#Rape of Dinah

[biblechaptersummary]

Genesis 34   Dinah Raped and the Revenge

Jacob and his family had settled in the outskirts of the city of Shechem. One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the young women who lived in the area. The the local prince, Shechem son of Ham or raped Dinah. After that he fell in love with Dinah and told his father Hamor he wanted to marry her. On knowing this, Jacob did nothing but waited for his sons to come back from the fields. His sons were filled with rage.

Meanwhile, Hamor came to approach Jacob and his sons for permission for Shechem to marry Dinah. Hamor suggested Jacob's family and the people of the city intermarry. This would make them a single, prosperous people. However to get revenge and defend Dinah's honor, Jacob's sons (Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers by Leah) tricked the men of the city of Shechem into being circumcised and then slaughtered all of them when they were recovering, plundering all the wealth of the people. However Jacob feared there would be future retaliation from the Canaanites.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Sebastiano Ricci (Italian, 1659-1734) The Rape of Dinah, ca.1700 Kunsthalle Bremen

The painting tells the story of Joseph’s sister Dinah, who was abducted from Canaan and raped by Shechem, son of wealthy Prince Hamor (Gen. 34). Out of love for her, Shechem bade his father to let him marry Dinah. Hamor, in turn, spoke with Dinah’s father, Jacob, who agreed to the marriage under the condition that all men of Shechem’s lineage be circumcised according to the Old Covenant. However, three days later, when all the Shechemites had been weakened by the rite, Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi took revenge for the outrage done to their sister by attacking the city, killing the male inhabitants, and returning with Dinah against her will. Ricci’s painting describes the dramatic event of the abduction in a pyramidal composition, in which the still weak Prince Shechem, shown with a cane, is included at the left.

[roseworth]

actually i have to say reading ga88 makes you realize how few people have actually read that book before talking about it. so many of the "terrible things" ollie has done in that book are nowhere near as bad as people pretend they are or its just not true

[thatpersonwhosaidtheywouldnt]

Been reading up on Dinah and am in Grell's Green Arrow run and man, I hate it. I mean, first off, Longbow Hunters fridged Dinah so, rocky start. Won't go into it too much but it's pretty horrific. The art sexualizes the whole thing and the whole purpose is just to drive Oliver to kill. Then, for most of the time on his run, Dinah seems to just sit at home while Oliver goes out to hero. While she has two stories that run at the same time as the Grell run where she is doing Black Canary work, if a reader didn't know those existed (and let me tell you they aren't the easiest to find), they would think Dinah is basically a civilian for the 3 or so years before she puts on the Black Canary suit in the book. There is nothing wrong with civilian love interests but Dinah is not one and turning her into one for Oliver's sake is why I am always hesitant about them being together.

There are so many other things wrong with this series. The having kids plotline where Dinah doesn't want to have them cause she doesn't want to make orphans then changes her mind a number of issues in because Oliver almost dies and she wants to have a part of him left if he were to actually die. This totally goes against her desire to not make orphans in the first place. Then we find out she can't have kids because of injuries from a few years previous, injuries which we can only assume are the ones from when she was tortured. This leads into us discovering Shado raped Oliver and had a child because he was so in love with Dinah, she knew the only thing she could give him was an heir. To which Dinah responds by asking if she loves Oliver.

I could go one forever but these are just a couple things. I feel like the internet is trying to gaslight me cause all I am finding is praise for this run while this run not only seems to hate it's female characters but also Oliver.

[usernamesuggestionsarefunny]

I hate it when my fandom is a small niche because no one will care about my rant ahead lol. I am a fan of The Red Tent (The show and the book by Anita Diamant) and I go on Tumblr to find content on it. Long story short I find lovely gifs of the show with Rebecca Ferguson, quotes of the book and such, but unfortunately no metas or fics or people gushing about the story and the characters, which was sadly to be expected. The only thing I find is someone complaining about how the show changed the ending to make it more hopeful, about forgiveness, etc. And I am like, bitch, the show is a whitewashing-of-middle-eastern-characters-mess, it was not as detailed as the book, it was too short and could have done more with the content, the actors are unbelievably and stupidly old for their ages (Especially Dinah in the first episode, Rebecca is beautiful but there is no way I can suspend my disbelief and pretend she is a lovesick teenager, why the hell didn't they use two actresses for her? The passage of time in the show was perfect for that), and so on, but you know what what good about it? (Other than the costumes and the settings of course)

It fixed the bookʼs crappy ending. There, I said it. I don't care how supposedly “deep” it is, or being told I just don't get it. It is just my truth and you are free to disagree.

