listen i could really give a shit if people liked joker or not lmao but the way it’s been purposefully mischaracterized as some hyper-violent incel murder movie by people who havent even seen it is peak tumblr/twitter hivemind to me
to be clear, joker isn’t about a man taking out his misogyny on the world in literally any way; it’s a film about the complete breakdown of a man who’s struggling to cope with poverty, trauma, mental illness, and a disability he developed as a result of the intense physical abuse he was subjected to as a child
arthur (joker) isn’t even particularly angry. he’s just frustrated, broken, and depressed. his disability and his mental illness isolate him from nearly everyone around him except his elderly mother who he lives with and acts as a caretaker for. he works a shitty job for shitty pay and lives in a shitty apartment building, shuffling back and forth on garbage strewn streets between decaying subway cars and inaccessible public architecture
when arthur finally does snap, it’s not because a woman rejects him, it’s because three investment bankers who he witnesses harass a woman on the subway insult and attack him over his disability. he gets fired from his job, becomes unable to afford therapy or his medication when gotham cuts social services, experiences painful hallucinations he’s unable to separate from reality, and learns that his beloved mother (wittingly or not) enabled the childhood abuse that scarred him. arthur’s full transformation into joker culminates with the murders of a fellow clown who bullied both him + a co-worker with dwarfism and a once beloved talk show host who mocked arthur’s disability on national tv
while arthur’s actions are never meant to be applauded, his frustration and despair are entirely justified by his circumstances. he’s struggling financially, mentally, physically and constantly bumping up against a crumbling neoliberal society that ultimately destroys his humanity
obv joker is a character study of a white man by a white man and there’s plenty to say re: it’s failure to overtly analyze race + structural racism alongside classism, but acting like a character who is explicitly disadvantaged by poverty and ability is at all comparable to some misogynist virgin on the internet just bc theyre both frustrated white men isnt only an unfair comparison but also a clear indication you dont actually understand the multi-faceted layers of identity and oppression outside of a twitter echo chamber lmao
dededos
stormborns
annaxmalina
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
