i was thinking this a while back. i get why batman cant kill the joker because that goes against his code, he already operates outside the law in a lot of ways but he cant outright circumvent the actual legal processes and become judge, jury and executioner. he also cant cripple the joker because that's against his human rights and joker can just commit suicide afterwards. however ive never gotten why batman doesnt rape the joker?

my logic is this: the joker is a pretty nutty guy, he'd be resistant to a lot of different bits of torture but i think a rape would be so traumatizing it'd stop him from wanting to commit crimes anymore. it'd also be humiliating and joker's whole thing is wanting to seem in control of his own destiny. but then there's also the interpretation of the opposite: that joker actually loves batman in a semi-romantic stalker way and surely doing that even if it doesnt traumatize him into normalcy would essentially satisfy the baseline desire he had to commit crime

the way i see it anyway tho is joker isnt really insane, that's just his aesthetic he uses to get put into the famously-lax arkham because he's a manipulator of the system and of people. so i think getting raped would affect him the same way it would a normal person and for batman it's such a bizarre solution to the joker i doubt he'd suddenly want to go rape clayface, riddler or mr freeze into submission. so i dont get why that's never been floated as a hypothetical solution to the joker problem. everyone always goes "murder" or "freedom" in a binary way