You see, when I got to the end of the book I was met by a very depressing and dull experience where Dinah suddenly stopped loving all of her brothers, even Joseph, despite the fact they were breadfed together and each other's best friends growing up. I get her hatred and unforgiving attitude towards Simon and Levi and even the rest of the older brothers, but Joseph? Who had nothing to do with the massacre other than a comment he didn't seriously mean and was around her age when it happened? The author just wanted to shock the readers at this point.

What is more, in the show it could have been understandable for Dinah to be ambivalent towards Joseph, since he tried to get her son killed for almost assassinating him, but in the book it is actually Joseph who spares his life and sends him away instead without ANY coercion from Dinah. Dinah just continues to hate him in the book for no reason because he is part of her past and she wants to forget her past and his existence took her son away from her even though that was literally 100% the sonʼs fault for trying to kill a literal statesman out of revenge with WITNESSES around without learning the full story of what happened to his father, who was killed by Simon and Levi only and not all of Dinahʼs brothers lol

lmao It just makes Dinah come out as heartless and cruel, especially considering she gets some second hand account about how much Joseph supposedly suffered as a slave, which, because this takes creative liberties (Which I am 100% fine with btw), is an even greater amount of suffering than implied in the Bible (He is said to have been beaten and raped by his masters or the slave traders before getting to Potiphar in this book, which actually makes sense, him being a slave and this being ancient times and all, and Potiphar is also a creep). But nope, there is no talk of how both siblings have suffered, Joseph as a slave, and Dinah since the loss of her husband and forced separation from her child. They just become strangers, which is frustrating and unsatisfactory. No emotional reunion in the book as there is in the show (Which has a brilliant scene where they meet again that is very satisfying).

The book also has to make all the male characters heatless monsters incapable of remorse or idiots to make Dinah, her son, and her love interests shine (They literally make Joseph an illiterate fool to make Dinahʼs son shine as the “power or intellect behind the power” or whatever, like, this isn't even about uplifting women because this is Dinahʼs son, not Dinah herself, this is pretty much just about making Dinah the only competent or admirable child of Jacob, it is so blatant and annoying it reminds me of Disneyʼs Maleficent idea of telling a complex story and giving voice to voiceless characters, meaning flipping everything around and thinking that does the job) . The show doesn't do this and yet Dinah comes across as a very competent woman, a brilliant midwife, just as she is in he books. She is unquestionably the main character in the show and yet we also get glimpses of Joseph being a learned man, no character assassination needed. You don't have to pick on Joseph, who most imagine to have been learned and literate at some point in his life besides having the prophetic dreams (which makes SENSE even if it is not in the Bible, he was given a position of power for a reason), to make me admire Dinahʼs character.

The end of the show makes Dinah bond with her brother and gives you the impression they stay good friends even if she can't make herself to do the same with her other brothers. This, along with her relationship with Benia, is a huge triumph after so much suffering, a true happy ending, I can see the two of them playing with their children and having meals together. She forgives her father because Joseph forgave her son for trying to kill him, it is lovely, it is a lovely message, and her forgiving her father ties to the original message of the story, paralleling with Joseph forgiving his brothers. Forgiveness doesn't lower Dinah down or have to mean she thinks what her father did was right. It doesn't mean she has to spend time with the people who hurt her. It just means she lets go of the anger. Can this message be annoying for some people who are pressured by society to forgive their abusers? Yes, but in fiction it is better this way because unless the plot is about revenge, forgiveness gives the story closure and meaning, and because the book set the story up to a final encounter with her family, Dinah being as indifferent makes the ending anticlimactic.

