Harley Quinn has come a long way, from her debut in an animated series to her own solo live-action movie. From the Joker’s lovesick sidekick to an anti-heroine, Harley has had many changes throughout the years. Her portrayal on-screen has been sexually objectified and one-dimensional, making her story focus entirely on the validation of the Joker, whereas Harley’s solo comic book movie, centred around her journey of self-love, is deeply different.
DC’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) features an all-female superhero team making it quite different from the rest of the male-centred superhero films. The story deconstructs the male gaze making it an interesting addition to the superhero genre. The team includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). The movie is led by the titular villain, Harley Quinn, who has to retrieve a bag of valuable diamonds stolen from Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) by the pickpocketer Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). The group of superheroines have to save Cassandra from being killed by Sionis and his army of masked criminals.
To explore more of Harley’s origin story, we have to look at her debut appearance in Batman: The Animated Series and how her story developed further in the comics and other mediums. Harley was featured on the episode “Joker’s Favor” as the Joker’s sidekick and hench girl. In this episode, Harley helps out the Joker to set off tear gas during a testimonial dinner for Commissioner Gordon and plants a bomb on him. Her interactions with the Joker won the hearts of the viewers and the creators wanted to give a backstory to Harley, who would become one of the most popular DC characters. The Batman Adventures: Mad Love later revealed Harley’s origin story as Dr. Harleen Quinzel. Dr. Harleen Quinzel was a criminal psychiatrist who worked at the Arkham Asylum. Her job was to interview and study the inmates, and that was how she met the Joker, with whom she fell madly in love. Later, she becomes his accomplice and helps him escape. Afterwards, Harley was featured in more episodes and became the Joker’s love interest. The creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini did not want to humanise the Joker by making Harley his girlfriend, they wanted to emphasise his creepy and abusive behaviour.
As time went on, Harley’s backstory would change in video games and comic books, and in the case of DC’s New 52, the abusive relationship between Harley and Joker was altered. In the new origin story, the Joker brings Harley to Ace Chemicals and explains to her that this is where he bleached his skin and turned insane. Harley is then pushed into a vat of chemical solution, thus Harley Quinn is reborn again. What is disturbing about this change is that it is done against her will, which ultimately takes away her agency. Her relationship with the Joker changes as she becomes a victim of his abuse, and turns into a psychotic monster, partially due to the Joker’s control over her. This updated origin story is written in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but instead of pushing her into the chemical, Harley does it willingly to prove her devotion to the Joker (Jared Leto).
When Warner Brothers announced a live-action Suicide Squad movie, fans were excited, as this would be the first appearance of Harley and the Joker in a movie together. In Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recruits a group of imprisoned supervillains at Arkham Asylum to complete black ops missions and save the world from a powerful entity in exchange for reduced sentences. As Harley helps out her friends and uses her powerful strength to take down the other bad guys, she is also being used as an object to cater to the male audience. In a scene where the Squad is getting ready to leave for Midway City, Harley strips in front of the other male characters who stare at her. The camera lingers on her body and her skin-tight outfit. In another scene, Harley is pole dancing while the Joker is observing her from a distance. She is only doing this to get his attention. Throughout this movie, her body is presented in a way that sexualises and objectifies her only for the male gaze, while her body is her costume and her only existence in the movie is to please the male viewership.
Harley and the Joker’s toxic relationship is somewhat a mixture of the original and updated origin story in Ayer’s version. It tries to downplay the Joker’s abuse over Harley. In a flashback scene, Dr. Harleen Quinzel is in a therapy session with the Joker and she is slowly falling in love with him. Later on, the Joker attempts to electrocute her to test her strength. Harley’s arc in Suicide Squad is mainly focused on getting validation from the Joker. Her entire existence is to go back to him over and over again, regardless of how he had treated her before. Also, these actions are written in a manner that does not empathise with her but rather romanticises their abusive relationship.
