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An Upbringing of Objects

David brought Cass up in relative isolation - the only person she had a real relationship with was him, which means that for the majority of her childhood, she was surrounded by more objects than people. Returning to the opening scene again, the men discuss the objects in the room more than Cass herself:

Batgirl (2000) #1

The plastic, the camera, and the knife all form part of how the men (and David) perceive Cass. From the beginning of Batgirl (2000), objects are intrinsically tied to Cass' identity. It's not only that objects surround her, but that she's perceived as an extension of the objects herself.

Batgirl (2000) #11

This is particularly pivotal when considering David's desire for tapes of Cass. In this panel, Damion Scott draws a picture of Cass imprinted onto the surface of the film. Her literally flattened image is a metaphor for David's 'flat' conception of Cass - his love for her is, to an extent, equivalent to his love for this roll of tape. In many ways he has always loved her as a two-dimensional object. And not just any object but an explicitly visual one like video tapes. In other words, his love for Cass has always been tied up in his perception of her Asian femininity as an aesthetic ornament.

Surfaces

This 'flattened' image of Cass is a recurring motif in David and Cass' relationship. Throughout their time together, they are commonly separated by glass or screens, like in Batgirl #1 when the end of the issue reveals that the flashbacks have been David watching Cass' tapes all along. Another example is their first meeting after Cass runs away:

Batman (1940) #567

Cass spots David in real life, but David sees Cass through the scope of a gun (which the art emphasises by putting us in David's perspective). While Cass can see David as a three-dimensional person, David's viewpoint flattens Cass into a surface. Cheng writes that ornamentalism reduces Asian women into surfaces, "impermeable and insensate". Although David doesn't shoot Cass because he doesn't want to hurt her, it's also interesting to consider that shooting her would shatter his illusion of Cass as an 'impermeable' surface.

In fact, every time the 'surface' between them is shattered, it's Cass doing the shattering. She learns to see herself as more than a surface, but he never quite gets there.

Batman (1940) #567 // Batgirl (2000) #33

David's flattening view of Cass relates to how some people say David sees Cass as a weapon, which I won't dive into here (I kind of agree but don't? but that would be its own post). The important part for this post is what weapon he sees Cass as. Because while David himself is most associated with guns, the weapon associated with Cass is...

The Knife

If "Asiatic femininity is ornamental/surface/portable," then the knife is the perfect weapon for her - small, sleek, and often highly decorative. David connects Cass with a knife, from the opening scene where he encourages the men to try to cut her with one, to his birthday present in Batgirl (2000) #37.

Bruce highlights that the gifted knife, while useful, has not been used "for years". This parallels Cass, who hasn't been 'used' by David in the decade since she left. Neither the knife nor Cass are loved by David purely for utility - there is an extra element that cannot be accounted for by just usefulness. This 'extra element' is the aesthetic consideration, the enjoyment David gets by looking at the knife/Cass. Rewatching the tapes, gazing at Cass through glass, affords pleasure to David through the visual medium.

Batgirl (2024) #20

In Batgirl (2024), there's a direct parallel between Bruce handing Cass a letter with the name 'Batgirl' (how Bruce sees her) with David handing her a knife (how David sees her). The fact that the knife is a reflective surface is essential, because if that's how David sees her then he's never really seeing her. Cass is a two-dimensional reflection of him, his "heir" (as said in Batgirl Secret Files and Origins). Which is why David never truly understands that Cass ran away of her own accord; he calls it "his fault," because he is still viewing her as an extension of himself.

Bruce Wayne: Fugitive

When Bruce asks David why he's throwing his life away, David says "it simply left without consulting me." Another obvious allusion to Cass, and note that David uses the pronoun "it". Here, David conflates Cass with his own life, a nod to how much she means to him but also how unable he is to view her as her own person.

Projection

David is not the only one with this problem, of course. No. 1 projector onto Cass is Bruce, someone with numerous parallels to David and who is also a White man. Bruce's projection onto Cass is also a result of his ornamentalism of her Asian femininity - she is a surface for his own desires. This is captured well in Batgirl (2000) #1:

Notice how Bruce's projection onto Cass ("you... are me") is interrupted when Cass makes contact with him ("uh...). Bruce's projection is dependent on perceiving Cass as that insensate surface, but Cass' act of touching him destroys that illusion. Bruce's actions in early BG 2000 have a lot to do with trying to maintain the lilusion - from rejecting the evidence of the tapes to isolating her in the cave, Bruce tries to mould her into the perfect, interiorless surface he wants her to be.

This is particularly important in the Tai'Darshan/romance arc. Cheng writes that "the yellow woman is persistently sexualized yet barred from sexuality, simultaneously made and unmade by the aesthetic project". Bruce's perception of Cass as an aesthetic (i.e, as a surface to look at and project onto) clashes with her desire to explore her own sexuality. But it's not just Bruce - Babs, Tim, and Kon all contribute to Cass being sexualised while being barred from sexuality. The one person she desires (Tai'Darshan, an Asian man) is kept from her, while she is sexualised by the White people around her.

Batgirl (2000) #45 // #39

But Cass, who has spent most of her life as this kind of decorative ornament (as explored above), learns to refute this behaviour. She expresses discontent to Babs about Kon's comment, punches Tim in the face, and eventually directly confronts Bruce about his behaviour. She gains awareness of how other people look at her, and exerts more agency over her perception.

Breaking Free

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Celebration

Cass' story constructs a duality between seeing and speaking. While seeing is a large part of Cass' abilities, it is also the medium through which she is ornamentalised - it is the gaze that often causes Cass the most discomfort, from Kon on the boat to David's tapes. On the opposite side of seeing is speaking, something David deprived her of and something she struggles with, but something that Cass comes to understand as freeing her from the White male gaze.

Cass speaking refutes the idea that she has no interiority - it dispels the illusion that she is a surface, a decoration. In DC Festival of Heroes (one of the few Cass stories written by an Asian woman), Mariko Tamaki demonstrates the power of speech.

In this panel, Cass thinks of words as "a thing other people do," while she herself is visually trapped in a double reflection. The reflections symbolise how her silent body is used as a mirror for White projections -her existence is limited to the visual medium, and she is barred from speaking. But then she meets and has a crush on Dr. Chin, which prompts her to think "Words. You will be mine."

As mentioned above, Cass' experiences with romance have been heavily restricted by the expectations and gazes of the White people around her. With Dr. Chin, though, it's her gaze that is being centered, leading to her reclaiming 'words' for herself. Instead of being an object owned by someone else, she has become the owner.

Final Thoughts

This post isn't meant to say David 'only' loved Cass as an object rather than a person. It's more about how the White gaze construes Asian women's personhood as inextricable from objecthood - that is, that David absolutely loved Cass as a daughter, which does not negate that he simultaneously (and interconnectedly) loved her as an object. Cass' visibility as an Asian woman coloured the way basically all the White people in her life dismissed her thoughts and desires, the way it was so easy for David and Bruce to project onto her.