In the book, Dinah returning to her homeland is almost there for no reason (I liked her meeting the new generation in her family and learning of the women and girls, granddaughters of her mothers, who are always forgotten, but other than that? Pointless). She doesn't speak to her father or brothers even to ask them why they did what they did or be angry (which was an alternative to the forgiveness arc if your truly hate it that much), she doesn't speak to Joseph either because “muh my past I hate muh past and he sent my son who tried to kill him away”. There is straight up NO REASON FOR HER TO BE THERE. I hate the ending so much it is unbelievable.

So no, random person who is probably among the few to feel strongly about this show/book. The show ending is awesome and way better than the book ending (imo, I have nothing against you random person). Thank you for coming to my niche fandom ted talk.

[shefatalesarch]

A FEW DINAH LAUREL LANCE HEADCANONS. FC: KATHRYN WINNICK.

After she was brutally attacked and raped by men who Oliver would later kill for such acts she is unable to conceive and have children of her own. This did create something of a strain on her relationship as Oliver wanted to be a father, but Dinah herself can not give him that. She and Oliver do eventually overcome this and come back together, and Dinah is very open to adoption, she is not really into anything but adoption having grown up on the streets she knows there are hundreds of children who need someone to give them a chance and a home and her inability to have children isn't going to stop her from providing a home for someone in need. The only child of biological nature that I acknowledge for Dinah is the INJUSTICE version of Connor.

Dinah does sing, but not to the extent of the new 52 run and rebirth. She is not a punk star, screaming out using her powers to get ahead. She is more Bird of Prey film based, and sings when she wants as an exorcise for her cry then a desire to be famous and rocking around the world. Not to say she sings like in the speak easies etc. It's more of a hobby then a job.

[lucidknight-blog]

GENESIS‬ ‭34‬:‭1‬-‭31‬ ‭‬‬

“One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the young women who lived in the area. But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw Dinah, he seized her and raped her. But then he fell in love with her, and he tried to win her affection with tender words. He said to his father, Hamor, “Get me this young girl. I want to marry her.” Soon Jacob heard that…

[redjayson02]

Green Arrow (1988) Vol. 2 #37

[archangels-bible-annotations]

Chapter 34

34:1-4 Shechem, the son of Hamor, saw Dinah attractive and raped her. His "soul was strongly attracted" and he asked his father to get her as a wife.

34:5 Jacob was told of Dinah's defilement but held his cool until his sons returned from the field.

34:6-7 Hamor starts his trip to Jacob. The sons come back from the field. When they heard the news, they were "stunned and extremely grieved."

34:8-10 Hamor asks Jacob for Dinah's hand for his Shechem and suggests that the two families join in marriage.

34:11-12 Shechem seeks grace from their family and states for them to make the dowry however great to have Dinah as wife.

34:13-17 "The sons of Jacob...spoke deceitfully to" Hamor and Shechem because of Shechem's actions. Simeon and Levi (sons of Leah) demand every male from Shechem's city to be circumcised if they are to bridge the families.

34:18-24 Hamor and Shechem return to their city and ask all of their males to be circumcised for the sake of Shechem and the city to combine with that of Jacob.

34:25-29 Simeon and Levi took advantage of the weakness of all Shechem's men and killed all the men of their city, including Hamor and Shechem. After this, they plundered the city, taking all cattle, women, children, and other assets.

34:30-31 Jacob rejects the actions of Simeon and Levi, stating that now Jacob has become an object of hatred among the inhabitants of the land (Canaanites and Peizzites). Jacob also fears that since he is fewer in number, the others will team up and destroy everything he has. Simeon and Levi reply, "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?'

