Suicide Squad

[Estimated reading time: 14 minutes]

Content Warning: Arguments that Suicide Squad isn’t a bad movie

People...I love movies almost as much as I love sex. I’ve been a cinephile for as long as I can remember, and I’ve probably been a nerd for even longer. I’ve been reading comic books since I was 8 years old and my Grandmother brought home some DuckTails comics from the Op Shop. As I’ve grown older, my tastes have become more refined, and these days I enjoy everything from Vertigo and Icon, to the occasional Marvel trade paperback. But if I’m being completely honest, my one true love will always be DC.

I fell in love with Catwoman in Hush. Green Arrow and Flash appeared in my masturbatory fantasies after late night viewings of Justice League Unlimited. And Wonder Woman became a personal hero after learning more about her origins in Wonder Woman: Unbound. So when DC started making movies, I was beyond excited. Every time a new trailer dropped, I would watch it on repeat for about a week, just hyping myself up. I now live in a world with both a live action Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. And I couldn’t be fucking happier.

Admittedly I’d never really read the Suicide Squad comics before, but it’s not like that’s stopped me from watching every Marvel film either.

But it turns out not everyone is as happy as I am. Suicide Squad came out last week and the reviews have been...unkind, to put it mildly. People are calling the movie “Ugly", "Boring", "Toxic", "Predictable", "Unexciting", "Overstaffed and Overstuffed” and in one particularly memorable review, “Turgid.”

I’m convinced at this point that everyone else saw a completely different movie to me. Because the Suicide Squad that I saw was balls to the wall, action-packed fun and excitement. It was a love letter to the villains of DC, bringing to life characters that I’ve come to know intimately across a decade of reading their titles and watching them in animation.

But perhaps the most troubling attack on the film though are the critics decrying the treatment of Harley Quinn. People are calling her depiction sexist, misogynistic and toxic. And the only conclusion I can draw from this is that the people writing these reviews are either not really feminists or not really nerds, because the Harley Quinn I witnessed was a beautiful rendering of a nuanced human being with desires and motivations as complex as my own. Allow me to prosthelytize for a moment...

One of the more problematic elements of the film, according to critics, is the violence against women. Women get punched in the face, a lot, in Suicide Squad. I’m not going to try and defend this entirely, because in some scenes it’s just lazy storytelling to make us dislike a character (Slipknot for instance).

However, in the scene where Batman nearly kills and subsequently tries to rescue Harley Quinn, I feel it’s justified. Before the film’s release, statements were made around Batman’s involvement; we were told that we’d be seeing him from the villain’s point of view.

When Batman dives into the water after Harley, and punches her in the face, my stomach clenched. Holy violence against women, Batman, that was a dick move! And when he brings her to the Batmobile, and is giving her mouth-to-mouth, the way it’s shot is definitely bordering on lascivious, as though the Dark Knight is kind of getting off on it.

Batman suddenly went from the hero of Gotham, to a sleazy “Nice Guy ™” who enjoys abusing his power and privilege. Even in the scene when he drops in to arrest Deadshot, he does it when Floyd’s daughter is there. The Batman I’m used to would never endanger a little girl’s life just to capture a crook. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it? If this is the villain’s story, and it is, why shouldn’t we see Batman as they do? To them he's a thug in an overpriced suit who doesn’t care about kids, consent or violence against women.

Because in reality, do you think Batman wouldn’t hit a girl? Do you think he’s going to pull punches on Harley, or Poison Ivy, or Talia Al Ghul, when they’re endangering lives? Of course not. Batman is a man who hits women. He always has been, it's just this is the first time we've really been confronted with that fact. But if I'm being really honest, I would be a little peeved if he didn’t hit women. If Batman devised some violence-free way of restraining women who were menacing society, it would smack of benevolent sexism; it would feel like he didn’t take them as seriously as their male counterparts. So yes, the film does depict violence against women, but in some instances (not all) I think it does so to remind us that this film is the villain’s story. And Batman sucks.

A lot of the charges of misogyny have been levelled at the depiction of Harley Quinn. This is a character that I grew up with. From her first appearance in Batman: The Animated Series, like a many other women, I’ve always felt a strange affinity for her.

