Continuing the girl wonder thing, added Women in Refrigerators

[burntcopper]

Ragnell and Kalinara're trying to create a definitive list of all superheroes who've been sexually assaulted, raped or suffered childhood abuse. Male and female. Go add.

Looked at the list of Women in Refrigerators. Something struck me. Black Canary's rape and torture is famous. Barbara Gordon's abuse at the hands of the Joker. Sue Dibny's retroactive rape. Amazons on Paradise island by Herakles and his men.

How come no-one ever mentions Catwoman's rape and abuse at the hands of her pimp, Stan? Everything else in Her Sister's Keeper (miniseries, easy to find in shops in tpb form) has been kept as backstory canon for her. You always see the images of her with short hair in dominatrix mode, sharing a flat at the time with Holly, seeing Bruce when he goes out to fight crime for the first time in the East End and then getting inspired by Batman to create Catwoman. They always mention the fact that she was taught to fight by Ted Grant, aka Wildcat. Recently her sister Maggie's been reinstated as canon too.

So tell me, why does the instigating fact for her dominatrix image and getting trained by Ted Grant never get mentioned? Simple storyline for this period that is never mentioned for those who haven't read the mini:

Selina gets raped by her pimp, left in an alley, discovered by two cops.
While recovering in hospital, the detective gives her Ted Grant's card to get self-defence lessons.
After getting out of the hospital and going back to Stan, Stan puts her back to work immediately, dominatrix job (which becomes her default image). This kickstarts her into getting the lessons.
Ted tells her to get her hair cut short so it can't be grabbed in a fight.
Bruce goes down the East End, gets into a fight with Stan, Selina leaves Stan and takes Holly with her.

I've never seen that whole first section mentioned. You regularly see the last bit, where Bruce gets into the fight and Selina and Holly leave Stan. Why the hell don't we see the first bit? Writers considering it too adult? These would be the same writers who inserted Sue Dibny's rape for shock value into their massive crisis-style crossover mini. Which did not carry the Mature Readers label as HSM did. Not using it because they think it makes Selina a victim or look weak? The miniseries shows how she *stopped* being a victim.

Anyone got an explanation? Who *hadn't* heard about this section of Selina's backstory?

ETA: Also never mentioned in most stories about Selina's past :

Stan retaliates to Selina's new-found independence by kidnapping Maggie, beating her up with very strong implications of rape. Holly gets beaten up too. Maggie gets rescued by Selina. In the aftermath, Selina cuts ties with her old life to make sure no-one can get to her through loved ones. She leaves Holly in Maggie's care.
btw, Maggie was a nun at the time, she kept trying to get through to Selina, who kept brushing her off. This plus events of kidnapping equals title.

Comments

[morchades.livejournal.com]

I hadn't. In Year One she'd seemed like a particularly strong person forced into the life by lack of other choices. She punched Stan out and just left, like she could have at any time.

Dammit, Selina too.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

like I said, the 'strong person forced into this life' does not explain her being able to leave at any time. In the mini she hit Stan and clawed him across the face. In retaliation, he kidnapped and beat up Maggie (who was Sister Magdalena at the time), with large implications that she was raped as well. Maggie got rescued by Selina. After she came out of the hospital, Maggie took Holly in since Selina had gone on her way, cutting ties so people couldn't get at her through her loved ones.

And like I said, how the hell did she get Ted Grant's number if the cop didn't give it to her in hospital? It seemed like it was a speciality of Ted's, getting passed post-trauma self-defence cases.

[morchades.livejournal.com]

Well, the way it'd been presented it seemed like she finally saw a better option. I'll have to look for Sister's Keeper.

*sigh* See, this is why I'm going the way of confirmed assaults, so I don't try and list the ones who haven't and end up surprised again.