Other Remarks:

When two people get intimate with each other, they form a soul tie as you give part of yourself to your partner. When an individual decides to sleep around, they leave parts of them everywhere they go. As this continues, the person becomes broken on the inside as they no longer have 'all' of their soul together when the other individuals leave. This is partly why it is important to not sleep with a great number of people, just so you can fulfill the desires of the flesh. (v.1-4)

Shechem creates a soul tie with Dinah, thus why he wants her as wife. Due to his behavior, this might be interpreted as not the first time he has taken advantage of a woman. However, if it was the first time, it would make sense as to why he felt so attracted to Dinah. (v.1-4)

Jacob hears his daughter was raped and holds "his peace." This is a great deal of self-control. (v.5)

Sex without marriage has been seen in the Bible before, such as Abraham and his concubines or Jacob with the maidservants. Dinah is the first individual case of non-consensual intercourse in the Bible, and it is heavily frowned upon. It also seems the background of the individual involved is significant, for those unnamed in the Bible, intimacy without marriage is not given too much attention; however, for those from important families, such as Jacob, there is serious consideration. (v.6-7)

Simeon and Levi demand the males to be circumcised. As we read before, circumcision is the sign of the covenant between man and God, thus in this request they are attempting to convert Shechem and his people to the God of Abraham. (v.13-17)

Simeon and Levi's actions to kill and plunder the city of Shechem were founded on the principle of revenge for their sister. Previously in the Bible, we have seen God not finding favor in revenge, namely in how He dealt with Cain. Thus it can be reasonably assumed that this is not an acceptable action, even if injustice was done to the family of Jacob first. (v.25-29)

Of the family, Jacob has been blessed, indicating the actions of Jacob are ordained. Jacob never wishes for revenge and rejects the actions of his sons. He also tells them about the consequences of their actions as now the others of the land will treat Jacob as an enemy. The two parties, Jacob and his sons, view this issue from different perspectives. Jacob applies long-term logic and potentially the goodness of God in his decisions, while Simeon and Levi take a more worldly "eye for eye" approach. Jacob's response teaches us that although our families and we might be troubled, it is important to view the situation with forgiveness, grace, and mercy, making sure to control our anger so it not turn into wrath. (v.30-31)

This story summarizes the circle of hatred. With one action of unjust intense passion by Shechem, Simeon and Levi turn to destroy their livelihood. But the actions of Simeon and Levi cause repercussions on a different level, implicating a future action against them. This cycle often repeats until a deliberate action to stop the cycle takes place. To stop this cycle, the person initiating this change is faced with bearing the burden of the cycle up to that point, while the others who have indulged in the cycle have gotten to partly release their emotions through revenge.

The OSB highlights the attraction Shechem had for Dinah was not true love but rather a sinful passion, lust. (v.8)

The OSB highlights that Simeon and Levi repaid evil with evil and the punishment they gave outweighed the sins of the crime. This leads Simeon and Levi to be "worse sinners" than Shechem. (v.31)

Questions:

Things to Add to Prayer:

Like Jacob, help us to control our anger preventing wrath, keeping in mind Your plan over all of our troubles.

Help us to control our passions so they not take over us.

-Mikhael

[lordgodjehovahsway]

Genesis 34: Dinah Getting Raped Leads to the Downfall of the Shechemites

1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 

2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 

3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 

4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.

6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 

7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 

9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 

10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 

12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 

14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 

15 We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 

16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 

17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”

18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. 

19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. 

20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. 

21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 

22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 

23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 

26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 

27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 

28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 

29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

[eesirachs]

What would say are some of most interesting or thought provoking instances of violence in the Bible?

the rape, killing, and posthumous dismemberment of the unnamed woman in judges 19 (judg 19); elisha, in mourning, has foreign children mauled to death (2 kngs 2); jael impaling sisera, tent-peg into skull (judges 4); saul killing himself by lining his sword up to his chest and falling unto it (1 sam 31); a woman, called by scholars "the mother of the seven sons," watches each one die, one by one, and is then killed herself (though everyone knows that mothers die the moment a child is killed anyway) (2 macc 7); all that happens to jezebel's body (2 kings 9); hagar, thrown into the wilderness to die a second time by her enslavors, watches her son emaciate (gen 21); moses, in the wilderness, forcing the levites to murder their families (exod 32); all that happens to dinah's body (gen 34); god slaughters infants (exod 11); jephtheh killing his daughter because god told him to (judges 11); abraham killing his son because god told him to (yes, the aqadah did happen, in some sense) (gen 22); infants eaten by their mothers (2 kngs 6). god's body captured in war (1 sam 4)

[pluckyredhead]

☕️ what if I want the rant about ollie cheating now (or whenever you're up for it)

Oh good, because I mentioned it as bait and I'm glad someone took me up on it. 😂

CW: Sexual assault.

