This was something I had in my drafts for about a month (s?) back when I was having a conflict, and I was unsure about publishing it at the time but I did put a lot of work into it and I think there's some interesting meta re: sexism in Young Justice so why not. This isn't meant to trigger any drama and wil be my last word on the subject and on certain takes in general
And I've never mentioned it, but I think the wildest take I've seen, from a looong time back when I was looking at a certain post claiming a certain character was abusive was when I saw something like how Young Justice should not like Steph after "what she did to Greta".
and I have not been able to get it out of my mind since. because it's so WILD to me. So finally, I cannot restrain myself.
What Steph did to Greta???
Look, I adore Greta. she's volatile and has a lot of lasting emotional damage from her tragic backstory and I love that for her. No problem with that. But
Steph wasn't the one who dragged Greta into a fucking hell dimension (while Greta admitted herself Steph hadn't really done anything to deserve this on other than be alive):
And let's look at the original very sexist conflict in YJ #30.
Greta literally stalked Tim all the way back to Gotham, saw Steph stalking Tim (who also stalks Steph and violates her boundaries constantly btw but Greta wouldn't know that) trying to figure out who he was. And Greta got mad because 1. only she is allowed to stalk Tim apparently and 2. i mean obviously the real reason is she has a crush on Tim and Steph's his gf so she's jeaaaaalous omg GIRLS amiright? God this issue annoys me.
(edit: to be clear, I was being a little flippant here, but I do think Greta is genuinely protective of Tim here too, Tim is one of the first people who was ever nice to her, she only has her friends in YJ in her life and is very lonely, so she's extremely attached to him and defensive of him. She's so blinded by her anger she doesn't see that she's being kind of hypocritical, and that's fine)
(and yes, apparently Tim is such hot shit every single girl he meets has to be attracted to him. Evidenced by how it's not just Greta, every girl in YJ except Anita (mysterious how the Black girl is the one left out) randomly kisses him (Cissie) or dates him at some point in the future (Cassie). Nerds are not meant to project onto this, clearly.)
(There is some interesting character stuff for Steph, though, in thinking that Robin's testing her and wants her to figure out the secret of who he really is so they can be together. The fact she thinks Tim's testing her to see if she's good enough to be with him really does speak to her horrible self-esteem and how torn up she is over this weird dating situation she's in. Breaks my heart. But I digress.)
anyway yeah Greta got mad so her response was to break into Stephanie's house, read her diary, appear as a scary phantom and call her pathetic
Stephanie's responded to this by kicking her. Not nice, but honestly I'd probably also hit a stranger who broke into my house, spied on me, went through my things and started mocking while trying to frighten me with their scary powers too, and I'm an adult.
At this point they fight, and it's pretty even as far as aggression goes, the worst Steph says is this mean little comment:
Is it nice to disparage Greta's humanity and imply what she is would make her inferior? Yeah! It's a pretty mean thing to say! And it obviously upsets Greta! Not cool, Steph.
But Steph's never been a perfect angel and she'd be pretty boring if she was! She has a temper. So I'm not surprised she'd say something incredibly mean to someone who broke into her house, insulted her, is currently attacking her and actively expressing a desire to steal her boyfriend.
(She also currently has very little experience with superhumans too (I think she met Argent once, and that's it, so she's likely not super comfortable or educated about them. However, she never makes a comment like this again to a superhuman, so she gets over it. )
With this, the conflict at least gets a little less Tim-focused and therefore way more interesting. Greta is hurt by the comment which ties into her tragic backstory (which Steph doesn't know) and Steph doesn't have any powers, so she uses whatever means she has to protect herself and threatens Greta with electrical wires.
Greta died by electrocution but Steph does not know this. There is no way for her to know this. Greta herself does not know this. She can't even remember why electricity freaks her out.
So when the wires appear to make Greta disappear/blow herself up, Steph is immediately distressed, freaking out saying she was just trying to buy herself some time:
I also saw people decided Steph is an asshole for the "Robin's gonna kill me" reaction, and it's so funny to judge a teenage girl for saying something in a panic when she thinks she killed someone. Steph's initial reaction is "holy shit I wasn't trying to blow her up her what the fuck oh no" while "this is Tim's friend he's gonna kill me" was a second thought. People panic and their minds can jump to less important things in these situations. Steph had not fully processed what happened yet, it had only been a few seconds. I think judging Steph's initial panicked reaction to a hugely shocking, horrifying thing is insane tbh. (It's also more a Peter David issue of thinking everything must revolve around Tim but I digress)
Greta's mad after this, since she's essentially been triggered, and Steph actually realizes she's in real danger and flees, fearing for her life. She actually tries to defuse (okay I didn't mean for that to be a pun but) the situation. She's afraid. she asks Greta to stop fighting and asks to talk. Greta says no.
Red Tornado interferes here, so we never find out what Greta intended to do to Steph, she says she was only going to scare her, and I can buy that, though Greta is depicted as being pretty volatile so it's left up in the air (Tim personally doesn't seem to believe Greta wasn't trying to kill her, as we see later)
Then Tim then has the audacity to lecture Steph and Greta about trust. God, I can't even get into how insane that makes me lmao.
That speech about him and Batman trusting each other becomes HILARIOUS when Bruce tells Steph Tim's real identity.
It's a sexist issue. Girls fight over Tim, the Men get to come and lecture these Silly Girls and be the Reasonable, Sane ones in comparison (literally telling them to shut up too!!!)
