’s seen a billion cartoons on Netflix with him . They’ve bonded over The Avengers, The Justice League, Spiderman, and Hulk cartoons.

She knows nothing of Supergirl. She cares not for Batgirl. I don’t tell her she’s wrong when she calls herself Superman.

Because those dudes are way better role models.

Superman and Batman and Spiderman… They go out and get things done. They’re in charge, they go fight the bad guys. Maybe they’ve got help, maybe they don’t. But they’re the main characters, and have major leadership roles in their crime fighting.

Batgirl, Batwoman, Supergirl, Superwoman… I feel like they were all afterthoughts. So girls could have something.

Why can’t girls just like Superman?

Why do they have to have a lesser superhero that happens to be female to look up to?

(p.s. we’re not talking about Wonder Woman here – she’s got a role in some of the cartoons that they watch, but hasn’t captured Joy’s attention as much as Batman and Superman.)

Episodes of The Justice League that I’ve seen on Netflix recently, Supergirl is Superman’s cousin or something like that. And she’s kind of an airhead teen that hints at being interested in boys. While every now and then there’s hints of relationship stuff with the guy superheroes, it doesn’t smack of being part of their character.

I don’t want my little girl learning at two and a half that her role is to chase boys.

Batgirl’s a sidekick in the chapter books I read with Phil. Like Robin. But at least Robin’s got his own identity. Batgirl’s the girl version of Batman. Why can’t she have her own cool nickname?

I don’t want my little girl learning at two and a half that she can’t take charge and fight crime on her own. I want her to look up to the leaders, not the followers.

I don’t give a rip that the leaders are dudes.

And.

It’s not “girl power” if the girl characters being offered up are lesser than. Lego Ninjago’s Nya character is a girl superhero Joy looks up to, and it’s a girl character done right. The boys leave her behind while they go do ninja stuff, and she creates a high tech samurai suit so she can do her own thing in an epic way.

But I’m getting off track – back to Joy and her superhero obsession.