Yeah so here's the thing: Ollie has definitely canonically cheated on Dinah at least once, maybe twice depending on your definition. But the idea of Ollie as a serial cheater and womanizer comes from a story where he is raped. Which uhhhh is absolutely NOT cheating.

So for nearly 30 years, Ollie had exactly zero love interests. The closest he came was Miss Arrowette/Bonnie King (Cissie's mom), who appears in exactly 3 stories in the early 60s where Ollie only regards her as a pest...but in a 1969 issue of JLA where all the Leaguers bring dates to a carnival, he brings Bonnie because up to that point, she was literally the only woman he had interacted with besides Wonder Woman.

Also in 1969, he meets Dinah. Within a few issues, he's declaring his love:

Note that there's nothing to indicate that Ollie knows Bruce is stalling for time. He's just down bad.

Anyway, Ollie and Dinah are soon in a committed relationship and remain that way for over 20 years. Starting in the 80s, various writers introduced a couple of brief relationships with other women in Ollie's pre-Green Arrow past, but that's not cheating either - he dated them before he knew Dinah.

Then in 1987, DC introduced Shado, a Yakuza assassin and the best archer in the world, better than Ollie. Ollie and Shado have an immediate and intense emotional connection, but he is in a committed relationship, and neither Ollie nor Shado even vaguely hints at him leaving Dinah for her.

But then Shado shoots Ollie (long story), and then nurses him back to health through his injury-induced fever and delirium. And a little while after that, she turns up with a son, Robert, who looks a lot like Ollie. Dinah is suspicious, so Shado tells her that Ollie didn't cheat on her: Shado had sex with Ollie while he was delirious and thought she was Dinah, and Ollie has no memory of it and has no idea that Robert is his son.

To be clear: this was rape. The story doesn't treat it like rape, and it's clear the writer didn't understand that it was rape. To this day, no comic has acknowledged that Shado raped Ollie. In fact, when Ollie finds out about it years later, he's happy, because he wanted a biological son (this was pre-Connor).

(My feelings about Shado are complicated. I think she's a really interesting character, and I'm loath to discard her because of this one incident that was not intended to be interpreted as rape, but I also think it's really important that we acknowledge that it was rape because our culture is not good about consent. I think we can hold multiple ideas in our heads at once, like "Shado is interesting and cool" and "this is a fucked up story and male survivors should be supported and believed.")

The original comic also didn't treat it as cheating, but subsequent writers did. It didn't help that in the early 90s, there was a scene where Ollie (canonically in the back half of his 40s) is kissed by a college-age girl named Marianne who has a crush on him, and kisses her back. Dinah caught them and eventually broke up with Ollie over it (among other reasons). I think this is one of those things where some people would consider it cheating and some wouldn't, so YMMV.

Ollie was then killed off and replaced by Connor, and Connor's book was written by Chuck Dixon, who really hyped up Ollie's legacy of sluttiness (citation needed, Chuck) in contrast to Connor's virginal but definitely totally heterosexual purity. (Lollll sucks to suck, Chuck.)

Then Ollie was brought back. And as much as I love Quiver, the story that brings him back, it absolutely depicts what happened with Shado as Ollie cheating, which: NO, KEVIN SMITH. IT WAS RAPE. (Interestingly, Dinah seems to consider what happened with Marianne to be cheating, while Roy does not.)