Birds of Prey imagined a movie where the male gaze did not exist. The movie is a celebration of the female gaze, and it is made by women. It works to correct many of the wrongdoings in the predecessor film, moving away from the perverted male gaze and displaying female empowerment in favour of Harley’s characterisation. The movie begins with an animated sequence of Harley Quinn’s history. She recaps her toxic relationship with the Joker and realises that she has always been used as a pawn for all of the Joker’s plans and that she only looked for his attention and validation. This animated sequence shows her growth and self-realisation that she was being taken advantage of by the Joker. Later, it is revealed that the Joker broke up with her and from here on, Harley learns how to live on her own terms. To cope with her breakup, she gets a hyena as a pet, cuts her hair, and wears outfits that solely centre around her personality.
Birds of Prey takes back the narrative and shifts it to make her character less sympathetic towards Harley Quinn’s abusive relationship with the Joker. The movie, in itself, is a break-up movie, with Harley figuring out who she is without the Joker. It is about an exploration of herself as she takes back her agency. The idea of a female-led superhero movie began with Margot Robbie as she was shooting Suicide Squad. In an interview with Variety, Robbie said she believed that there was a wide gap in the market when it came to female-led superhero films. Robbie wanted to explore aspects of Harley other than her relationship with the Joker, which was the primary focus in Suicide Squad. For Birds of Prey, she took the role of producer and secured an all-female cast and crew. Writer Christina Hodson and costume designer Erin Benach helped shape the movie from a narrative and visual perspective respectively. Hodson mentions that when Robbie initially pitched the movie, it was meant to explore real-life female friendships. As these women were given the creative control to explore a female perspective, it resulted in a movie with a diverse cast and represented the female experience without judgements. It was not just about the male gaze, but empowering women to create a craft that they are proud of.
Harley’s costumes are an extension of her personality. Even though Harley is showing skin in this movie, she is dressed in a way that makes her comfortable. Harley does not wear a skin-tight shirt with “Daddy’s Lil Monster” written on it, instead, she wears a loose shirt with her name written all over it. Here, she is expressing herself and taking back her autonomy. Harley also does not wear clothes that compliment the Joker.
This emancipation goes beyond costume design to her character arc as well. In Birds of Prey, Harley’s arc focuses on saving Cassandra with her new friends, Huntress, Black Canary, and Renee from Roman Sionis/Black Mask. She wants to prove that she can exist outside of the Joker’s world and does not need to rely on him for anything. Furthermore, the male gaze is not exclusive to the objectification of female characters. It is also about female character arcs and how they are portrayed. Is her character two-dimensional? Do the female characters’ arcs progress for themselves or do they only progress the male characters in the story? In the case of Birds of Prey, the female characters are given the chance to present themselves on screen in a way that does not objectify them. The movie highlights the importance of female friendships and rejects the male gaze throughout the film. In a fight scene, Black Canary’s hair gets in the way of her vision and Harley hands her a hair tie. This is a common problem that women share and an example of female friendship. In another scene, while Cassandra and Harley are hiding out in her apartment, they watch television, eat cereal, and paint each other’s nails. There is not any bitterness or judgement towards each other. A shared experience between them is that they have been through neglect and abuse in their lives. Cassandra takes comfort in Harley’s presence as she takes the young pickpocketer and orphan under her wing.
Before Harley’s solo film, Wonder Woman (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019) were movies that presented female empowerment. These movies were a milestone in breaking gender barriers after a decade, and possibly even more, long years of male-centred superhero movies.
Birds of Prey is an exploration of Harley’s intelligence and strength as well as her growth from villain to anti-hero. Harley did not need to present herself in ‘sexy clothes’ for her to be validated by anyone but herself, so she emancipates herself from the male gaze. This movie does not want the viewer to forget that she is her own woman now. Harley’s character has evolved from her television series origin, to comic books and video games, to her own live-action movie. The best part of this film is that it is directed, written, and produced by women, and features a diverse cast and crew. This movie presents healthy female friendships as well as female sexuality based on confidence and not for male validation. Harley Quinn is not the perfect role model given her criminal history, but her characterisation in Birds of Prey displays a fresh perspective on female empowerment.
