Attention ladies

I'd like to take a moment to take comic book characters far too seriously. I'm speaking specifically to the characters of Harley Quinn, and The Joker, and the effect that they have had on far far too many women. I'm speaking of these sorts of images, which if you're lucky, you haven't seen all over your facebook (I have);

  Now really, who cares. It's a hot couple that's been really popularized by the Suicide Squad movie. I'm actually a fan of both characters, and have been for a long time. The reason this drives me so crazy, its that in the 25ish years that Harley Quinn has existed in stories, in every single depiction, she is a tragic character. She is literally manipulated so hard that she develops a lifelong, severe, untreatable, mental illness. I understand many people can relate to "going crazy" because of love, or any sort of strong feelings, but its not healthy, and not something to romanticize...

Why would you possibly want this relationship of servitude? Emotional, physical, mental, servitude. The character of the Joker is

physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive. Harley is manipulated into doing whatever he wants,  She is regularly beaten, regularly thrown aside, regularly treated as a toy. She left her life as a stable, successful, self respecting professional, to become an abuse toy for a murderous psychopath. Like... wtf. This is a cool story for a comic book or a movie for sure, but its really messed up that there are women who are taking this as what they want.

 I know I'm gonna sound like a staunch old fart talking about damn kids and those damn tv shows, and that's not the point here at all. I'm not even being critical necessarily, I just can't believe that we are glorifying mental illness and domestic abuse, and that there are women out there eating it up. Like there's a list of things that shouldn't be romanticized, and on the list is domestic violence, manipulation, mental/emotional abuse, mental illness, lack of self respect, violence, I'm pretty sure I could keep going about just how horrible this all is. It's crazy to me. Absolutely crazy. Stop it!! When you advertise yourself as a Harley Quinn lover, or that you want that relationship, you're attracting men that want to own you, and you're showing a lot more of your cards than you even realize. Don't be like this! Be better...