Batgirl - Blog Posts
My favorite superheroes as the Weezer blue album
It came to me in a vision
WE ARE SO BACK
Hey, we need to talk about the way Batfamily fans write Cass using ASL, because a lot of it is really fucking ableist
But Cass can't speak, of course she needs to sign!
Not true! There is nothing physically wrong with Cass's vocal chords or mouth, there's nothing in her brain stopping her from making sounds, and she is not an elective mute. She actually learns to speak individual words really quickly after she puts herself into an environment where that's a useful skill. Basil teaches her to quote huge chunks of Shakespeare in Nu52, and that's easier for her than forming simple sentences. That would definitely not be the case if she had any physical limitations on her speech.
Cass's disability is that she was not taught any language, and so she is having to grok the entire concept of language from the ground up. Grammar and syntax; tonality; how to combine words to convey more complex ideas; how putting two words next to one another can change their meaning; how to break down a whole idea into the individual parts needed to turn it into words; the fact that people's words might not line up with their tone and body language so you have to pay attention to both; how to tell if someone wants a response or is stating a fact; how to work out meaning from context if a word is new or someone has an unfamiliar accent; how to know if someone is using a new word or if they actually just have an unfamilar accent and all the ways words can be bent and changed before they become something new; the fact that two words can use the same sounds but have the same meaning; the fact that there can be two different words that mean the same thing. This is all stuff she didn't learn as a baby, and not knowing it would be just as much an impediment to learning ASL as learning English (for accent, swap out things like having limited movement in their hands, or having learned slightly different forms of the same sign, using a lot of home-signs etc, it's the same concept in a different medium).
There is no language on earth Cass wouldn't have these problems with. ASL is not any kind of shortcut.
But she reads body language, and ASL is kind of like body language right?
Not true, also pretty abelist! Just as the sounds which make up spoken language are essentially arbitrary (there's no objective reason why the sound "gud" should mean good, English speakers just all agree it does) so most of the signs in ASL are arbitrary! There's no reason for
to mean good. ASL users just all agree that it does. Cass knowing body language would not help her any more with ASL than it would with English, and if anything, it might make it harder, because sign uses the whole body and therefore changes the way people use body language so unless she saw a lot of ASL users as a child (and there's no particular reason to think she did), she would have to adjust what she knows about body language to account for those differences!
But she signs in the comics!
Nope! She uses hand gestures to communicate sometimes, but that's not signing. Pointing at food and miming eating to convey hunger is not sign. Pretending to punch someone and pulling it at the last second to convey you could hurt them but won't (Cass's actual first communication with Bruce in the comics) isn't signing. I've done the point and mime thing in countries where I didn't speak the language, that does not mean I knew that country's native sign language!
But she learns ballet, that's like a physical language, so sign is the same thing!
Nope! Also low key kinda abelist. Dance is a method of communication, but it isn't a full language. There's almost no grammar or sentence structure, the vocabulary is extremely limited, and also you can just make up new dance moves or use moves from different styles of dance together and still convey your meaning (you cannot just make random gestures or use BSL and expect ASL users to understand you, because they're full complex languages). Cass vibes with dance pretty hard, but that's precisely because it isn't a language, it doesn't require any of the skills she struggles with in order to communicate emotion.
But ASL isn't like a real language, it's not as complex or nuanced as spoken English so it would be easier for her to learn
That is so fucking gross I don't even want to have this conversation with you. Go and sit in the timeout box and think about what you've just said, and then commit to doing better.
But I just think that once she learned it, she'd like using ASL because [it's very expressive/she's used to her world being very quiet/she can use it on stealth missions more easily/etc]
Valid, understandable, have a lovely day
But I'm writing an AU were she uses ASL because her backstory is too comic-book-y to fit in no-capes AUs but I didn't want to erase her communication difficulties so I've written her as having a different disability
Cool. Send me a link when you're done.
But what if I write her using makatong?
