The Joker and Harley Quinn. Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. These are some of the “relationship goals” teens and college students are wanting to have. To these people I say: What are you thinking? These are not “relationship goals”. These are not what people should be aiming for in a relationship. These are not aspirations in a relationship.
The Joker and Harley Quinn. Some call these two the King and Queen of Gotham. Some people want their relationship to match theirs. The Joker is abusive to Harley Quinn, physically, mentally, and emotionally. He continues to beat her, take advantage of her, and belittle her. He even tries to kill her, but she keeps coming back to him because she thinks he truly loves her.
Harley acts just like many victims of domestic abuse. She keeps coming back to him and shrugs off the abuse because he loves her. She says that he was angry, that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that it’s okay because he loves her and doesn’t mean it. We need to look at what the Joker does and see that it is not the healthy relationship that some people think it is. We should see that this is not a relationship we should aspire to.
Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. “50 Shades of Grey” is not a love story. It is a story of a girl who gets tricked into caring about a man who has a tragic backstory. This is an abusive story, and people need to stop romanticizing it. Christian Grey isolates Anastasia by making her sign a “non-disclosure” agreement, where she cannot talk about their relationship to anyone.
He controls what Anastasia does, such as when she does not want to go places, how he will pick her up and take her anyway, when he controls how she must eat, and when he controls how their sexual relationship will work.
Christian takes away Anastasia’s consent. He makes her try things that she is not comfortable with, and when she says their safe word, which Christian agrees to, he still does not stop. Christian Grey is an abusive person, but because he is rich and handsome, he gets away with it.
These are only two abusive relationships, but there are many more in the media that people romanticize. There is something about how the media will take a story that is abusive but make it seem like it is the ideal relationship. Before just accepting these relationships as the media portrays them, really look at the relationship to see if it is the type of thing you want to aspire to.