In case anyone needed proof that Harley Quinn is canonically Jewish, this comes from Gotham City Sirens #7 - Holiday Story!
She’s canonically jewish in the animated and DC Comics Bombshells universes as well! :)
To me it’s kinda patronizing to depict Harley Quinn as someone who is sugary-sweet 24/7, who doesn’t harm anyone that doesn’t deserve it, who is constantly kind and considerate, who only does “bad” things because of Joker’s negative influence and never out of her own desire to commit villainous acts. It’s essentially taking a female character and altering her long-established characterization into something more “acceptable” until she no longer resembles herself. Harley is not allowed to simply exist as a female villain–she now has to fit the standards of what people believe a strong woman should be, even if it means sacrificing the same aspects of her characterization that made her so popular among fans in the first place. It seems like there has been a recent push in the comic book world to make villains more palatable and tame instead of letting them actually be villainous, and Harley’s character has been especially affected by this trend.
Let Harley be the same woman who wanted to work at Arkham Asylum because she was attracted to Gotham’s criminal underworld and described it as “glamorous”. Let Harley be the same woman who spent months trying to set up therapy sessions with Joker with the full intention of exploiting her patient by using his “secrets” as material for a tell-all book. Let Harley be the same woman whose idea of “game night” is gleefully watching Joker shoot security guards as she cheers him on enthusiastically. Let Harley be the same woman who may care for a small circle of friends but otherwise considers harming innocent people to be “just a joke”. Let Harley be the same woman who is funny, adorable, and horrifying all at the same time, who you want to root for even if her violent actions disturb you.
LET HARLEY BE A VILLAIN.
Ngl, most bi people in fandoms anger me. Like, I get it, you’re also a marginalized group that’s under represented. But that doesn’t mean you should take away what little ANOTHER marginalized and underrepresented group has as well.
Please. Like bi people are the ones whining about ships. Last time I checked, anti blogs are all run by people like you.
Can we please talk about this??? How does adding your own, personalized fan content erase canon or even others fan content???
Logically speaking, there is NOTHING being taken away. Canon is still there.
So are your headcanons.
So what’s the fucking deal???
Can you people just stop hiding your personal distaste for fiction behind social justice for one goddamn second and realize not all content is made for you???
And just because you don’t like it it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t fucking exist??
Just get over yourselves, blacklist the ship and act like a fucking adult for gods sake
“This is not the kind of guy who is swayed by fashion trends. You’re not
going to catch Bruce Wayne in skinny jeans. Everything about his look
is timeless.”
— Costume designer Michael Wilkinson
In defense of Joker/Harley and other “bad” ships.
Here’s another thing about Harley and the Joker as a pairing.
Saying they can’t have a relationship, that someone liking their relationship is wrong, immoral, and “romanticizing abuse” is not only judgmental but limiting. You can engage with darker fiction without it actually reflecting your world views. Appreciating conflict and villainy is no indication that you think it’s normal or acceptable. Example: Harley Quinn is a criminal and a murderer, but you liking her doesn’t make you a murderer apologist.
Yet people seem to think that enjoying a dynamic like Harley and Joker’s clearly means you’re too ignorant to understand that their relationship is abusive, or that you are in favor of abuse.
If you’re going to protest so heavily against bad relationships, let’s just take villains away all together. Let’s take away conflict, lying, and murder from stories all together. I mean, by the same logic applied in trying to restrict any Joker/Harley content, it’d be good if all these bad things weren’t portrayed at all.
Except we need conflict for stories to be interesting. Everyone can agree on that. Then why is so unacceptable to enjoy romantic relationships full of conflict?
Superheroes all have that One Big Archenemy. Batman and the Joker have one of the most loved relationships of all time. All their fighting is usually considered epic, their back-and-forth is accepted as the norm, and Batman’s moral struggle about whether or not to kill him is considered interesting and engaging.
So why can’t I appreciate a similar arc with Harley and her relationship with the Joker? Why can’t I indulge in the complicated, messy, and gritty relationship between them? Why can’t I like their mutual inner turmoil regarding each other? Why can’t I do that, if everyone else can for Batman and the Joker?
I saw a post earlier pointing out how people seem to assume young women are completely incapable of separating fact from fiction when it comes to shipping. That if a person ships something that is not completely healthy and pure, it must mean they condone that kinda thing, or wouldn’t recognize it as a problem in real life. Certainly a large portion of people seem to assume the same in regards to Joker/Harley shippers, or shippers of similar ships with morally grey matter (ex: Reylo, Dramione, etc.) If you’re trying to stop these ships under the guise of feminism, yet that’s your impression of a young woman’s mind, you’ve got some things backwards.
No one is asking you to ship it, or like it, or look at it. But it’d be nice if you stopped trying to judge a person’s moral character based on a fictional story they engage with.
THANK YOU
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
- perry white (speaking at clark's funereal): Clark was a great man and a great journalist, he will be missed....but not as missed as those DAMN sport articles HE NEVER WROTE. SO HELP ME, KENT... I WILL DIG YOUR ASS UP MYSELF! JENNY GET ME MY FUCKING SHOVEL!
Maybe I am a mess. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m out of my mind! But, God help me, I will keep these lights up until the day I die if I think there’s a chance that Will’s still out there!
When you feel like your work sucks.
I was going to reblog a whole bunch of things on this topic but then I thought I could do this more efficiently in a single post. So, links!
1. You have permission to make as much bad art as you need to and it will be okay. Seriously, it’s okay! It’s fine! YOU ARE NOT BEING GRADED. Make whatever you want, decide later who you’ll show it to. If it’s terrible it still taught you something or entertained you and more importantly, you still made some art. Now you can make some different art! Possibly also still terrible, but who cares? Make as much terrible art as you need to! For whatever value of “terrible” and “need” apply in your case! You do you!
2. If you are worrying about how people will receive it remember: more art = more cake. You are comparing your work to the work you admire most, but the person hungrily clicking through AO3 notifciations and tumblr tags is comparing your work to NOTHING TO READ. People want more stuff! And you are making stuff! Everybody wins!
3. “For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.” As Ira Glass explains–again, you’re comparing your own work to the work you admire most. You have the critical eye to tell the difference, but you don’t know how to produce something better yet. Well, the only way out is through. You can quit make stuff and sit back and criticize other people, or you can just keep trying and failing and trying again and failing again and failing better.
4. “That still happens occasionally. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, nothing I’m drawing looks any good anymore. My life is over as an artist.’” Walt Simonson explains that not only does this thing Ira Glass described happen when you’re starting out, it happens over and over as you improve. You have to develop the eye for something better before you can learn to produce it–which means that over and over you may go through periods where your own work doesn’t meet your expectations, even if for a while there it did.
5. And this isn’t even a linear process toward some Ideal Perfect Best Writing/Arting Self, as T. S. Eliot describes…
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it.
Sure, you might know how to write or draw one particular thing really well–but as soon as you decide to try something new or different, you’re starting all over again. Probably you bring a lot of tools and techniques with you, but still, you’re in new territory. Change fandoms, pairings, styles, artistic focus, kinkmemes, whatever–you’ve got something to learn again, and it takes time to get there.
6. In Conclusion: Writing is about dealing with failure all the time.
7. But the only way to get anywhere is to show up and do the work.