This was also at the start of the post-9/11 era, where there was a real preoccupation with depicting heroes as deeply flawed, dishonest, and generally harmful, with feet of clay - just generally fucking up and being assholes pretty much all the time. (See Identity Crisis, Civil War.) And so Ollie then definitively cheated on Dinah, having sex with Black Lightning's niece Joanna, who was almost immediately murdered by a supervillain afterwards which was also largely framed as Ollie's fault because superheroes ruin everything. (And because Joanna was a triple threat of female, Black, and sexually active, so she HAD to be fridged.)

Dinah dumped Ollie again, and the way Ollie was talked about in the comics - and outside of them - rapidly escalated, with basically every character constantly describing him as a cheating horndog who couldn't keep it in his pants. This dovetailed with Ollie being portrayed as worse and worse in flashbacks around Connor's conception and birth - originally he didn't even know about Connor, then he knew but lied to everyone, then he was actively cruel to Connor's mother, etc.

I think the peak (or nadir) of all this for me was when Dinah told Babs she was marrying Ollie and Babs shrieked that she couldn't because Ollie was a CHEATER who had "fathered Connor with that Shado woman!" Um, Connor's mother is Sandra Hawke, Connor is a good 15 years older than Robert Jr., Ollie had not even met Dinah at that point, and I don't remember who wrote that issue of BoP but if you can't tell the difference between two entirely different Asian women, you're a racist hack.

Thanks to the New 52, this is all pretty much in the past (the New 52 had entirely different Green Arrow problems, including him being raped again but a completely different woman).

But in conclusion: yes, it's canon that Ollie has cheated on Dinah. However, he only cheated after getting a reputation as a cheater when he was in fact a victim of rape. Before that, he was a horndog, but specifically for Dinah and Dinah alone, and he was faithful. And I'm glad that the discourse on this has shifted so much in the past decade or so, because Ollie has done plenty of things we should blame him for, but this wasn't one of them.

[lesbian-cowpoke]

So I'm thinking about the symbolism associated with Mia Dearden's hair so here's me talking about it:

(Tw for the typical things associated with Mia, rape, child prostitution, drugs)

Okay. So the first time we see Mia, her hair is down.

And she's a child prostitute. Very unhappy, lots of trauma, ect ect.

And the first time we see her with a ponytail

She puts her hair up before standing up to her piece of shit pimp boyfriend.

The next time we see her hair down is when she's pissed at Ollie.

What's she mad at him for? Cheating on Dinah.

And after they hug it out Mia's hair is back in a ponytail.

Something I feel is important to point out is that even after she kills a guy, her hair is still in a ponytail.

But shortly after her hair is down again. Why?

Because she was diagnosed with HIV. Either from her prostitution or her doing meth.

And after she accepts her diagnosis, her hair is up again.

I will mention that the next time we sorta see her hair down is after she is blown up by Light/Merlyn and her hair is buzzed short. Once its long enough for her to tie it up, she does so. But all her hair being cut off could symbolize a couple things.

1: Rape. Her hair was forcibly taken from her via an explosion caused in part by Dr. Light, a rapist who rapes for power and to take things from people and to hurt. And Mia growing her hair out after that trauma could represent her healing.

2: Renewal. GA v3 can be split into 2 parts imo, pre Light explosion, and post Light explosion. Mia's hair being short symbolizes how far she has come since her introduction, how she has changed, ect ect.

I think its a little bit of both tbh.

After that, we se her hair down one more time.

After Red Hood brings up her past. Of prostitution and drugs. it clearly effects her, at least a little.

And after, her hair is in a ponytail again.

Mia's hair is deeply, deeply symbolic to her. It represents her past. It hold memories, a concept seen in many, many cultures. When something traumatic happens to her regarding sex, her hair is down. (Yes, that does include Ollie cheating on Dinah. It may not be as traumatic as the other things, but having a parent cheat on the other does cause a small amount of trauma. it is a Bad Sex Thing, and Mia's hair goes down when Bad Sex Things happen.)

Now, this does tend to be a GA v3 specific thing. But i think it maybe can be applied to other comics, if the writers are aware (and if you really like out there comic theories.)

