I've asked this as well. I didn't even noticed them until people started pointing them out.

I think people glommed onto it because Schumacher made such a big deal of it at the time. He seemed almost gleeful that it was he, and no one else, that thought to have them added. (And the large codpieces as well.) Had Batman & Robin been any good folks would have shrugged it off as an eccentricity, but when B&R turned out to be a dumpster fire, people began attacking the director himself.

It's no worse than Superman's bulge in the more recent DCEU films, if you ask me.

@Satch_the_man said:

It's no worse than Superman's bulge in the more recent DCEU films, if you ask me.

I don't disagree, but if Snyder had run around saying, "Man, do you see the size of Supes' bulge? That's all me, baby!" we'd be wheeling him around on a dolly, Hannibal Lecter-style.

Batman had a large cod piece even in Burton’s movies. Someone pointed it out there and someone else gave a (what I thought was) good reason: it’s to protect the Wayne “family jewels”.

@Satch_the_man said:

It's no worse than Superman's bulge in the more recent DCEU films, if you ask me.

Maybe it's natural...