One of the difficult parts of using characters that are already established is that you cannot change things about them. The show is about a strong male character. He is the focus of the show. Batman falls into the pit falls of the male gaze, but it's not all negative.
To begin, one of the character that often can be over looked by fans as a positive, Harley Quinn. Harley is a character that was created to be the jokers girlfriend. To many fans she is a strong character. While she may have a few strong episodes, she is only concerned with a male character, Joker. She is a classic example of the male gaze. She is sexualized and abused, bullied and controlled by the joker. That's okay right? Being an old character she is just playing the part those men in the 1930es made for her. Wrong, she was a new character. Harley was invented for the Animated Series.
Another character who fall under this category is Poison Ivy. She has strength, but again has a focus on Batman. Her strength is taken away by him. Not though over powering her, but by the fact that she cannot handle her attraction of him. She may have super powers, but that power is taken away for silly reasons.
On the other hand there is Barbra Gordon. She is the Bat Girl. despite the name she actual has a positive impact and is a strong character. She is the only female character that defied Batman and was shown to be right. Her becoming a hero was not supported by Batman, but she proved him wrong.
So, the score for the male gaze is two to one, but I think there is more to this. Notice the women who are the villains fall under classic male gaze. Yet, the hero, she is not. She is a strong character in her own right. The show was vilifying the stereotypical male gaze and making progress the latter. Using these characters to show us that these villains that are women are weaker characters and used the now strong hero to prove the point. I feel that the creators used the male gaze as a tool to tell a story, and used it to give strength to other female characters.
