Are there Gen Z fans of the original Batgirl? Was a ballet dancer turned actress also an activist? Did she fight more than Jokers? If we are talking about Yvonne Craig? Absolutely!
A few weeks ago a 20 year old reached out to me on Instagram and asked if I knew who Yvonne Craig was. I assured her I did. She told me that it would mean a lot to her if I wrote about her as a Fem Friday. I asked her why it would mean a lot to her. I will tell you more about Emma’s story later on. For now, it’s time to honor a special Gen Z reader.
Superheroes For GenX
Hollywood was afraid of the power of conservative Christians. Today the conservative Christians attack anything deemed woke. Back then the label was communist. It was a witch hunt on entertainers. Strict adherence to the Heys Code dampened creativity in the name of family values. In 1954 a new target was sought out to protect children from imagination. Comic Books.
Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published “Seduction of the Innocent”. In this work he claimed comics were dangerous. They led to juvenile crime, brutality, violence, deviant sexuality, and promiscuity. The comic industry was under attack. A conservative Senate subcommittee hearing led to the comic industry creating strict codes of conduct. But even with these extreme measures, 14 states passed laws restricting the sale of comics within a year after the subcommittee hearings.
Boomers and Gen X were fed campy stories. Creative heroes telling and drawing the best stories they could under the constraints they had kept us engaged enough to hang on for better days with less restrictions.
In a time before Christopher Reeve’s Superman, the Marvel Universe, Zach Snyder’s Justice League, and others, the late 1960’s gave us Batman. It was campy, but in the 1970’s GenX grew up enjoying the reruns feeding us daily adventures of Batman and Robin fighting the Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman and other dastardly foes. In the third season we were exposed to Batgirl. The daughter of Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, was a motorcycle riding, villain fighting superhero. And as we will cover later she demanded equality. Children saw it all unfold. We were not threatened, we were entertained.
Yvonne Craig
Shortly before her death from breast cancer that had spread to her liver in 2015, Yvonne Craig did an interview with CNN. The idea of women being equal to men was instilled in her from an early age in the 1940’s. She spoke to that briefly. “I hear from women that I was their role model. When I was a little girl, I realized that girls could kick butt just like guys.”
While studying ballet at the age of ten she was discovered by famous Russian Ballerina Alexandra Danilova. When Craig was a teenager Danilova was able to help get her into the School of American Ballet in New York City. Her roommate was a young Carol Burnett.
By the age of 17 Craig was a professional ballerina in one of the most prestigious companies of the day. She was the youngest corps de ballet member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She left the company in 1957 to continue her ballet career in L.A. There she accidentally became an actor.
In the CNN interview she tells the story.
“I was invited to dinner by a man who was a producer, who wanted to put me in movies and I said I wasn’t interested. [Director] John Ford’s son walked by and asked ‘Excuse me, are you an actress?’ And as I shook my head and tried to swallow, [the producer said], ‘She is and I’m her manager. What can I do for you?’ Typical Hollywood. They were doing a movie with John Wayne’s son Patrick, and they were looking for a leading lady. And I became it.”
That was 1959’s “The Young Land.”
From there she would star in movie after movie. This included 2 Elvis Movies. She then went to the small screen as a frequent guest star in “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” and “77 Sunset Strip.”
Shortly after starring in Batman, she entered Sci Fi history as green skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode “Whom God’s Destroy”
Batgirl Begins
Part of the condition for Batman to get a third season from the network was to add Batgirl from the comic books into the television show. The search began.
Yvonne Craig had not watched the show but when her agent told her the target demographics for the character was men over 40 and prepubescent girls, she was intrigued. There was a challenge in this role and an opportunity to be an inspiration.
Yvonne Craig drove to the audition/screen test for the role on her motorcycle. She was the only woman there who knew how to ride a motorcycle which led to her riding Batgirl’s Motorcycle on the television show instead of a stuntwoman. In a screentest of librarian Barbara Gordon having to become Batgirl to fight the Mothmen, she landed the role.