The thing is, Harley is insane. And to be honest, so am I. But like me, Harley doesn’t let her psychological quirks stop her from living her life. In fact, in many ways Harley is who she is because of mental instability. One of the tropes of her character is that she often engages in behaviours outside of social norms, and then proceeds to give exactly zero fucks about what people think about that. This is something I find infinitely relatable.

So while people have decried the fact that Suicide Squad sexualised Harley, I would argue that Harley is a sexual character and always has been. And just like me her overt sexuality is not an affectation for the male gaze - it’s the result of just not giving a fuck.

There’s an interesting debate that goes on amongst feminist comic-book nerds such as myself. We ask ourselves, regularly, where do we draw the line between sexual and sexualised? As a feminist, I believe a woman has the right to decide what she wears, who she sleeps with and who she fights. Many of the characters I see in comic books are so obviously drawn for the male gaze, that it undermines any other character traits they might have. So how do we decide when it’s okay for a fictional woman to wear a skimpy outfit and when it’s just shameless tits and ass for the sweaty pale nerd reading it (speaking for myself here).

My solution it to simply ask, does it make sense for the character to be wearing that outfit? From what I know about the character, is it believable that she would have dressed herself that way.

Take Batgirl for example. She was inspired by Batman’s costume, so her costume likewise covers her whole body and head and has a handy utility belt. This costume makes sense to me. I don’t like it when certain artists draw it as though it’s sprayed on body paint, because that’s just lazy artwork and obvious sexualisation, but the costume itself makes sense. Because the character makes sense.

Then we have Harley Quinn, who spends most of her screen time trotting around in impossibly short booty shorts and strategically ripped t-shirts. In her opening scene she’s swinging from the rafters in a barely there white ensemble, before walking up to a guard and suggestively licking a pole. How could I possibly not have issues with that? Easy. Because it makes sense for her character. What I love about Harley is that she’s unapologetically herself, and that comes out in her actions. She’s crazy in the same way that Deadpool is. And while Deadpool demonstrates his indifference to other people’s opinions by subverting tropes around toxic masculinity, Harley does it through embracing the two things women aren’t typically allowed to embrace - sex and violence. She likes the male gaze, she likes the attention, but she’s clear about liking them on her terms. Her opening musical cue is the feminist anthem You don’t own me, and one of her first lines is “I sleep where I want, when I want, with who I want.”

As women we’re allowed to like sex, but not too much. We’re allowed to dress a bit sexily, but never allowed to be ‘trashy’. We’re not allowed to get angry and we’re never allowed to be violent. Harley likes sex (especially with Joker). She wears clothes that make her feel good, regardless of any social cues they might send. And she likes attention. But what sets her apart is that, unlike most women, she’s got the strength and the hammer/baseball bat needed to remind everyone around her that those things on her terms. And she’ll fuck up anyone who forgets what consent means. She’s literally wish fulfilment for women, like myself, who want the freedom to dress and act the way they want without the fear of repercussions from men and society at large.

At one point in the film, El Diablo is explaining to the squad how he killed his wife and kids. They're all are appalled, except for Harley who stares him down and says “Own that shit”.

Everything that Harley does, she owns. It’s made clear in Suicide Squad that Harley knows how to say no, she’s not some poor mentally addled bimbo who’s just going to get taken advantage of. And she’s not a damsel in distress waiting for her white knight to save her. Even when the Joker says he’s coming for her, it’s pretty clear that she’s letting him because she wants him, not because she needs him.

Which brings me to my favourite part of the film. Suicide Squad had a better representation of kink than Fifty Shades of Grey. In the BDSM scene, there’s a dynamic of Dominant and submissive. A submissive is someone who willingly and consensually gives up their power and sometimes their autonomy to their Dominant, or Dom. This dynamic often involves a lot of consensual pain and bondage play. In amongst this dynamic is a smaller subset of the kink known as a Daddy/Little relationship (sometimes referred to as a Caring or Nurturing Dom relationship).

