DC SUPER HERO GIRLS

UPDATED! 26-OCT-2015 I was thrilled when I got a tweet over the weekend from someone showing me that DC revised their bio for HARLEY! They removed the troublesome words “unhinged” and “unbalanced” which carry mental health stigmas, while perhaps fine for a more mature product line, didn’t fit the tone in DCSHG. This is great news!

As noted on Twitter, we the fans really hope DC and other companies will show more upfront care about how to handle mental health stories and backgrounds for different age groups BEFORE they publish something questionable. It’s a learning a process for everyone and maybe this change to teen Harley is a sign of good things to come from WB/DC when approaching YA and kids’ lines in the future.

AMBER LOVE 16-JULY-2015 I was pleasantly surprised that the editors of Women Write About Comics didn’t think I was overreacting to Harley Quinn’s bio page on the brand new DC Super Hero Girls website. WWAC published my post about the good and bad that I saw in the new outlet where young girls are supposed to find a welcoming community in fandom.

Further thoughts as posted on Twitter:

1st comment on HQ piece was that she may not grow up to be a doctor in that version. So what? Does that make calling a girl “unhinged” ok? I’ve met too many creative/gifted ppl who were told they were stupid by uncaring adults. U hear insults enough, u lose faith in the future. HQ is fictional. Girls who will be reading that site are not & they will begin to think unhinged/unbalanced mental illness is attractive. When you’re mentally ill, you don’t want friends/partners to find your illness attractive. You want to be liked despite your illness. It’s fetishism even when speaking to platonic relationships.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.