Last August, the newest summer superhero movie “Suicide Squad” hit the theaters. Packed with everyone’s favorite supervillains and antiheros, my inner comic nerd was especially excited to see one of my all-time favorite characters come to life. Harley Quinn, portrayed by the lovely Margot Robbie as an insane yet charismatic femme fatale with a baseball bat, was an instant icon as the character debuted in her first ever live-action movie role. As entertaining as Robbie was, however, there was one aspect of the movie that concerned me – the misrepresentation of the Joker’s and Harley’s relationship. “Suicide Squad” depicts a very humane version of the two’s romance; in the comics, Harley Quinn and the Joker’s relationship takes the textbook definition of abusive and goes above and beyond. “Suicide Squad” carelessly romanticizes Harley and the Joker’s abusive relationship as a twisted form of “true love” instead of using the opportunity to help raise awareness about a very serious and common issue.

Despite continual evidence in the cartoons and comics that the Joker was physically and emotionally abusive, the “Suicide Squad” movie spins their relationship to seem psychotic yet still acceptable. Excluding a shocking scene where the Joker electrocutes Harley, “Suicide Squad” never shows any other form of physical abuse between the two that one might find in the comics. You know, like pushing her out of high-rise building window (“Mad Love”), dragging around her by her hair, locking her in a rocket and launching her away (“No Man’s Land”), or giving her a bushel of roses filled with ignited TNT. In the comics, the Joker attempts to kill Harley several times, once even forcibly pushing her into a vault of acid (“Suicide Squad” Vol. 4 I#37), a storyline which the movie twists to make Harley’s consensual decision. I’m not saying that the movie should have the Joker explicitly using Harley as a personal punching bag, but even that would be more true to the two’s relationship to the idealized “psycho love” garbage portrayed instead. By completely glossing over any evident abuse, the viewer almost sympathizes with the two, romanticizing a historically terrible pair as something Cosmo recommends you try as a couples’ costume idea this Halloween. However, the worst part of the two’s relationship was something “Suicide Squad” refused to touch on at all; for all its scenes of the relationship, the movie utterly failed to portray the constant emotional abuse inflicted on Harley by the Joker.

From the very beginning of Harley’s origin story, she and her puddin’ have been trapped in a vicious cycle of emotional abuse. The Joker criticizes or hurts her, but just as she is about to leave, the Joker’s Jerykell side comes out to shower Harley with compliments, sweet nothings, and presents. Although to an outsider Harley may seem moronic for staying with him, this is actually a form of an extremely common emotional abuse tactic called gaslighting. The Joker manipulates Harley so she always thinks she is overreacting or that his abuse was a big misunderstanding. Additionally, after Harley became a supervillain, she was separated from any family and friends with only the Joker for company, thus isolating her (another abuse tactic). One of the only times she actually left the Joker was at the urging of Poison Ivy and Catwoman; without outside assistance, however, she would have stayed with her abuser indefinitely. In the movie “Suicide Squad”, however, the filmmakers have Harley actively trying to reunite herself with her abuser. When they are together, the power dynamic seems relatively equal, and there were no signs of emotional abuse of any kind. Although it may not seem like a big deal that “Suicide Squad” glossed over the unhealthy dynamic between the Joker and Harley Quinn, the relationship’s romanticization twists the originally accessible storyline into something one-dimensional and glorified purely for the sake of getting a specific rating.

One of the reasons “Suicide Squad” portrayed Harley and the Joker’s relationship in a tame style was that the studio wanted to keep a PG-13 rating. Several more accurate and abusive scenes were shot but were eventually cut. This is because close-ups on Margot Robbie’s skimpy uniform and violent battle scenes are appropriate for the youngins, but not a realistic portrayal of a toxic relationship that millions of women find themselves in everyday. It is very important to acknowledge the abuse in Harley and the Joker’s relationship because the comics offer a rare yet geninne look into the world of a domestic violence victim. Harley Quinn, for all her craziness, has become a strong yet imperfect female character with a huge women fanbase. No matter how superhuman and indestructible she may seem, she battles her most serious demons at home. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence cites that one in three women will at some point be in an abusive relationship, but most of the time it is not always black and white to figure out if a relationship is in fact unhealthy. By portraying Harley Quinn and the Joker’s relationship in a relatively realistic way, DC has done a great job (up until now) offering a form of relatable representation for domestic violence victims and drawing attention to a problem women worldwide face. By taking a multidimensional character with a backstory that resonated with readers and changing her abuser to her equal romantic partner, the movie promotes a relationship that is actually very unhealthy. As for an accurate portrayal of their relationship being “inappropriate,” it is exactly that kind of censorship that makes a common issue taboo and closes a forum for discussion.

Abuse is never something to take lightly; however, over the years, DC has created an multidimensional abusive relationship between Harley Quinn and the Joker that could be used as a platform to address the widespread problem of domestic abuse. In the latest movie “Suicide Squad”, however, the abuse that defines the two’s relationship was minimized or ignored. This has lead to an idealized relationship that had few to no red flags, and could be romanticized as “crazy, but like, in a cute way.” So before dubbing Harley and the Joker as “couple goals,” keep in mind your “Suicide Squad” characters are not as one-dimensional and ideal as they seem.