Morrison later said that Playboy misquoted them and explained in an interview with the New Statesman that the quote was "the opposite of what said". I'm not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay.Obviously as a fictional character he's intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay". Grant Morrison, writer of both Batman and Batman Incorporated said in an interview with Playboy that "Gayness is built into Batman. While Frank Miller has described the relationship between Batman and the Joker as a " homophobic nightmare", he views the character as sublimating his sexual urges into crime fighting, concluding, "He'd be much healthier if he were gay". Writer Devin Grayson has commented: "It depends who you ask, doesn't it? Since you're asking me, I'll say no, I don't think he is… I certainly understand the gay readings, though". Only Joel Schumacher might have had an opposing view". Denny O'Neil's Batman, Marv Wolfman's Batman, everybody's Batman all the way back to Bob Kane… none of them wrote him as a gay character. Writer Alan Grant has stated: "The Batman I wrote for 13 years isn't gay. The Comics Bulletin website posed the question "Is Batman Gay?" to their staff and various comic book professionals.
Īndy Medhurst wrote in his 1991 essay Batman, Deviance, and Camp that Batman is interesting to gay audiences because "he was one of the first fictional characters to be attacked on the grounds of his presumed homosexuality", " the 1960s TV series remains a touchstone of camp" and " merits analysis as a notably successful construction of masculinity". Tilley stating that he "manipulated, overstated, compromised and fabricated evidence". Wertham's work is now often criticized, with one review of his work by Carol L. This book was issued in the context of the " lavender scare" where authorities regarded homosexuality as a security risk. In Seduction of the Innocent, Fredric Wertham claimed, "the Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious" and "only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend Robin". This style awoke contemporary and later associations with gay culture. The early Golden Age Batman stories were dark and violent, but during the late 1940s and the early 1950s they changed to a softer, friendlier and more exotic style that was considered campy.