most popular characters to have emerged during the Silver Age of Comic Books. In The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines (2009), author Mike Madrid states: "While she embodied the spirit of a new wave of liberated superheroines, in the backdrop of the history of comic books, Batgirl carried on the tradition of the gutsy female vigilantes of the '40s who struck out on their own to right wrongs." Although she is discouraged by Batman to engage in crime-fighting, she defiantly ignores his objections. Her career choice as a librarian is speculated to be due in part to the fact that it works as a convincing cover for her much more dangerous work as Batgirl. To conceal her identity from not only her enemies, but her father, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman and Robin, she initially conforms to appearance and personality traits stereotypical of a librarian. In her civilian identity, she is seen with her hair "tied up tightly in a bun. And she wears traditionally conservative—not to say dowdy—clothing. In other words, she embodies the stereotypical image of the female librarian of the day—busy doing clerical tasks while attired and made up in such a way as to guarantee to minimize whatever physical attractiveness she might possess beneath her frumpy exterior." Although her introduction was intended to embody feminist ideology, aspects of her persona were also considered to be sexist, such as the fact that "[m]uch of her arsenal was carried in a Bat-purse attached to her utility belt[.]" Bronze Age Despite shortcomings in her characterization during the late 1960s, "by the early 1970s, Batgirl had matured, using her keen intellect, athletic dexterity, and burgeoning detective skills to solve petty and not-so-petty thefts". Her color scheme from the Adventures of Batman cartoon is used as her primary outfit. However, by the end of the Bronze Age of Comic Books in the mid-1980s (and with the dark, gritty influence of Frank Miller's work on the Batman-related titles), Batgirl became less valuable to the franchise "where there was not as much room for a librarian fighting crime in high heels". In this environment, Barbara Gordon becomes increasingly skeptical of her effectiveness as Batgirl until she decides to give up crime-fighting permanently. Modern Age Robin Anne Reid, in her 2008 book, Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Overviews notes a lack of characterization given to Barbara Gordon by