The Joker: A Rambling Thought

The Joker is coming out this weekend (October 4th), and I can't wait to see it. As I've been counting down the days to see this film, the negativity towards The Joker has been pissing me off.  Surprise, surprise, the outcry is during the heat of gun violence.

​The Joker is my favorite villain out of the comics. I am a Marvel girl through and through, but what DC has done with the Clown Prince of Crime (and Harley Quinn), I applaud. Hats off. The Joker is an intriguing, complicated, and disturbed character with so many layers that any psychologists would have a field day. The demented, warped and often hilarious mind of The Joker has always piqued my interest because he's a character that constantly pushes the morals of the protagonist (Batman).
 
So it makes me mad when you have these critics and the public saying how the film is dangerous and that it will provoke like-minded behavior.
 
This sounds insanely familiar. Oh, because it does. Marilyn Mason was blamed for the Columbine shootings. An anime series called Death Note was seen as dangerous because it easily influenced young kids in making their own Death Note notebooks. Harry Potter was banned from a Catholic School because they believed it promoted devil worship. What?!
 
You're basing your protest on face value. No research. You've never watched, listened, or read what the art is trying to say. Your dislike is off of visual interpretation of a skinny white man dressed in heavy make-up and screaming his lyrics or of 12-year-olds waving around wands and speaking a dead language. You're judging a book by its cover, which if I'm not mistaken, we were taught not to do.
 
Todd Phillips, the director of The Joker, spoke out defending his film against those in protest by saying "I really think there have been a lot of think pieces written by people who proudly state they haven't seen the movie and they don't need to. I would just argue that you might want to watch the movie, you might want to watch it with an open mind." Exactly!
 
It is not the responsibility of the creative to hold your hand and teach you right from wrong. Taking dangerous actions and blaming it on a musician or a fictional character is lazy and unfair. The responsibility is on you. Holding filmmakers, literary writers and, music artists to a higher standard is ridiculous. Their position is to make you feel entertained. If you don't want to take the time and watch, listen or read the product and understand its themes and what they are trying to tell you, then that's on you.
 
We are in a debate about gun violence and it's sad and predictable that a film, that was thought up years before the unexcused deaths in schools and public areas, is presented as a scapegoat for future attacks.

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