She made the role her own. Barbara/Batgirl was not a damsel in distress or less than Batman and Robin, she was right alongside them fighting supervillains with her own mysteries that even the world’s greatest detective, Batman, could not solve.
Knowing young girls were watching her, she wanted them to see her authentically. The majority of the stunts in her action scenes were Yvonne Craig doing her own stunts as opposed to relying on stand ins. This was not something the studio went into willingly, but she was unrelenting and insistent. If there was an action scene with a girl kicking butt, Yvonne Craig wanted to be that girl.
Batman and Robin? Stunt doubles.
Yvonne Craig and Batgirl for Equal Rights
In 1973 Craig reprised her role for a PSA of something that she was on the frontlines of in her own career and other woman in Hollywood and in all walks of life. Equal pay for equal work. In the PSA Batman and Robin are tied up as a bomb ticks to zero. Batgirl enters and Batman demands that she release them since time is running out. Batgirl tells them that time is up. It is time for her to be paid the same as Robin for the same work. Batman does not want to have this discussion, but Batgirl reminds Batman that this is the law under the Equal Pay Act of 1963. In 1973 many employers were still not adhering to the law. Unfortunately, this is still true in many workplaces (and the entertainment industry).
Yvonne Craig continued to leverage her influence and finances to make a difference. For decades Yvonne was a philanthropist fighting not only for equal pay for women but for the rights of all in labor unions. Her fiercest fight was her most personal one. Essential medical access for women. Specifically mammograms and a drive to make them affordable for all women.
Her last two years of her life were painful as she fought her last villain, breast cancer.
And this is where we get back to the young woman who asked me to write this article.
Meeting Emma
I was delighted to learn someone Emma’s age is reading Gen X Watch. It is a desire to reach them and they are barely a fraction of our readership. I asked Emma about how she found out about us and why she reached out.
“I saw a reel on Insta about Madonna. It was fun and my mom liked Madonna so I clicked. My mom was your age. She liked a lot of the same things you like.”
“What happened to your mom, Emma?” I asked.
“She died last year. Breast cancer.”
“I’m sorry.” was all I could type back.
“When you tell stories about what it was like in the 80s and the girls you knew, I wonder what my mom was like. Was she like one of them? Did she date a guy like you? You write about what they were like when they were my age. And I see what they went through and some of its the same and some of its different.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “So why Batgirl and Yvonne Craig? Was your mom a fan?”
“No. But when I was in high school I got into cosplay. She helped me make a Batgirl costume. Batgirl was my favorite and the purple costume is my favorite.”
“Do you still like Batgirl?” I asked.
“I love her! And every time she gets on a show or a movie, it’s either lame or the good one gets taken away. DC writes great comics but they choke on screen. Anyway. When you said you wanted readers to say what they wanted, I thought maybe you could do her since it’s me and my mom.”
“I’ll do it! Can I get a picture of you in cosplay for the article?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to be fat shamed.”
“My readers wouldn’t do that.” I said.
“Your readers aren’t the internet. You don’t know what it’s like to be young on the internet today. It’s horrible. The kids are horrible, the adults are horrible. You can’t be fat, queer, black, autistic or anything.”
“Will you let me know what you think of the article?”
“Y”
This one was for Emma and her mom. Emma never got to hear from her mom what it was like for us when we were young. She’s getting glimpses from me and from you in the comments. That matters.
Maybe it’s time to tell our kids and grandkids more than just the nostalgia, but the unfiltered reality. We will find common ground there. More common ground than we will ever find telling them their music sucks and being gatekeepers of joy.
We had fears and hopes and moments of joy and grief. We also had heroes.
Heroes inspire and create generational bridges. Life is short, death is sudden. We can beat the Jokers, but we will never outwit the Reaper. Make sure the unsaid is said before time runs out.
Make Fem Friday Yours!
Is there a pop culture icon you want us to (dis)cover for Fem Friday, let us know in the comments. Are you a woman or friend beyond the binary that wants to write a Fem Friday? Let us know in the comments! We want to hear from you!
Banner Photo Credit by crusherman71 on deviantart https://www.deviantart.com/crusherman71/gallery
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