Like at the DinahOllie wedding. Could her hair be half up half down because ponytails are informal? Probably. But maybe it could also symbolize something good, like half up means its a good marriage. Or maybe it symbolizes something bad, like the fact that it was an imposter Ollie.

Or Mia's new hair.

Her undercut. Maybe it means nothing but looking cool and helping differentiate her from Cissie (and Connor with his long hair lmao). Maybe it means she's a lesbian. Maybe it symbolizes something taken from her, what with her being missing from existence for a bit. The time she never got to live or something.

ANyways thats my long post about Mia's hair because she makes me feral oh my god the symbolism Mia Dearden I love you.

[ohbo-ohno]

bo, first of all i adore your writing!!

but you've mentioned a few shall we say 'darker themed' books you've read in asks here and there, can you give some recs of your faves?? pretty please??

first of all, i love you! and also yes always, i never mind giving book recs! i sorta ramble under the cut, sorry lol

alright i'll start with the darker romances. these are hard noncon, and depict abusive relationships that aren't always framed as bad. when i say dark i mean dark lmao, always be aware of what you're going itno before you read a dark romance

If you like my fics, I can almost guarantee you'll like Taken by Felicity Brandon. This is about an author who writes dark erotica and gets kidnapped by a fan, who forces her to live out some of her scenes. Includes petplay! I have my issues with the book (and I DNF'd the sequel) but ohhhh the smut is so good

I mentioned them a while back, but Measha Stone's Owned and Protected series is a 6 book series with noncon/dubcon petplay in every single book. Calling these "romance" is a stretch, but god if you like my noncon petplay stuff (and you're alright with reading explicit noncon and forced relationships), you might like these

I haaated the ending of Distorted by Nyla K. but dear fucking god it is a good prison dark romance. Also it is SO Ghoap coded, I would recommend reading the first ~80% of it lmfao

Corrupt Idol by Dinah Harper is the first book in a series that will probably never get finished, but honestly it's pretty good as a standalone. Dark step-brother romance, and I thought the writing (at least in the first half) was so good, I genuinely felt for the FMC at times (even if I was screaming at her)

Ok I'm not confident in this rec because I'm still not suuuuper sure how I feel about this book, but Torment by Dylan Page is a dark step-brother biker romance. The FMC is the MMC's "rock", and the only thing that keeps him from flying off into a violent rage when he's upset, and he develops an unhealthy attachment to her that everyone around them allows because they don't want to deal with him. I never read the second book, but this is another one where you really feel for the FMC

One of my favoriteeee dark A/B/O (specifically the first book) is Born to be Bound by Addison Cane. I would suggest not reading anything past the third book, and I'm not a huuge fan of the side plots, but the stuff with the FMC and MMC is just. God it's the perfect brand of dark A/B/O (in MY head)

I've recommended it before, but for my truly fucked in the head followers - Under His Heel by Adara Wolf is probably the darkest book I've ever read. It's a four book series (and I think the whole thing is worth reading) and it's got every single trigger warning except for (i think) scat, pedophilia, and necrophilia. it has rape, incest that's also rape, extreme body modification (though it's not permanent), severe public humiliation, severe mental torture, and just about 0 aftercare for our MMC. The book follows a man in a far distant future who's working as an indentured servant to pay off his debts & his incredibly sadistic and evil master. These books are far from "for everyone", but if you really want some fucked up romance (with heavy smut) I think these are worth reading!

aaand some softer dark romances. to me, these are books with some lighter kidnapping or soft noncon, abuse in a mental but not physical way, and MMCs who just think they're in the right

Gemma Weir's Montana Mountain Men is like an acid trip and it's kinda crack, but i read all 7 in like a day, so take that as you will. Each book is about a different brother in the same family as they fall in love - except, in this family the men supposedly know who their soulmate is the moment they lay eyes on them. So there's some light kidnapping, some manipulation/unhealthy behavior, and some birth control tampering in these. For what they are, I enjoyed almost all of them lmao

The Darkest Temptation by Danielle Lori is like a kidnapping romance written for non-dark romance readers tbh. It toes the line of noncon/dubcon, and it's definitely a kidnapping romance, but it's really not that dark.

