A fan has started a petition on Change.org asking DC to reverse its position on allowing the Harley Quinn TV series to depict Batman performing a sex act on Catwoman in the upcoming third season of the animated HBO Max show.
The petition is titled "Let the Bat Eat the Cat" and has only garnered thirteen signatures by Thursday afternoon since it was launched late Wednesday night.
The petition is a reference to Harley Quinn co-showrunner Justin Halpern revealing that there was a scene cut from the show's third season where Batman was performing a sex act on Catwoman, "It’s incredibly gratifying and free to be using characters that are considered villains because you just have so much more leeway. A perfect example of that is in this third season of Harley [when] we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, 'You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.' They’re like, 'Heroes don’t do that.' So, we said, 'Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?' They were like, 'No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.'"
The petition feels that this just fosters sex negativity, opening with, "For too long has American culture and its corporations promoted an atmosphere of sex negativity. The animated show Harley Quinn, produced by DC Comics, is the latest such offender."
In general, the petition argues that while the justification for DC might be about the fact that DC has licensed Batman for many kids for toys and thus do not want their all-ages character associated with a sex act of any kind, the end result is that it makes it look like "heroes don't do that" is referring to the specific sex act and not just sex in general.
Thus, it perpetuates a negative connotation about the sex act that the petition argues should be dispelled and that "there's no better face for a sex positive movement than a superhero who Hollywood cannot stop rebooting and his pussycat companion" and that the act should be depicted as "not only good but necessary, not only nice but celebrated."
Source: Change.org