Why I Like Birds of Prey's Cass Cain
Why I like Birds of Prey's Cass Cain
What I love about the Birds of Prey movie (2020) is the wardrobe choices for the characters.
They're practical, they're cute, they're more casual and everyday; it's the other side of life for heroes/anti heroes, their streetwear. (x)(x)
I love that. I want to see what clothes they wear in the everyday too, I want to see their accessories.
We all know Bruce Wayne wears a designer suit when he isn't Batman, and that's been done ten thousand times already. I want to see everyone else's day clothes!
The costumes in Birds of Prey also give fans a wider option when it comes to cosplaying their fave women characters.
For example, if you wanted to cosplay Harley Quinn before 2020, your live action costume choices from Suicide Squad (2016) were either UNDERWEAR and ripped tops with sexist slogans on, or a skintight/painted on jester costume. (x)(x)
Both of those are adult, let's be real. They're adult, despite the fact the character debuted on a kid's show and has fans of all ages. Sadly any scenes of her in professional attire (she is a doctor) during the movie were brief, and the costume wasn't particularly unique. If you wore it to a Con, who'd even know who you were?
Well, when Birds of Prey came along in 2020, it opened up the options for Harley's wardrobe, which is great! Now fans have options like a comfortable baggy ONESIE with a hood, or sparkly pants and jackets, dungarees, and modest shorts and t-shirts.
(And I have to say, the shorts and rollerskates reminded me of Batman The Animated Series episode Harley's Holiday.)
This is all great, and the movie did this same thing for each of the other characters; offering up everyday, non-sexualised clothes and costumes that fans can easily emulate themselves for cosplay or just for fun.
That's why I really love movie Cass. If fans of the character want to dress like her, or cosplay her character, now they have more options that aren't just variations on a skintight black catsuit. (You say Batsuit, I say catsuit.)
Not everyone wants to wear a painted on catsuit, and the action movie genre already has a huge problem with over sexualising Asian women and failing to make their characters fully rounded (see the Mako Mori test), so to have more casual costume options on a female Asian character who also speaks is wonderful.
Cass's main costume through the movie consists of denim shorts similar to Harley's, flat sneakers, a t-shirt, hoodie, a cute jacket, and also a bright pink cast with words on. It's distinctive yet fun, and could easily be worn by fans of any age.
Considering the movie shows her as a young girl, not an adult nor an older teen (Basco would've been around 13/14 years old when filming the movie), I really like how this was done.
I especially like the end scene costume too. It's still streetwear, but with a touch of glamor, emulating Harley's look because they end up as partners. All we see of Cass is her denim jacket, covered in patches and sparkles to emulate Harley's sequin jacket.
We also see stickers on her face (probably to match Harley's tattoo), and pink sparkly sunglasses.
Her hair is in a ponytail, and honestly the overall look gives me Jojo Siwa vibes, a young female pop culture icon that fans have commented dresses in a cute and girly fashion that doesn't cater to the straight male gaze.
I'd argue this could be said of both Cass and Harley in Birds of Prey; women dressing for themselves, not for men.
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On a side note, I also like that Cass spoke in the movie, thus shirking the Silent Asian trope, something the character of Cassandra Cain suffers from.
We don't need more of that trope in live action, we don't need another 'Deadly Little Miho' (Sin City) or 'The Female' (The Boys).
We're full to the brim of that bad trope.
Cass was created with that trope by a now-sixty-year-old white male writer in 1999, and we're over twenty years on now in 2021 (even DC comics is working to battle that trope earlier this year). Birds of Prey was a welcome departure from many sexist tropes in the genre, and I hope DC/WB can continue in this direction for the upcoming live action adaptations.
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Because there will certainly be more adaptations.
There's always more adaptations coming. The Bat family wasn't even established in DC live action movies when Birds of Prey was released so there would've been no Bat family for Cass to interact with anyway, but DC/WB is slowly getting there.
We could end up seeing other versions of Cass, or even bringing the same actress, Ella Jay Basco, back in a more crime fighting/vigilante style version of the character, like the comics.
She could guest star in the newly announced Black Canary series on HBO Max, featuring Birds of Prey actress Jurnee Smollett.
It's all possible.
Think about how many live action versions of Batman or Catwoman there are, and you see them all walking around at Comic Con together, co-existing in peace. That's fine, everyone has their favorite.
And if someone's favorite is Birds of Prey movie Cass, let them enjoy her.
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