The Joker’s Love Affair With Male Rage
By: Alex Mell-Taylor
Tags: Movies, The Joker, Gun Violence, DC Comics, Toxic Masculinity

The White Knight

The Joker’s violence is distinctly male.

The first group of people the Joker kills are three white men who are sexually harassing a woman on the subway. Arthur doesn’t come to her aid. She is merely a prop to reduce our sympathies for her harassers. It’s only when Arthur starts laughing uncontrollably from the illness he may or may not have that these financial analysts (who work for Wayne Enterprises) refocus their ire on him. They start to beat him up, and he, in turn, guns them down.

This incident becomes a rallying call for a clown-wearing “Eat The Rich” movement happening in the background for the entirety of the film. This motif is an attempt by the film to make connections to modern-day America. There is even a “resistance” sign harkening to the political movement that followed Trump’s 2016 election.

The members of this “Eat the Rich” movement, however, are not brown men and women, or white women. There are no LGBTQIA+, disabled, or homeless brethren on the frontlines of this political wave.

Just men.

The movie mentions, but doesn’t highlight the problems of wealth inequity in American society. We never see the rich abuse the poor, or have scenes that cause the viewer to empathize with the flagbearers of this moment — we only see their rage. The movement is an excuse for a group of overwhelmingly white men to vent about their anger with “the system.”

This point is brought home near the film’s climax when the Joker is once again in the subway system, trying to flee the police amongst a crowd of clown-masked protesters. It takes a mere passing bump on the SUBWAY (where bumps never happen) to have this group devolve into a full-blown riot.

It’s all about physical violence. These men are angry because things are suddenly unfair to them. There are no overtures to groups that have always been downtrodden.

For example, there aren’t a lot of women in this film. The ones who do exist are depicted as passive figures in the narrative. We have the not-love interest, Sophie, whose interactions aren’t real. His romantic overtures to her include joking about suicide, stalking her daughter, and breaking into her apartment. We have a doctor on the Murray Show, Dr. Sally (Sondra James), who Arthur immediately sexually assaults with a forced kiss the moment he walks on stage. Again, we have Arthur’s social worker (a person that does not have a character name), who he believes is neglectful to his needs, despite the massive amount of paperwork on her desk, implying she is merely overworked. There is also Arthur’s mother, Penny Fleck (Frances Conroy), who is frail and dying for most of the film.

That’s it.

Penny is the female character with the most lines, and empathy for her is significantly reduced in the narrative. She is portrayed as keeping secrets from Arthur for much of the film, falling into the familiar “sensitive man held down by his mother” trope that has haunted films since Mommie Dearest.

It’s revealed late in The Joker that she has a severe mental illness, a fact which is taken at face value, despite America’s sexist history of institutionalizing “difficult” women. She apparently “let” her abusive partner abuse Arthur as a kid, which is the implied reason for why he is as deranged as he is. This reality is, again, not questioned, which is deeply problematic and victim-blamey.

Upon hearing this truth about his mother, the Joker suffocates her with a pillow. The way the situation is framed makes it seem like we are supposed to identify with him. It’s just terrible, and the movie revels in these acts of misogyny way too much for them to be conflated with commentary.

When we zoom back and look at the creators, the misogyny and racism of The Joker shouldn’t be surprising. This movie was directed by Todd Phillips of Old School and The Hangover fame. These comedies are ones that revel in masculine dominance of their leads by having them tell extremely mysognistic jokes. In one dated example, Bradley Cooper’s character in The Hangover had a punchline where he made fun of a dentist by calling them “Dr. Faggot.”

The darker nature of The Joker brings these biases up more viscerally in a way that can’t be as easily dismissed. It’s hard to wave away the misogyny of fridging your neglected mother when your film doesn’t have a laugh track.

After all, despite the title, the Joker isn’t joking.