Sickening DC Art Harley Quinn Contest
DC Comics has announced a new contest to find new artists for DC. The problem comes with one of the images they want you to draw as part of the contest, which I, and others, find to be problematic. Here's the quote: "PANEL 4
Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen."
Specifically, the specification of her being naked, which feels a little aquicky to me, as if they are subtly implying that this image should be sexualized. Personally, a sexualized image of suicide just feels wrong to me. The other images they ask for are rather black comedy, but this one... whooof!
Here's the link to the contest so you can read it for yourself: http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151
It's not the fact that she's naked. It's not the suicide attempt, but the two together that give me pause. And that they announced this in September, which is Suicide Prevention Month. Yeah, stay classy, DC!
Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen."
Specifically, the specification of her being naked, which feels a little aquicky to me, as if they are subtly implying that this image should be sexualized. Personally, a sexualized image of suicide just feels wrong to me. The other images they ask for are rather black comedy, but this one... whooof!
Here's the link to the contest so you can read it for yourself: http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151
It's not the fact that she's naked. It's not the suicide attempt, but the two together that give me pause. And that they announced this in September, which is Suicide Prevention Month. Yeah, stay classy, DC!
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Comments
As far as I could tell, it's not to open a debate on suicide, just to try out for a page in Harley Quinn #0. It strikes me as somewhat weird and squicky, the stipulation that she be naked, combined with the suicide attempt thing.
@Kamigoroshi DC is a comic book company. Harley Quinn is a character, a former psychologist who fell in love with the Joker and made herself over into the "Perfect" girl for him- Psychotic and dressed like a female Harlequin. Her "real name" is Harleen Quinzel.
Black humor is without boundaries, humor alone is the very definition of freedom without the so called "political correctness"
We are all sexual beings, if one doesn't feel so, there's always the choice of living in a cloister or moving to Vatican (results may vary)
I mean, it's Harley Quinn, good luck finding pictures of her that aren't sexualised, the bathtub doesn't add much more.
I find the "ha-ha, suicide!" more problematic than that.
I am happy that I live in this age where artist are completely free and can construct and deconstruct anything that comes from this planet and beyond, I am happy that I live in a country where art isn't subjected to political correctness and "good morals" standards.
If I dislike a piece of art I don't watch it and I don't search for it. But I'd always fight for the artist's freedom if it were to be subjected to any kind of censorship.
Also, if you believe artists at DC Comics are completely free to do what they want, well...you're just wrong, is all.
I agree that @LadyRhian hasn't implied that she'd support any kind of censorship.
I have no knowledge of American/Canadian laws concerning the freedom of art, but here in Czech Republic, there's been more, as many people would say, controversial art expressions but none of them had been in any way unlawful. This is why I conclude that DC Comics is free to put up any kind of art ad they want. Please correct me if I'm wrong in their case.
DC can absolutely do what they want with the character. They just have to deal with the response, which, in this instance, has been almost overwhelmingly negative. One of the writers, whose idea the contest apparently was, has tried to do some damage control and lend the page more context than what's given in the script as originally presented (it's part of a dream sequence, apparently). That may satisfy some people, certainly won't alleviate the concern of a lot of others, and life goes on.
The last one does sound like it's trying to provoke "fanservice", but in the general context of Harley's madness it's not all that far-fetched; it's exactly the sort of thing I could picture her imagining herself doing or talking about doing.
The proof will be in the "puddin'," though. If they select a winner with a tasteful Panel 4, then maybe they're looking for commentary rather than fanservice; if they select a Panel 4 entry with "carefully placed bath suds"...well, let's just say people's suspicions will have been confirmed.
I like Harley. She's always been one of my favorite DC characters, from back when she wore a checkered jumpsuit and was anything but a sex symbol. I'd prefer to think of this as just another chapter in her antics-filled life. But I don't know.
From what you've said, I assume you see sexuality as morally wrong? Or something that should be hidden from public?
I don't personally understand what do you find disturbing about a naked human body, I think it's important to realize that sexuality is the very reason why we procreate in the first place. It is part of every one of us except a handful of asexual people.
To give a good example of the conjecture of quality art and sex, I suggest googling "shunga" a japanese woodblock printed "porn", it has its origins from ancient China and as you can see, is quite graphic but also artistically appealing.
From what you said in your last post, I understood that the fact that they want her to be drawn naked is what disturbs you. I apologize if I falsely put my thoughts in your opinion
Personally I think they're upfront about it enough by saying they want her naked, she doesn't really have a history of a prude, so from my point of view, the message is quite clear:
A girl commiting suicide in a hilarious, over-the-top-way, we want her naked coz she's hot and we think our fans will appreciate it.
I don't have any empirical evidence of the following claim, but I dare to guess that most of their fans are male and so they decided for having her being sexy & naked.
Edit: From what I can deduce from our views, it seems to be a matter of personal boundary of what is disturbing for you and me and what is yet to become so.
I'm not entirely sure the comment about september being Suicide Prevention Month is particularly relevant in this case. It seems to be reaching to make something more offensive than it actually is. Personally I wasn't aware September was Suicide Prevention Month (I'm presuming you live in the U.S, since such a thing is certainly not worldwide), and even if the competition writers were, it seems a little unlikely that it would come up in there thoughts when writing the contest.
Overall, I don't think the request particularly glamorises suicide (it seems at little patronising to assume men are going to be more attracted to suicide if you show a picture of a naked woman to go with it)
It does however, seem to be overall in pretty poor taste
I have to say that the connection is not that clear as you seem to make it, it didn't even come to my mind that this is what they strive for.
The "sexy suicide" is a construct among many others that can be theoretically deduced from their description, but it's not something that is primarily their goal. IMO
They seem to want HER to be sexy, for the reasons I mentioned above, but I don't see any claim in their description which would support your theory that they want SUICIDE to look sexy.
Edit:
To give an example, there are many pictures of hot girls in a car, but I'm yet to meet a person who deduces that they want to make driving a car to look sexy.
It is the fact that this was just a set of instructions for prospective artists that somehow makes it not sit right.
Edit: No, they'd rather imply that if you drive that car, you could get those kind of women.
If you want to see a connection between the suicide and sexiness, nobody can tell you that you shouldn't. But I personally see no such connection and as I said, I only see a connection between her sexy body and them wanting to show it to their fans.
If she were to be drawn on a beach and they would want her to be naked as well I'm quite confident that the primary message they would've wanted to send wouldn't have been: Sunbathing is sexy!
From this I deduce that their objectives were: sexiness and black humor-suicide ; those two not connected. IMO
Edited from black humor to "+ black humor-suicide" for clarity
Edited from "+ black humor-suicide" to "and black humor-suicide" for reasons of logic