Tomato

mirthandwhimsy-deactivated20180 asked:

I'm a new follower so I don't know if you've answered this or not: What's your opinion on people categorizing Harley as a victim of abuse from Joker and the idea of her being better off with Ivy because she treats Harley better?

harleyquinnfanatic-deactivated2 answered:

Harley would probably be better off with Ivy, but she’d never be as happy with Ivy as she is when she’s with Joker. Joker is her driving force, he’s her everything. She gave it all up for him. She loved him so much she went insane! And she doesn’t want ‘better off’. She doesn’t want safe. She wants to be in the spotlight, she wants to live like a villain, and wants all the excitement and unpredictability that comes with being with Joker.

But Harley is not a victim of Joker. She’s not a victim of the abuse, she’s a willing participant. The abuse is consensual. Harley wants nothing more than to make Joker happy, and to be in service of him, and when she fails, she gets punished. She expects it, and accepts it. Really, the only possible way for anyone to be in a relationship with Joker is if they are submissive to him, and they play by his rules. And that’s exactly what Harley did. Harley is a character who when she wants something, she’ll do everything she can to get it, going all the way back to her days as a doctor, how she slept with her professor to ensure her good grades. She loves him so much that she’ll do anything to be with him. I’ve seen people claim that Joker does what abusers do and makes Harley feel like she needs him and can’t live without him. Nope. Harley did that all on her own. She decided that she couldn’t live without him as soon as she left her job and broke him out of Arkham. All her decision. Harley found something she loved, someone who introduced her to a new way of living, someone who let the real Harley Quinn out, and she’s doing whatever she can to stay with him.

I think labeling Harley as a victim to Joker is undermining her character. Harley made all the choices from her own free will to be with Joker and to continue to be with him. And saying that she can’t see what’s really going on is an insult to her. She’s smart, she’s logical, she was a psychiatrist! People should give her more credit. She understands Joker, not just because all of that, but because she thinks like him too. As I’ve said before, while everyone else is running and screaming from a ‘joke’ Joker pulled, she’s right beside him laughing just as hard as he is. She gets the joke. She sees the word the same way he does, that’s what makes them such a great match, that out of all the people in the world, she’s the only one who’s ever seen everything like him, and appreciates the joke like he does, and has his sense of humor. Calling her a victim takes all that away, and takes so much of her character away.

So I just inadvertently made another JokerxHarley rant. As you can see, I’m very passionate about this subject, and will fight for those two until the end. But thanks for the question, I hope this wasn’t too long or aggressive, I didn’t mean it to be.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.