TW: THIS ARTICLE WILL DISCUSS SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE
Movies and television series can provide a great platform to discuss and represent societal issues. There have been profoundly touching movies released discussing a plethora of issues, ranging from racism and sexism in Hidden Figures (2016) to medical ethics in My Sister’s Keeper (2009). Within these visual platforms, there has been an uncountable amount of visual depictions of sexual violence. Whilst this is an important topic to be discussed, scenes of it are more often than not glamorized or romanticized or, worse yet, are shown and never discussed again. There is further the question as to whether or not these scenes are actually necessary to the plot — is it worth triggering viewers and trivializing sexual violence simply for the plot or “character development?”
I was inspired to write this article after the recent release of Luckiest Girl Alive, a mystery thriller directed by Mike Barker from a screenplay by Jessica Knoll, based on her 2015 novel of the same name. I have neither read the novel nor watched the movie, being put off by several critiques of its unnecessary inclusion of rape scenes. With an absence of a trigger warning, viewers of this 18-certified film are unaware of several scenes of intense sexual assault, in which there are three graphic rape scenes lasting approximately three minutes in total. Some viewers have come in to claim that whilst these scenes are hard to watch, they are ‘necessary.’ Jenna Ryu, a wellness reporter at USA TODAY, claims that “seeing sexual assault is supposed to make you uncomfortable and outraged,” using this as a reason to excuse the inclusion of these graphic scenes. Ryu’s article also includes a statement from Elizabeth Jeglic, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who researches sexual violence. Jeglic goes on to say that these rape scenes allow us to “see how it affects somebody, it allows you to humanize them, and then the problem becomes more real.” I greatly oppose this claim, we do not need to see brutal and graphic scenes in order to develop sympathy for characters. We do not need these forceful depictions to know that sexual violence exists and is a problem — and we do not need to see someone experience sexual assault for them to become more human to us.
Luckiest Girl Alive is not the first film to be met with critiques over its unnecessary depiction of sexual violence. TV Series 13 Reasons Why and Game of Thrones both include multiple portrayals of sexual assault. One fan found that Game of Thrones features fifty acts of rape, with the books including around 200. With the series having 73 episodes in total, it seems extremely unnecessary and triggering for nearly 75% of the episodes to include these graphic scenes. 13 Reasons has also come under fire for its incredibly graphic rape scenes that happen multiple times throughout the first two seasons. Whilst the show aims to tackle topics of mental health, suicide, and sexual violence, it has done so through a brutal and unneeded graphic scene. After Netflix’s decision to remove the detailed suicide scene from Season 1, creator Brian Yorkey and writer Nic Sheff did not think to refrain from showing such gruesome and triggering scenes. There are two separate rape scenes in Season 1 of the show, and in Season 2 the show revealed it’s most violent scene. In the second season finale, three of the athletes brutally rape student Tyler, assaulting him and sodomizing him with a mop handle — all of this was shown in harrowing detail for two minutes. Many viewers complained about the triggering nature of this scene, but showrunner Brian Yorkey defended the scene by stating that people are disgusted by it “because it’s a male-on-male sexual crime portrayed.” Yorkey goes on to state:
“If there’s a greater sense of backlash about this scene, especially it being hard to watch, ‘disgusting,’ or inappropriate, that goes to the point that we need to be talking about the fact that things like this happen. The fact that this would be somehow more disgusting than what happened to Hannah and Jessica, I’m shocked but not surprised.”
It is important to note that viewers are not necessarily disgusted about who was assaulted, but rather the way it was depicted. Whilst I would still argue that showing the rape of Hannah and Jessica was unnecessary to the plot of the show, the detail they were shown in was still violent, but nowhere near as graphic and ‘shocking’ as the assault on Tyler. Yorkey is correct in the sense it is important to have discourse around sexual violence, and the way it can happen to everyone, but the way he went around this is both triggering and incorrect.
How can we talk about sexual violence in shows and movies?
In the simplest answer possible: WE DO NOT NEED TO SHOW THE SEXUAL VIOLENCE ITSELF. There is no reason to include such scenes in any show or movie. We can most certainly have discussions of it without ever showing these violent scenes.
