Ok wait this is something that has kinda been sitting with me for a while (this is probably gonna end up being a long jumbled incoherent rant). I know that Dickās SA trauma is kinda mostly acknowledged within the fandom (?) but for the most part I see people focusing on Mirage and Tarantula which happened when he was a young adult when I think itās pretty relevant to his character that his is a victim of CSA as well. Like most prominently we see this in Liu grooming him, which has a longstanding impact on his other relationships.
A common reason for victims of CSA to have issues in later relationships is because they arenāt able to trust their partner and because of poor communication (Smedley, Laura S., 2012) which I do think appear in some of Dickās relationships. Furthermore, āAdult survivors of sexual abuse may be less skilled at self-protection. They are more apt to accept being victimized by others. This tendency to be victimized repeatedly may be the result of general vulnerability in dangerous situations and exploitation by untrustworthy people.ā (Adult Manifestations of Childhood Sexual Abuse).
Additionally, I think that there are other instances that are more of a gray area but feel very relevant to this. Iāve seen people analyze Dickās time in Juvie and how certain panels portray it (with other kids in Juvie beating him up and standing in somewhat predatory positions - like between his legs and stuff) and that one is kind of hit or miss for me because itās vague enough where I really do feel like itās more of a head canon type of thing.
But aside from all of that, I think covert SA is so clearly demonstrated throughout Dickās life, even in his childhood. Covert incest can include emotional manipulation, unwanted sexual comments or conversations, early exposure to pornography or other sexual content, and body shaming. I think the whole āunwanted sexual comments/conversationsā occurs often considering how much heās slut shamed, sexually harassed, etc. Then there was the arc where Raven mind-controlled Dick and projected her sexual interest onto him to the point where he was having unwanted dreams of them together.
Now hereās where I start to get a bit controversial with shit. āEarly exposure to pornography or other sexual contentā is often interpreted as an adult (or older child) exposing a child to sexual material. I would argue that (based on how you interpret canon) being a child vigilante can most definitely fall under this category. Dick is the first child hero/vigilante, and he starts out at around 8-10 years old (again, based on canon interpretations). It is somewhat unclear (to me) how much Dick was exposed to at which ages (because thatās like 80 years of comic history to sift through and in the end itās based on interpretation) but we know that when Jason was Robin (around 13-15 years old) he was being exposed to cases that involved rape.
Even if Bruce did his very best to try to keep Dick from being exposed to those kinds of cases at a young age, the reality is that patrolling the streets of a city that is full of violent crime will eventually lead to exposure of cases involving sa/assault. Not to mention stuff like public sex and indecent exposure. Furthermore, in some of the very early comics, you have Dick breaking Bruce out of Poison Ivyās pheromonal control on him (or whatever the fuck). This puts Dick in a position where heās repeatedly being exposed to not just sexual interactions at a young age, but sexual assault as well, since it comes with the whole crime-fighting territory.
As I said earlier, a lot of this is gray-area and is somewhat built on more logical assumptions than actual canon comic panels, but I canāt really image a possibility where Dick wasnāt repeatedly exposed to those kinds of cases as a child. I could also probably spend hours talking about the implications of a child fighting crime in short shorts or him being the son of a famous billionaire philanthropist and how that could lead to him being sexually harassed, but honestly thereās already so many other posts that dissect that so Iām not really gonna get into it that much.
Now hereās where shit gets really dicey. I wanna say first and foremost that I donāt think Bruce is a pedophile or gets any sort of sexual gratification from any of this shit. However, I think at the very best his actions are reckless endangerment and at the very worst are covert SA. Right now Iām viewing it as somewhere in-between but leaning more towards endangerment because I feel like he isnāt intending to harm them or even considering that this is harmful in this way but he does make the decision to have them in this life. I need yāall to hear me tf out on this tho before you jump me š.
I know the topic of Bruce being abusive is very hotly debated within the fandom with a lot of people either portraying him as an absolute monster or as someone who loves his children and is a victim of terrible mischaracterization. IMO, Bruce is abusive, but he does also love his kids and from his perspective would likely never try to act with malicious intent towards them. My perspective on his relationship with Dick is that they have a very complicated relationship and it is honestly hard for me to articulate what I fully see it as. They love each other and theyāre hurting and they donāt communicate the best and theyāre trying and sometimes failing and sometimes not. Itās complicated.
I also know the whole ābeing a child hero is child endangermentā thing is debated a lot too and my personal take is that it makes for a good story and is something that has been apart of superhero comics since nearly the beginning (because of Dickās existence), but it is child endangerment. Iām not saying that because I think it should change but because I feel like it should be acknowledged because it impacts the characters and their lives.
