>>118753414That's a surface level reading of Harley. Even if you discount the fact that Dini intended for Harley to have cheated her way into that PhD, a more sophisticated reading of her character would take into consideration the fact that her specific brand of psychosis essentially caused her to lobotomise herself, transforming her from an accomplished, intelligent woman to a lovesick, childish bimbo. She rejects the cold, professionalism that she believed isolated her from other people and embraces this simplified, subservient persona that allows her to regress to a state of mental and psychological simplicty where she's able to let her hair down and be happy for once by turning her back on "Harleen". It's really a commentary about how women are forced to abandon femininity in order to be taken seriously in a patriarchal society, and Harley's regression represents a sad tale of a woman who was convinced it's better to be a giggly bimbo than an ambitious woman in a man's world.
What's more is that, aside from a few instances where she lets her intelligent persona peek through, Harley mostly acts, speaks and thinks like a daffy caricature of a blonde bimbo. It's almost pervasive enough that you could argue there's a literal split personality between Harley and Harleen, with Harleen being constantly repressed and kept under lock and key, almost as if Harley's afraid of letting her rational side out.