Why Birds Of Prey Is Not Misandrist

Ironically, while Birds of Prey is not a very thematically deep film, there is much of philosophical importance to be said about some of the more vocal reactions towards it.  There are the predictable charges that it treats men as inherently evil simply because most of the antagonists are men (as if the female "protagonists" are truly praiseworthy in any thorough way), and there are the predictable objections to the alleged misogyny of having male characters seek to kill female characters.  Even the misogynistic tendencies of Black Mask, the primary villain, are often confused with certain actions of his that are not ultimately sexist towards either gender.

The only character truly confirmed to be misogynistic is Black Mask.  However, it is not the scene where Black Mask forces a woman to sensually dance on a table after mistaking her loud laughter for personal mockery that confirms his sexist attitudes towards women.  Contrary to the asinine beliefs of many Westerners, simply mistreating someone of one gender or the other is not sexist unless 1) one is mistreating them specifically because of their gender or 2) one has a discriminatory attitude towards the victim afterwards because of their gender.  Rather, Roman Sionis' sexism is confirmed explicitly when Harley thinks about how having a vagina is an offense to him.

In one sense, however, having malicious male characters is not out of place.  Birds of Prey is set in fucking Gotham City; most of the men and women alike are dominated by cruelty and selfishness as it is.  Moreover, some of the members of the Birds of Prey themselves are just as bad as at least many of the men who appear in the film.  Harley Quinn has assaulted, murdered, or otherwise wronged so many people that she is shown as only having two friends in Gotham before most of the onscreen events occur, both of whom are men.  The women of Birds of Prey are hardly innocent!  Indeed, the only main female character in the film who is not unjust, self-absorbed, or gratuitously violent is Detective Montoya.

If Birds of Prey was misandrist simply because many of the men happen to be villanous, then Game of Thrones would be misogynistic because the only consistently righteous characters that stand out are men.  The fact that almost no one (if anyone) has vocally claimed the latter evidences that it is not having male villains that many people seem to regard as misandrist.  It is having female protagonists--or in this case, "protagonists"--that is seen as a threat to men.  This is not only fallacious in itself, but it also ignores the deeply sexist ideas about men that even many who think of themselves as supportive of men might cling to.

It is not sexist for a movie, video game, or book to focus on a female cast.  Emphasizing a female cast can even be legitimately motivated by the desire to correct a specific form of sexism that has excluded women from having lead roles with the same general frequency as men.  However, it is sexist to look at a female cast with a default suspicion, just as it is sexist to look at a male cast with default suspicion.  Unfortunately, this is exactly what many people are all too willing to do, which shifts the focus away from genuinely sexist tropes of men and women that have yet to be purged from entertainment.