I'm sure this topic or something similar has come up, but I'm not sure where those threads are. I just want to throw this out there.

I was never that into Harley Quinn as a character, but nowadays I just find her insufferable. Thinking about why she's come to bothers me so much, I realized she really went downhill when DC decided she should be "empowered" while maintaining her identity as "Joker's abused girlfriend."

In the old cartoons and her initial comic appearances, if Harley was portrayed as an empowered figure, it was because/after she broke away from the Joker. She'd either pair up with Poison Ivy or be somewhat of an anti-hero, but either way, she was at worst mischievous.
A villain, but a relatively harmless one you could see heroes tolerating if they found themselves forced to cooperate with her.

But then, pretty much around the New 52, they decided Harley should be "empowered" but still "Joker's girlfriend"...which, on the face of it, seems a contradictory concept. So they decided the way to do that was by making her Joker's "equal."
Yeah, he abuses her, but she's just as crazy and dangerous and he is, if not more crazy (stated almost verbatim in the Suicide Squad movie). In turn, her actions escalated to outright monstrous and cruel (orchestrating the deaths of hundreds of children).

So she's a strong, empowered woman despite the Joker abusing her because it's a mutually toxic relationship and they're both awful people. And that makes it edgy, too! Right?

And yet, despite Harley being established as just as vile and nasty as the Joker, writers still maintain her aura as a lovable, harmless villain or anti-hero with a heart of gold. I'm sure I'm not the only who sees the issue here.

Irritatingly, it all comes across as a cynical effort by DC to make her their answer to Deadpool.
A sexy answer, because I don't think it's a coincidence the shift in her character also came with far more revealing outfits.

It results in a confused and inconsistent portrayal of Harley that gets hand-waved with "But she's crazy!"

That's why she fangirls at the sight of Wonder Woman in one comic...then rolls her eyes & brushes Diana off as a lame square in another.

It's why Harley is supposed to be a dangerous, unpredictable wild-card like the Joker...but at the same time, heroes just shrug and smile at her presence instead of twisting her head off.

Say what you will about Deadpool, he is somewhat consistent in his morals, such as they are, and how other characters respond to him. He's a mercenary, but he has lines he won't cross and other heroes regard him as (at least) a dangerous nuisance or (at worst) a scumbag that should be put down.

In a way, Harley is the victim of her own popularity. Fans liked the lovable clown. They liked the abuse survivor. They liked the tragedy that she kept crawling back to the Joker.
And in response, DC gave MOAR of all of that, resulting in an obnoxious mess of a character who gets shoe-horned into stories she shouldn't be a part of, put on a level with other character she shouldn't be near, and grows more and more into a caricature of what she initially was.

Sort of like how fans liked the notion Batman was crafty and cunning enough to beat seemingly insurmountable odds and that eventually grew into the goddamn Bat-god who can beat the entire Justice League single-handed with whatever he's got in his utility belt.

Two cents.