One movie which has its entire premise and plot based on sexual violence, but never even mentions the word “rape,” or shows a scene of it is Promising Young Woman. This 2020 movie was written and directed by Emerald Fennell (executive producer for Killing Eve). Despite Promising Young Woman is filled with pastel colors and a noughties pop music soundtrack, the movie is still able to tackle the topic of sexual violence, aiming to educate the audience on the harsh realities about how sexual violence struggles to be taken seriously, and the victims experience often dismissed. The movie stars Carey Mulligan as Cassie, “a former medical school student who avenges the sexual assault of her friend (Nina) by feigning drunk and exposing men for trying to take advantage of her.” Fennell’s casting of these ‘nice guys’ who attempt to take advantage of a “drunk” Cassie is incredibly well thought out. Fennell uses well-known comedians such as Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin in Superbad) and Bo Burnham, who go on to play Cassie’s love interest in a small portion of the movie. Through their previous roles in movies and general appearances in the social role, we feel at ease with their presence. Their performances within the film seem to emulate their previous roles, we see Mintz-Plasse behave in an awkward and almost cringe-worthy way, similar to his role in Superbad. But in Promising Young Woman, this loveable actor is a predator who fully intends to drug, and take advantage of Cassie—capturing Fennell’s message that anyone can be a predator, and anyone can be complicit.
(** spoilers ahead **)
Later on in the movie, Cassie receives a clip from the night of Nina’s assault. Instead of simply showing the viewers the attack itself, Fennell only shows us Cassie’s reaction to the clip, and the audio of men laughing. The audio also reveals that Cassie’s love interest, self-proclaimed “nice guy” Ryan, played by Burnham, witnessed the attack but did nothing to stop it, nor advocate for Nina afterward. This scene drives home the impact of sexual assault and the guilt that Cassie feels for not being there with Nina on the night of the attack, without ever having to show us the assault itself.
This is not to say that Promising Young Woman has no depictions of violence, with the most gruesome scenes happening toward the end of the movie. In an attempt of revenge against Nina’s attacker Al Monroe, Cassie restrains and interrogates Al at his Bachelor’s party — then reveals that she is going to carve Nina’s name “all over him.” In an attempt to stop this from happening, Al pleads that they were “just kids” (ugh).
Al: “I was affected by it too, okay! I mean it’s every guy’s nightmare, getting accused like that”
Cassie: “Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?”
Whilst viewers hope that Cassie can carry out this revenge, we are left with an incredibly controversial ending. Al escapes from the restraints, pins down, and suffocates Cassie with a pillow in a scene that lasts nearly three minutes—and results in her death. In this twist ending, we never see Cassie’s face again, representing that she is simply another anonymous victim of an assault at the hands of men. Shortly after this scene, we see Al burn Cassie’s body in order to remove evidence that she was there—this combination of him suffocating and burning her body shows the extreme lengths Al was willing to go to, to prevent Cassie from speaking out on Al’s attack on Nina.
Fennell has spoke out about this ending that has caused so much controversy from critics and viewers:
“It just seemed too easy to say that she would carve Nina’s name into his body and cut his dick off, and then walk out of the cabin in slow motion smoking a cigarette. I wish she could because I wish all of us could. But it's just not true.”
To further demonstrate the danger that ‘nice guys’ can cause, Cassie had to pre-plan for her murder. She gave a package containing the identity of Nina’s rapist and a note with her location and instructions to call the police if she didn’t return to a lawyer involved in Nina’s rape case. The very end scene involves a pre-scheduled text to Ryan
“You didn’t think this was the end, did you?
It is now.
Enjoy the wedding!
Love,
Cassie & Nina
:)”
Following this text chain, the police arrive and arrest Al at his own wedding. Whilst in some way, Cassie has been able to get her revenge, it was over her murder, not the rape of Nina. In some ways, this reflects the way rape and sexual assault cases are dismissed and not taken seriously in the eyes of the law. Al will be known as Cassie’s murderer, not Nina’s rapist. The ending is incredibly bitter-sweet—Cassie had to lose her life for justice to be served against Al. On my first viewing of Promising Young Woman, I will admit that I was disappointed by the ending. I wanted Cassie to suddenly appear and really take revenge on Al, Ryan, and everyone else complicit in Nina’s assault. But on my second viewing, I realized I fricken love the movie and the brutal truth we see in the ending. Perhaps my experiences as a woman have made me biased, I’m seeing my truth, and my reality being played out in front of me — seeing these men being called out for trying to take advantage of a drunk woman — and being confronted that they are a pretty crappy human and not a “nice guy” at all. The movie also works to discuss the “not all men” narrative, which is questioned time and time again through Burnham’s character, Ryan. We know that it’s not all men, but even the ones that seem “safe and harmless,” like Ryan, can still harm us and others.
This article could easily go on pages about all the little details in Promising Young Woman. Still, ultimately we do not need to use sexual assault as a tool to make a storyline more interesting or allow us to “humanize” a character more. I feel like there is a difference to a show/film where the entire motif is based on sexual violence, such as Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You (2020) series. Not only is the viewer aware of what they are going into (especially with an adequate content warning), but it fully addresses the issue and the effect—rather than showing us an assault scene and moving on from that character's experience like nothing ever happened. Screenwriters need to come up with other ways to add “shock value” than to depict graphic sexual violations, if this is the only way they feel they can accomplish this, they need to rethink their careers.
By Stephanie McCartney