Would you mind sharing a few of those then? Not promising that I'll actually get around to reading them, but if I ever happen upon them somehow, I might remember this topic and see how my interpretations compare.
I absolutely agree it would need to skew the narrative in some way, my objection was that the direction of that skew doesn't have to imply "anti-male" bias nor would it inherently inform a judgment of masculinity either way. Again, if the story was about, say, The Riddler having an anti-heroic adventure that puts him at odds with Batman, then there would be no reason to suspect an "anti-male" interpretation.
I don't necessarily view the use of the "seductive femme fatale" trope as inherently anti-male bias, especially because it's been used in stories forever, including stories that treat masculinity positively as a whole. In general, the seduction trope is more often presented as a negative on the woman's behalf, that she is being duplicitous and taking advantage of an otherwise decent man.
If you're referencing a specific scene in which Harley seduces Batman and you believe that instance is more clearly anti-male, I would like to know where it is for my own evaluation. Otherwise, the knowledge that it exists at all doesn't seem like enough to make the judgement of anti-male bias.
To further my point on how this type of sentiment isn't necessarily "anti-male" in its nature, I would say this reasoning is the same reasoning given by men who say "Girls should cover up their shoulders because boys won't be able to control themselves if they're presented with such temptation." I would say this logic leans more heavily on anti-female that anti-male, especially since the actions that follow these ideas typically involve controlling women's actions more than men's.
A minor diversion to talk about the Bechdel Test - the test is not intended for evaluating any individual piece of media; whether or not a single story passes the test says nothing about that single story alone. The Bechdel Test is intended to evaluate media as a whole: one story not passing the test means very little about that one story, but almost every other story not passing the test says something about the entire medium.
I want to make this clear, nowhere in my posts was I trying to make a judgment on whether or not Harley Quinn herself deserves redemption or if her redemption arcs were handled well. I was trying to tackle the subject of whether or not these stories were presenting an "anti-male bias." From my experiences, the stories I've seen have not - the ideas they typically are against are things like misogyny and abusive relationships, themes that are not inherently tied to maleness.
I would also like to add that the media I have mentioned (Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn) are probably the pieces of media that have had the most impact on the mass audience's views of the Harley Quinn character (either Birds of Prey or Suicide Squad might be a distant third, but I haven't seen SS) - so my assertion would be that the character as a whole has had a negligible impact on any sort of growing "anti-male" feelings in the culture.
But since we're on the topic of Harley Quinn's redemption stories - I've also had some issues with how it's been handled as a whole. I get the sense that some years back, someone realized that Harley Quinn was an excellent candidate to shine the spotlight on to get DC some new fans (I would commend that person for their foresight, I agree that Harley Quinn has a lot of market appeal these days). "Funny, R-rated superheroes are in! Everyone loves Deadpool! We need our own Deadpool!" and out of all the existing DC characters, Harley Quinn was the character that most fit the bill.
Difference is, however, that Deadpool kinda exists "outside" the Marvel Universe - like a living cartoon who operates on his own logic and reality. As such, his "comedic sociopathy" is more easily brushed off as slapstick. But sometimes they try to do the same with Harley Quinn and it doesn't always land with the same lightheartedness. She's a lot more grounded as a character, especially originating from Batman stories, so her slapstick ultraviolence is still tied in with the serious ultraviolence that character like the Joker already engage in. So Deadpool can go on a killing spree and get tied up in a love triangle with Thanos and Death and the audience can just laugh off the hijinks. But Harley Quinn goes on a killing spree and the audience can't help but think "Jesus, those were kids, Harley."
Personally, I think it works well with the Harley Quinn cartoon, because the series establishes the entire world as violently absurd, so Harley's messed up actions are just standard procedure in that universe.