Anyways back to my point - Bruce is consistently putting his kids in a position where they encounter things such as rape and coercion and sex-pollen pheromone shit from Poison Ivy. I know a lot of people will probably argue that itās not really his fault and heās not forcing them and they wanted to fight crime and yada yada yada. And to an extent, I agree. Dick was a gremlin who wanted to fight crime to help save people and he snuck out multiple times against Bruceās wishes so that he could be Robin. Robin was something that helped him heal from the trauma of his parentsā deaths.
But the fact is that Bruce was a grown ass man when took Dick in, and it was his responsibility as his guardian to tell Dick no and stand firm on that decision and still support and foster Dick outside of him being Robin.
The issue is that every single time Bruce fired Dick and Dick ran away as a result, Bruce did jack shit to find him and make sure he was safe. Itās how he ended up with Shrike. Itās how he ended up with Liu. Dick is a child with trauma and at the very least some issues with depression and Bruce literally lets Dick act recklessly and endanger himself, which is what leads to him being exploited and abused and exposed to sexual situations he shouldnāt be constantly exposed to.
The times that Bruce fires him are times when he is severely injured, but Bruce seemingly doesnāt care about all the other shit Dick is being exposed to or the fact that Dick keeps running away from him?? Like no matter how people spin this Dick is a child and while Iām somewhat sympathetic to the fact that it couldāve been difficult for Bruce to reign him in, Bruce literally chose to be his guardian, he chose that responsibility.
And before anyone brings it up - yes I do think that Dick making Damian Robin was also child endangerment, but Iām far more sympathetic to Dick than I am to Bruce because Dick has lived a majority of life under the assumption that this is somewhat normal (at least within the scope of their family/situation). I think he does his best to try to be better than Bruce and not replicate some of the unhealthier dynamics of their relationship in his relationship with Damian, but I do still think it was irresponsible/reckless of him to do so.
Ultimately I can understand his reasoning far better than Bruceās because child heroes are well established at that point, and a majority of the people in Dickās life either 1) have been or are a child hero OR 2) are mentoring child heroes. Dick sees his actions as a reasonable step to take because of this and because he thinks that Damian needs to be helped and heās helping Damian the same way Bruce helped him.
I also think a major difference is that Bruce is abusive towards Dick and can exhibit an unhealthy level of control in his life. I kind of go back and forth on the whole āDick is parentifiedā thing because I think a lot of it is mostly just fanon but I will say that Bruce regards Dick differently from the rest of his kids, and Dickās role in Bruceās life as his āpartnerā is weird (even as a sort of co-worker partner thing) because he is essentially placing a child in the role of his equal.
Iām sorry but even with context a child being your friend/coworker/partner/equal is weird, especially if itās your child. It places unhealthy expectations and āundermines the childās development by placing them in a role they are not emotionally equipped to handle, often leading to issues with self-worth, relationships, and identity in adulthood.ā Like this is applicable to all of the Robins kind of, but Bruce more readily embraces the āfather/mentorā aspect of his relationships with the other Robins than he does with Dick when he was Robin.
On the other hand, while Bruce does constantly smack the shit out of Dick, he also is like very intensely proud of him and Dick is one of his favorite people, which again creates a weird relationship dynamic between them. Ultimately Iām not trying to argue that Bruce is a terrible monster and we should have no sympathy for him and that Dick should never be Robin or that he should break free from Bruce. The reality is that their characters are incredibly intertwined. I just think that examining their characters and relationships through this lens can be beneficial when looking at Dickās actions and behaviors as an adult and how it can influence his reactions to other peopleās behaviors and his relationship dynamics.
Like tbh if I really could sum Dick up as a character in one word it would be desensitized. He has been overtly and covertly SAāed as both an adult and a child, his autonomy has been continuously stripped from him (via mind control, manipulation, and abuse) and the actions and behaviors of everyone around him have reinforced these things to be normal to him. He treats himself recklessly (constantly throwing himself at bullets, the whole passively suicidal shit he pulls all the time, etc.) and either has trouble recognizing the warning signs of someone preying on him sexually or sees it as something he canāt/shouldnāt avoid. Like the same way I think repeated Fear Toxin exposure would have long-standing impacts on Dick, I think that consistently witnessing and experiencing SA from a young age would also have long-standing impacts.
Idk, ultimately I wish people also focused on the other times and ways Dick has experienced SA rather than solely focusing on Mirage/Tarantula because a lot of times people view the trauma he faces from Mirage/Tarantula as like a single-incident PTSD event when I think all of his SA trauma is a lot bigger than that and has a more complex impact on him and his psyche. This was mostly just me rambling at 3 am and I might delete this later so I can reword this better but thatās all Iām gonna say for now.
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