“Batwoman” Backlash Sees Rose Exit Twitter
When The CW announced the casting of Ruby Rose as Batwoman, it seemed like a natural fit. On the one had you have a charismatic Australian lesbian actress with a unique style and so far fairly solid early film career making the switch to TV.
On top of that, she’s playing an out lesbian superhero character on The CW shows which have been all about diversity so far in their runs. So what’s the problem? Rose has found herself the subject of a social media backlash over her casting – so much so she’s become the latest actor to abandon a social media account due to online trolling with racist, sexist and homophobic comments being thrown at her.
Some criticism of Rose was levelled at her for not being of Jewish descent like the character, but oddly a lot seemed to suggest she wasn’t the right actress to play a lesbian superhero.
Before deleting her Twitter account, Rose posted a series of tweets addressing the issue saying: “Where on Earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can’t be Batwoman’ come from – has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that? I didn’t change. I wish we would all support each other and our journeys.”
Rose will make her debut in The CW’s ‘Arrowverse’ in the annual crossover event between the four existing shows this December. She’s also starring in a pilot in development for a standalone “Batwoman” series and if it gets picked up, it will debut in the 2019-2020 season.