Steph is punished and lectured for violating Tim's boundaries in a way he is never punished and lectured for violating hers (showing up at her house without permission, secretly watching her through her house's window without her knowledge).(This happens in Robin as well with the whole Star storyline).
So is Greta! Steph and Greta are both framed as hypocrites and called out for their hypocrisy, while Tim is framed as completely reasonable and doesn't have any of his (sizeable) hypocrisy taken to task.
To be clear, Greta violating Tim's privacy doesn't mean it isn't wrong for Steph to do the same, just as Steph violating Tim's privacy does not mean it's okay to have her privacy violated by Greta and she can't be upset about it. Tim doing it to Steph just as much also doesn't mean it isn't wrong for Steph to do it to him. My issue is how the girls are framed as hypocritical and emotional while Tim is calm and reasonable and Right.
He gets to explain and defend himself and have the girls admit he's right, while the girls are chastised by him and Red Tornado, they don't get the same ability to calmly state their issues with him. Where's Steph calmly saying "Robin, you've never once respected my privacy, and I've had no choice but to trust you with my identity, and you've also repeatedly violated that trust by saying my real name in front of criminals, I feel you don't treat me as an equal and I deserve to have the same level of knowledge as you as you have about me, especially since I am your literal girlfriend." Where's Greta calmly saying "hey, I don't have a family or past, you and the others in young justice are all I have, I really want to be more of a part of your life, and not knowing who you are is really hurting me". Nope. Tim just gets to give a speech and shame them.
There could be more interesting angles taken with it, Greta could have had the initial conflict be triggered by issues connected to how she was abused by the DEO, but the issue doesn't ever indicate this. The fight is 100% framed as over Tim, and that's what is intended. Greta is very obviously jealous, and indicates it several times, by implying she should be with Tim, and the issue goes out of its way to frame it as motivated by her crush on Tim (as her initially stalking Tim seems to be).
I don't mind that Greta is flawed, I don't mind that Steph is flawed, I wish they hadn't had to fight over a boy, but something more interesting instead.
Now. look at that fight. As an objective person. Do you think there's anyway anyone who heard this, even if they loved Greta, would have a grudge against Steph based on what happened?
And Greta never tells the rest of YJ about this. Why would Greta tell them about this? Why would she admit "I secretly followed Robin home and saw his girlfriend was doing the same exact thing I was doing, so I broke into his girlfriend's house to read her diary and berate her and then she hit me in response and we had a fight and she said a mean thing and freaked me out by accident and then I threatened to grievously harm her while she tried to flee from me and pleaded with me to stop."
That's embarrassing stuff. She knows it is! That would get a "what the hell, Secret why did you do all that" reaction, not a "omg that gf sounds like suuuuch a bitch! good for you!" because her friends aren't sycophants. They don't treat her like she's fragile and blameless and can do no wrong. They don't support her mindlessly no matter what she does. The entire final conflict of the series is them not supporting her in something she wanted to do in rescuing her Dad from the death penalty (which btw they were wrong and bootlickers for that) and her leaving the team and getting manipulated by her brother and Darkseid and eventually losing it because of that! And they can also be kind of shitty to her sometimes too. and have also said uncomfortable things about her being a ghost girl.
But the idea Greta's friends would hold think Steph was in the wrong increases into laughable absurdity when you consider Steph is the one who tries to make nice with Greta next time they see each other:
You'll notice Tim is one Steph's side here, and I actually don't think that's because Steph's his gf! I think he IS genuinely concerned about Steph's safety, because Greta was the one who instigated the conflict, and Greta was the one who refused to stop and threatened Steph (whether or not she was serious) when Steph got scared and tried to call off the fight. Regardless, Steph is the one trying to seek peace, which again paints her as the less aggressive and more reasonable party, so Greta's friends holding a grudge would be pretty unreasonable.
And Steph is very much willing to let this go. We see that next time she talks to Tim:
She's like "well, everything's fine with us I think, it's chill" which considering how badly Greta scared her, is pretty chill of Steph imo.
Unfortunately, Secret has recently severely snapped (for very interesting and complex reasons this time as I said, I have no problem with her being a complex and flawed character, and I don't hold any animosity toward her based on being a fan of Steph. I support women's wrongs even if it gets my fave sucked into the hell dimension, apparently)
And as we saw above, she sucks Steph into the hell dimension why Steph is actively trying to run from her and begging her to stop. Everyone in YJ witnesses this. Then she goes and fights YJ too, only to finally be talked down by Tim, but this time in a cool way (it's a good issue).
So again, them holding a grudge with Steph especially after this would be wiiiiiild. I think by being sucked into the hell dimension while screaming and fleeing and pleading with Greta to leave her alone, that puts the "wrongs done" far, far more on Greta's side than Steph. Steph would have every right to be terrified of Greta after this, not the other way around. And again, Greta's friends are not sycophants who are protective of every little slight. They are now aware Steph and Greta had some sort of conflict, but never bring it up when talking about or to Steph because it doesn't matter, Steph got sucked into the hell dimension and there is very little she could have done that would ever deserve that. Bringing it up would be pretty gauche.
It's just weird how hatred of a female character can twist things like that. I read this issue and am annoyed about the sexism and how men vs women are framed in it, how Tim as a guy doesn't face the consequences or get the scrutiny the girls do, how he and RT are framed as reasonable and superior and not emotional compared to the girls, and feel annoyed on both girls behalf. Someone who hates Steph will twist it as much as possible to make it all about how much she sucks. Oh well.