In a Daddy/Little relationship the Dom is often referred to as Daddy, Mister or Sir. The Little, or sub, will often engage in “age play” which basically involves acting like someone younger than they actually are. This can involve costumes such as schoolgirls or cheerleaders, for the ‘little’, while the Dom instructs his little about what he wants from her, and applying punishment if she’s ‘bratty’.

In Suicide Squad, we see Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the professional psychiatrist, who is brought in the treat the Joker. Most BDSM practitioners are intelligent, career focused, highly driven people. Dr. Quinzel is exactly that. Until she meets the Joker. He asks her for a machine gun, and she delivers. The next thing we see is Harleen, clothing askew, laid out on a hospital gurney with the Joker looming over her. She asks, with a smile and a wriggle, if he’s going to kill her, and he replies that he’s not, he’s just “going to hurt you, really, really, bad” and we see him applying defib-paddles to her temples, as Harleen starts smiling, eyes wide with excitement.

In another flashback, we see the Joker ask Harleen if she’d die for him. She nods, smiling docilely. He then asks if she’d live for him, and she softly says she would. Joker takes her chin in his hand and excitedly says “You’re so good!” This exchange is probably one of the most perfect representations of kink I’ve ever seen in cinema. Margot Robbie captures a woman in “subspace”.

When you’re being submissive to someone else, it’s not unusual to get to a place where you’re kind of blissed out, and your responses become soft and spacey. Joker’s reaction is one I've seen many Doms and Daddies give when their sub is behaving well, it’s a genuine excitement brought on by the control they have and their attraction to the person in front of them. The exchange is so natural, so perfectly kink, that there’s no way for me to believe that this dynamic wasn’t done intentionally.

Harley and Joker in Suicide Squad is not an abusive relationship. It’s not a portrayal of someone taking advantage of someone else. Harleen is there by choice, she and Joker are participating in a relationship dynamic that is completely consensual. Which is more than I can, and have, said for Fifty Shades of Grey.

In one flashback we see the Joker “give” Harley to a Gotham thug. She doesn’t protest, she doesn’t argue, she happily does exactly what she’s told because she has willingly submitted to the Joker. It’s not unusual in a Daddy/Little dynamic or other BDSM scene to engage in this form of objectification, or “gifting” of partners to others. You can see the Joker watching Harley with the gangster, visibly aroused. It’s a common kink and one that plays into the level of submission that Harley has for the Joker.

We later see her in a t-shirt labelled “Daddy’s Lil Monster” and a jacket that says “Property of the Joker”, reaffirming both the Daddy/Little kink as well as the role of objectification and ownership in their play.

Everything about Harley's aesthetic leans in to their age-play dynamic, from the pigtails, to the chewing gum, to her costumes. What seals it though, is when Harley is getting her outfit together and she puts on a collar that says “Puddin’”. Any comic book nerds will recognise this as her pet name for the Joker (along with Mister J).

But any BDSM nerd can tell you that “collaring” is a very deliberate act between a Dom and sub. It denotes ownership and is often taken as seriously as a marriage ceremony. This is further reiterated when Harley believes the Joker is dead and the first thing she does is to heartbrokenly remove her collar, because she knows she can’t belong to him any more.

So, look, is Suicide Squad a perfect film? Fuck no. It’s riddled with lazy storytelling tropes, its main storyline is nothing new, and despite being the most diverse cast in any comic book movie to date, it still manages to be pretty racist.

But regardless of all of that, it’s a fun movie. It features a female antagonist (Enchantress) bent on ruling the world, an older woman of colour who could actually run the world and proves it in literally every scene she's in (Amanda Waller), a woman who outperforms every one of her male counterparts, despite having no powers, skills or military background (Harley Quinn), and a man who gets damseled so fucking often (looking at you Rick Flagg) that he needs his own bodyguard to keep him alive, who just so happens to be a woman of colour (Katana).

So I hope you'll forgive me if I don't buy into the idea that this isn't a feminist movie, cos what I saw was a whole bunch of women who were kicking some serious ass without giving a single fuck what the dudes around them were doing or thinking. I can only hope we get this much female representation and badassery in Wonder Woman.

So whether you’re a comic book nerd, or a BDSM geek, go see Suicide Squad and let your freak flag fly!

That is all.

You may go now.