David Ayer’s 2017 film, “Suicide Squad,” has its fair share of issues. Problems that we’ve documented in various ways over the past three years. And while the script was noticeably cobbled together over a short time, and the editing left much to be desired, the debut of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is generally regarded as a highlight of the superhero team-up film. However, that doesn’t mean the character is beyond reproach, as was highlighted in a Twitter thread over the weekend.
For those that have somehow skipped “Suicide Squad” and have never seen an image of Harley Quinn from David Ayer’s film, the character is often shown in very tight (sometimes wet) clothing, wearing the shortest of shorts (sometimes bending over for…reasons?). And perhaps the biggest issue that fans had with Harley in the film is a scene where the character is shown changing clothes in front of a group of guys that sit there and stare, clearly in an attempt to make a joke (not the best attempt, to say the least) about how attractive she is.
In a tweet, Lauren Humphries-Brooks (co-host of the Citizen Dame podcast) wrote about a recent comment David Ayer made regarding the sexualization of Harley Quinn in the 2017 film, where he opined, “Everything is political now. Everything. I just want to entertain.”
She tweeted, “A female character in an abusive relationship is already political, my dude. The way your camera looked at her was political. The way you used her was political. You treated her as an object and she still rose above it. That was political too.”
In response to the above tweet, Ayer shared it and added, “Retweeting because this is very thoughtfully written. Thank you for this. ???????? I am growing and learning in a changing world.”
So, it would appear that Ayer now admits to his need for “growing and learning.” And while he doesn’t venture into clarification or apology regarding his defense of how Harley was used in ‘Suicide Squad,’ it does appear that he’s willing to sincerely thank someone for pointing out his shortcomings, which is a welcome sight, for sure.
The way that Ayer used Harley in “Suicide Squad” was also made even worse in hindsight once “Birds of Prey” was released. That film, written, directed, and produced by women, was able to flesh out the character in a better way and never relied on sexualization or gratuitous camera angles. And next year, we’ll get to see how James Gunn interprets the character when she shows up in “The Suicide Squad,” a quasi-sequel/reboot of Ayer’s film.