The self-association with Innocence, purity, and Righteousness is often a way how people can justify uses of force. For example in medieval France (yes yes I know bear with me) power and legitimacy came from the "sacral" and "pure" (Christian) status of the rulership/kingship, and it's association with the virgin Mary and the lily (hence fleur de lis). Of course, whenever there is a praised status of purity, there needs to exist the obverse--the tainted, dangerous, evil, etc. which must be pushed back up on in order to maintain and protect the status of innocence, the way in the ideal gender roles dynamic, the Man(tm) may excuse himself with Extreme Force to protect the Virtue of the Maiden Daughter. In politics, it could often be a smart move to appeal to a status of purity and virtue etc to elicit sympathy for individuals (Philip II's first queen, Isabella of Hainaut, saved herself from the disgrace of divorce by publicly appearing as a barefoot penitent, emphasizing her vulnerability and piousness in a PR move that worked REALLY well), as well as metaphorically for larger institutions (lots of Crusader talk of "Fair Jerusalem/Our Church at risk of being RAVAGED by the infidel" kind of language). Tbh this can be seen in all sorts of ye olde political cartoons, if u want to portray a powerful force as sympathetic and vulnerable boom now it's a beautiful maiden, attractive but not TOO sexy (else that would be too much like a HARLOT)

ANYWAYs that's a large departure from my original sorta jokey context of maiden stuff which was talking about The Batman 2022. One of my OG personal "maiden" definitions is that aside from gender i use it to refer to "A Young and naive Person in a position of servitude/who is under authority or protection". I joke that Bruce Wayne in that movie has a very "Mourning Victorian" vibe to him which is fascinating and a part I liked. Where he is a hulking armor clad bruiser ofc but mentally it seems like he has the POV of a lost kid...He's weirdly naive about a lot of things including the sexy underground, he's defined himself as kind of a victim who is Taking Justified Vengeance, in a way it's like the Batman itself is the knight-defender lashing out on behalf of the Aggrieved Innocence of the Child Bruce, while the Adult Bruce Wayne kind of is maladjusted and listens to what basically any Authoritative Man's Voice tells him throughout the movie lol. A big part of his arc is coming out from under that Authoritative Supervision and having his innocent preconception of the world shattered (oh nooo my father was not 100% a GOOD MAN...I am not as "pure" as I THOUGHT // and then 2 seconds later it's like dw dw about it.) also, I always thought 2022's batsuit looked a little corset-y, like historical shapewear haha. And I thought about how clothing and mourning dress served a social function of the mental state of the wearer, except he's been in his Mourning Dress for years lol. Compare to Selina/Catwoman who is also in a state of servitude, but who Bruce initially considers suspicious or not "pure" according to his worldview until he gets to know her better and can sympathize with her as someone worthy of protection, it feels like a very Upstairs & Downstairs sort of thing going on.

Also to just continue this weird ramble and also going back to my Batman thoughts, I think this sense of Justified Purity/Victimhood can apply to Riddler as well in an interesting way...he blasts Ave Maria, kind of hearkens back to an age of childhood innocence as well (the choirboy stage), associates himself with a kind of divine mission of "defensive" vengeance against the un-innocent I guess....a stretch but as u can see I think Batman22 is kind of a mess so I can project anything I want on it