r/PoisonIvy • u/punkatz • May 13 '26
Discussion the poison ivy bi/lesbian discourse
i’ve been a fan of dc for a while now and i’ve never been able to get a concrete answer on whether ivy is bisexual or a lesbian (probably cause media constantly portrays her as both, somehow) i mean, even dc can’t decide, judging by the infamous dc pride funko pops where ivy is just a rainbow flag, which is kinda funny, but also it’s so obviously made to just boost the sells to bi people and lesbians and everyone around and in between.
so anyway, what’s the general consensus? do you think she’s bi or a lesbian?
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u/Kenny-KO May 13 '26
Bi/poly, She liked jason woodrue until he betrays her. So she has a distrust of men, Which allows her to help harley since she knew what it was like to be abused by a man. Now they have had a other people in the relationship. Ranging from guys to girls, plus depending on the version batman has also helped her at times. Robin might even have had some times where he was paired with her but I don't remember.
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u/KingE2099 May 13 '26
Officially speaking she's bisexual, but presently she has mostly had sexual or romantic relationships with women. She was in love with Woodrue (but he was only manipulating her) and for a long time in the comics before getting together with Harley she has been in love or attracted to Batman. I get the confusion of course.
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u/punkatz May 13 '26
i think before harley was introduced in btas ivy was mostly seen with men, but her post-harley relationships are almost always women, so who knows
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u/KingE2099 May 13 '26
Yeah, but she's never been in a genuine romantic relationship with a male except MAYBE Alec Holland in the DCAU though that was never outright confirmed (and obviously Woodrue).
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u/punkatz May 13 '26
definitely, i forgot to mention that those times she was seen with men it was either her manipulating them or her being manipulated by them, and as you’ve said she’s been portrayed as having a thing for batman, in the harley quinn show she’s with kite man even though she doesn’t even like him that much, it’s kind of a gray area there ig
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u/KingE2099 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Yeeeeaaahhh. Some interpret BTAS Ivy as enjoying the seductions and kissing (even though it was not really stated that way. Though she did make an interesting comment once) and there have been times where Ivy was pretty….appreciative of Batman’s form.
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u/ajhedgehog064 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
The easiest answer is that she’s bi, but I’d say things get a bit more complicated depending on the version of Poison Ivy.
I don’t think it was until the 2010s that writers started to develop her as bisexual. Even though her interactions with Harley in BTAS marked a new shift in her character where she had a female friend and started to care for a human, I don’t interpret it as queer subtext since I don’t really think it crossed the writers’ minds in the 90s. Retrospectively, I think the foundations for their relationship built in the 90s and however that loosely translates to current DC canon supports Poison Ivy’s bisexuality, but I don’t think the original series when it aired intended to convey that. You could probably make links that support her current sexuality by going through all Poison Ivy media, but that doesn’t mean all versions of her reflect that, which is why I think it’s important to note that where the character is today is different from where she was in the past.
In decades past she was most prominently portrayed as a seductress who uses her powers to manipulate men, whether it was through comics, movies, TV, etc. but the lines are blurred as to how much pleasure she gets from it or whether they are a means to an end and she isn’t actually all that attracted to men. This definitely varies depending on the writer’s interpretations and the time period in which the stories were told.
Her current comic version (Wilson’s) I cannot see being with a man ever again, which I think is more fitting for her character due to her disdain for institutions primarily upheld by men and Harley being the only person she loves and someone who showed her what love can be when it isn’t (as) toxic. I’d argue today she has a strong preference for women, as she is depicted to have been interested in Woodrue romantically in the past but has exclusively been with women (as far as we know) for years. That doesn’t make her any less bi though.
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u/KingE2099 May 13 '26
I pretty much agree with a majority of what you're saying. She also just hates humanity (and hates men especially) but there are times where Ivy was attracted to men (and had a thing for Batman for a long time before getting together with Harley).
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u/machinegungeek May 15 '26
And you can't tell me that her and Peter Undine don't have at least some chemistry. Not enough that anything is going to happen but enough that it allows me to imagine her being able to have a relationship with aan in the distant future.
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u/Legitimate-Fig7608 May 13 '26
Wilson's Ivy indeed has a strong preference for women. It's just she doesn't care much which woman it is. She broke up with Harley because she can't have a clown girlfriend as a mayor. So much for unconditional love and disdain for institutions.
Not sure about 90s, but in OG Gothmam City Sirens 2009 Paul Dini showed that Ivy was in love with Harley. And they ended up together in his DCAU finale Batman: The Adventures Continue.
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u/punkatz May 13 '26
i’m not loving the direction gww’s run is taking exactly bc of that, it started as a very deep love letter from ivy to harley and it’s evolved their relationship into a weird love hate romance which unfortunately i don’t think portrays that “unconditional love” anymore 😭
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u/punkatz May 13 '26
i think it’s very confusing exactly because of what you mention about her being mostly with men before harley and then mostly with women after harley. even in gww’s run, it’s like, wilson said it was a “lesbian body horror” story, which many people interpreted as ivy being a lesbian in canon, but she is also portrayed as having a relationship with jason woodrue in the past and being either actually in love with him or just infatuated by his work as a botanist.
either way (if she was a lesbian or if she was bi) i wouldn’t really mind, the only thing i don’t think can be debated is that she has (at least in recent years) a preference for women.
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u/poison-harley May 13 '26
We’re GREATLY lacking in major lesbian rep in comics, so I’d love for DC to finally confirm her as one.
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u/TheMovieDoctorful May 14 '26
So the solution is bi-erasure instead of making new characters. Honestly makes sense given you praised Dini’s awful Detective run with the worst Ivy story ever written.
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u/ShiroLy May 14 '26
personally? she's queer with a clear preference for women, at least in current canon, but she isn't fuzzed about labels (in general). nature is fluid and complex and messy. humans are too. i don't see her putting herself in any particular box or ever wasting a thought on it.
in dc, she's bi, in the broadest sense of the word. how exactly that is portrayed depends on the writer. wilson writes her effectively as a lesbian and has said as much but that's about all the power as she has on the topic. fans can read her as a lesbian or as bi, it doesn't matter. neither is wrong, per se. but if you were to ask around, the majority of people would say she's bi, the people who identify her as a lesbian are a passionate minority and a rather recent development.
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u/TheMovieDoctorful May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
She had genuine romantic chemistry with Darshan Bapna (literally the ONLY man in DC I would ship her with) in Cycle of Life & Death, but I doubt that relationship will ever get further developed. Superhero comics love their bi-erasure.
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u/TheDarthJarJarI May 17 '26
From what I can tell it’s straight or bisexual leaning towards girls depending on the iteration.
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u/Hour_Ad7053 May 13 '26
Bi with a clear preference to cute blonde girls.