Nicky the Driver by Cate C. Wells is (in my opinion) not as good as the first book in the series, but it's way lighter in terms of darkness level

Shiver by Ella Frank & Brooke Blaine is a stalker romance that fell a little short for me, but was overall enjoyable (iirc lol). It's about a young man who goes into a kink club and attracts the attention of the owner, who then stalks him. I think it just wasn't as dark as I wanted tbh, but if you like lighter dark stuff I think you might like this!

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

“Everything that happened to me, it’s like it all snowballed out from the moment you assholes robbed the bank.”

its fascinating because - this isn't true. The bank isn't the cause of everything going to hell for Amy. If we want to pick a point, it's Leviathan's attack but...

On the other hand, Leviathan's attack is the result of the unmasking of the Empire (and maybe Noelle's presence, according to common fanon) and the chaos that had created, and Coil was only able to do that because of Dinah which he captured during the Bank job.

Also the whole Lung being caught and Bakuda going nuts thing, etc.

So she's sort of right.

This is where it becomes really hard to actually get a good understanding of what exactly happens to take the Amy we see in Interlude 2 (the girl who is trying to be the voice of moral reason for Vicky, little miss police brutality herself - that is the takeaway from Interlude 2, coming in blind) to... the girl who is going to (according to the 'Official Interpretation™' anyway) rape her sister.

We only get a first look at her in Interlude 11h, and 11h crams so many revelations into one chapter and doesn't give us a chance to digest and then Amy vanishes again for a whole arc and then only a little shows up in 13.

Obviously, a lot is going on in the story, but I do think if it was really important to Wildbow that we take a certain POV on Amy, as he purportedly intended, maybe he should have shown more of her.

So we don't really know what was going through her mind, or what her life was like after the Bank and before Leviathan. Vicky does say in 11h that after the Bank Amy was acting differently... it both does and doesn't make sense she'd react so badly to the near miss in the Bank (near miss in terms of the reveal of her horrible secret that actually had it been revealed in the bank probably wouldn't have ruined her life as much as she was afraid of).

So without that look, it's hard to say if Amy is right that everything went bad because of the Bank. On the one hand, it's easy to say that's all nonsense. On the other hand, the Bank could have been the catalyst that ramped up all her anxieties and issues and set into motion the thought patterns that made her run away after healing mark.

(i.e. perhaps no Bank, Amy is in just enough of a better enough mental state to not run off. Probably not but... maybe)

Narratively, of course, the bank is indeed when everything goes downhill for her and for the entire city, implicitly. Arc 1 and the capture of Lung is the start of the story for us the reader, but for the city at large, Arc 3, and all that comes with it wrt to Dinah does end up being the point where the story really kicks into motion and gear, and where wider events go nuts.

As for Amy's immediate 'fuck off Tattletale'... yeah, I mean, if I was Amy, I would be like that too. Tattletale isn't evil, exactly, but she's not exactly a nice person to be around, especially when you're as wound tight as Amy, and the girl just can't not poke at shit. And to be honest, I'm not sure Tattletale's track record of eliciting intended reactions from the people she's poking at is as good as she, or some fans, seem to think. She's great at knowing shit, sorta, but she's not great at actually using what she knows on people, arguably.

[dc-polls]

Biggest DC Misconception

Round 2 - Match 15

Dinah Lance is a psychologist for the other heroes

In fanfiction there is a common trope of Dinah Lance (Black Canary) being the superheroing world’s therapist that absolutely everyone sees for some reason. But this id 1) unethical and a big conflict of interest in a real life LOL but also 2) Not canon! At least this has never been canon in the comics. Dinah Lance being a therapist/psychologist is only canon in the Young Justice cartoon series.

--

Green Arrow cheated on Black Canary with Shado

In the Mike Grell comic run, Ollie was unconscious when Shado "had sex with him" (aka sexually assaulted a man who couldn't consent) and it's incredibly messed up to blame Ollie for his own rape