(For context, makatong is a form of sign developed for people who have intellectual or phsyical disabilities that affect language use, which uses more descriptive signs which require less precise hand possitioning than other sign languages, and which has very simple grammar, making it easier to learn than ASL). Yes this would be easier for her, because it's intended for people with similar difficulties to hers, but since her difficulties stem purely from a lack of experience which can be (and are, in canon) overcome with practise, it would be kind of needlessly limiting compared to her just starting out with very simple spoken language, and wouldn't give her as many chances to develop those language learning skills. Makatong is also not mutually intelligable with any other sign language, so she couldn't easily transition from that to ASL once she got used to signing, she'd have to start learning it from scratch.
But I HC her as deaf
There is 0 comics evidence to support that, but it's a headcanon, so who cares. You do you. Have fun.
But learning sign language would be better than learning to speak anyway because it's a universal language!
That is not even slightly how it work. Go read the wikipedia article on sign languages around the world or something. Do some research.
TL:DR; Cass does not use ASL in the comics, and nothing about her disability or sign languages in general would make learning ASL easier or more convinent for her than spoken English. That does't mean writing her signing is inherently bad, but you should examine your reasons for doing it to ensure you're not just perpetuating ableist stereotypes about the language.
post patrol shenanigans
Okay, random thought, but I can definitely see Cassandra Cain hanging upside down like a bat purely to freak people out and to keep her status as a cryptid
Now I REALLY need a StephCass MLB AU 😭
With Cass using mostly her fists to fight and Steph has to actively remind her to use the restorative power at the end. While Steph is wondering if she can just destroy the whole building and if she could get sued for that.
Also Steph using cat puns? YES PLEASE
Why are there not any StephCass Miraculous Ladybug Au's??? Why is this something I've never seen before?? Guys?? Just think about it, it would make so much sense!! Pls?? It came to me in a dream and I need someone to make my vision a reality. I am not okay over this, pls and thank you
Okay but who would be who??? I can see Steph as Cat Noir with her quips and her general vibe, but I can’t see Cass wearing Ladybug’s bright red costume cause she just embodies all black costumes so well…
Why are there not any StephCass Miraculous Ladybug Au's??? Why is this something I've never seen before?? Guys?? Just think about it, it would make so much sense!! Pls?? It came to me in a dream and I need someone to make my vision a reality. I am not okay over this, pls and thank you
When a kid explains Santa Claus and his whole deal, Cass stays up all night on Christmas Eve cause no way in hell is she letting a strange old man into her home
In all honesty she probably still believes in him, lmfao.
People who are wrong will say that Steph was a bad influence on Cass.
Other people who are also wrong will say that Cass was a bad influence on Steph.
The right answer is that they matched each other’s freak and went off into the sunset to be bad influences together.
David Cain rips the humanity of being someone from Cassandra Cain and then has the GUTS to feel guilty about it and see her as his daughter.
World class assassin or not, if that man ever becomes real, I’m gonna try beat the shit out of him.
“Dick’s Robin is ___!” “Jason’s Batgirl is ___!” “Cass’ Robin is ___!” “Steph’s Batgirl is ___!” “Tim’s Robin is ___!” “Duke’s Batgirl is ___!”
No no no, I don’t care about any of that, who is YOUR Batgirl? Who is YOUR Robin? Who will always be Batgirl and/or Robin in your eyes?
Cass, coming back from her fight to the “death” with Shiva: “I lived bitch, and so did Shiva”
Babs: “I’m so happy you’re alive! but we really gotta unpack that later…”
So we've had "skill issue," we've had "lock in," we've had "where we droppin' boys" but I put forward that if there's any one piece of borrowed internet slang Cass would get constant use out of in her day to day crimefighting career it would be "I lived bitch."
babygirl when her guilt does not purify her
other version under the cut
The parallels between Cassandra Cain and Jason Todd are crazy.
Cassandra Cain’s kindness and compassion is rooted in the violence and hate from her childhood.
Jason Todd’s violence and hate is rooted in the kindness and compassion from his days as Robin.
Jason Todd was murdered by somebody when he was young and that defined the rest of his life.
Cassandra Cain murdered somebody when she was young and that defined the rest of her life.
Jason has murdered people after his death. Cass has been murdered after she killed. But what defines them will forever be what happened first.
Two sides of the same coin, the two roles in a murder.
The killer and the killed.