Sexualized Saturdays: Suicide Squad and the Harley Quinn Problem

Harley Quinn is one of my all-time favorite characters. I have a lot of feelings about Harley Quinn, and it has been one of my greatest wishes ever to see Harley Quinn in a live-action movie. So when I first heard about Suicide Squad becoming a movie, I was very excited. Harley has been a major player in the Suicide Squad comic and it’s always interesting to see the kind of person Harley is away from her evil counterpart and love interest, the Joker. That was always part of the appeal for me. No matter what, the Joker’s character kind of looms over Harley even when he is not present. Through mental, physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, the Joker molded Harley into the villain we see in the comics. But I think Harley is at her most interesting when she is removed from the Joker’s influence. We get to meet something of the real Harley when she is away from the Joker, and Suicide Squad was one of those comics that gave us a rare opportunity to do that.

In the New 52 her story is a little different than the original. She is still a psychiatrist who is seduced by the Joker, but she is seduced more by his ability to show her how to wield power and live freely. The original Harley was very much tricked by the Joker. He makes her think he had a broken home, a bad past, and that he doesn’t mean to be a bad guy but he can’t help it (and somehow it always ends up being all Batman’s fault). Harley falls for it and falls in love with him. The New 52 Harley is not fooled by the Joker trying to play on her emotions. She is only truly seduced by him after he gives her the severed thumb of the man who killed her father. Eventually, however, this new Harley leaves the Joker. While their relationship is still very clearly abusive and codependent, Harley seems more willing to separate from the Joker. And she’s more capable of making her own decisions, though it’s clearly hard on her when the Joker doesn’t care or notice. Though she still loves him and wants to be with him on some level, this Harley seems to be more aware that the Joker is bad for her. Her codependency and psychological issues are still everpresent and very connected to the Joker, but, at the same time, Harley is more willing to leave the Joker and pursue other romantic relationships in the New 52. (For more info about Harley’s history and development click here.)

In the new Suicide Squad movie, I was excited to see what version of Harley would be featured. Or if would be a mix of her various incarnations. But alas, once promo pictures and more news about Harley’s character in the Suicide Squad movie were revealed, I and other fans became dubious about this phenomenal female character’s portrayal. And sadly for me the issue revolves once again around her costume.

Red Hood and the Outlaws’s Starfire

A while back, Red Hood and the Outlaws, a title in DC’s New 52, became the source of much outrage, and we here at LGG&F weren’t the biggest fans of it either, if only because of the character Starfire and her blatantly misogynistic portrayal.

Starfire was never really that big of a character in the DC Universe before, except for in Teen Titans, but her portrayal in the reboot has upset a lot of people nonetheless. The New 52 initially seemed to have revamped her character from a sexually liberated, loving superhero, who fought with righteous anger and the power of her emotions, into a vapid sex doll who suffered a severe case of amnesia—to the extent that she couldn’t remember who Dick Grayson, the love of her life, was. She was no longer sexually liberated or her own person. She was nothing more than a woman who stood around posing sexily in spine-breaking positions for heterosexual men.

Case in point.

Her portrayal in the first issue was so sexist and misogynistic that it turned me off the entire series, and I had no desire to continue it. That was, until very recently, when I saw this picture:

Like, wow, she has clothes on. That’s a little odd for her, as she’s one of the few female characters whose personality actually does allow for the more-revealing outfits. But more importantly, she’s actually doing something. And she looks awesome. As such, I decided to give the series another try, went out to my local comic shop, bought Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: The Starfire (Red Hood and the Outlaws #8–14), and read it all in one sitting.

I was blown away, and I think I may have fallen in love with Starfire’s character. Spoilers after the jump.