The early Golden Age Batman stories were dark and violent, but during the late 1940s and the early 1950s they changed to a softer, friendlier and more exotic style that was considered campy. This style awoke contemporary and later associations with gay culture. In Seduction of the Innocent, Fredric Wertham claimed, 'The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious' and 'Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend Robin.' This book was issued in the context of the ' lavender scare' where authorities regarded homosexuality as a security risk. Tilley stating that he 'manipulated, overstated, compromised and fabricated evidence' Īndy Medhurst wrote in his 1991 essay Batman, Deviance, and Camp that Batman is interesting to gay audiences because 'he was one of the first fictional characters to be attacked on the grounds of his presumed homosexuality,' ' the 1960s TV series remains a touchstone of camp,' and ' merits analysis as a notably successful construction of masculinity.' Views within the industry Wertham's work is now often criticized, with one review of his work by Carol L.
