[ SECRET POST #2939 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2939 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 036 secrets from Secret Submission Post #420.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. http://i.imgur.com/fbjw0vP.png

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah...it is really fucked up.

[(Anonymous)]

I googled "Amy Gone Girl feminist icon" to see these masses of feminists idolizing Amy. Surprisingly, they weren't there! There was an argument that the movie was surprisingly feminist in the way it showed how Amy's sociopathy was figured through gendered expectations (this was by Todd van der Weff, whose arguments about feminist I find. . .sometimes off. Also, he once swore at me for arguing with him about an episode of Louie. Yeah, that episode.) There were three essays condemning it for figuring around a woman lying about rape and domestic abuse. There was a piece pointing out that we are more likely to respond to female characters as saying something about Women, because we have fewer and less varied examples to being with. There was an essay citing debates about whether "femme fatales" were inherently misogynistic, or whether that assumption is its own kind of fetishization. There was an article noting that people have overlooked Amy's ability to do what she does is ingrained in other privileges that make her such a beloved "Dead Girl"--her race, her relative wealth, her familial connections.

The strongest praise I've seen is from people saying the text (including both book and film) is feminist, or at least does interesting things with gender politics--and for everyone saying that, there's one saying it's misogynist, full stop. Even one article that referred to Amy as an "icon of feminism" linked back to an article that said no such thing. In 20 articles, I found ONE piece calling her not a feminist icon, but a cinematic icon of chilly female villainy.

[kaijinscendre]

I was gonna watch this movie. Then I saw a GIF from a scene of it that really fucking disturbed me. And then that fucking "Cool girl" quote has been posted on EVERY gif/photoset for Gone Girl. I am so sick of that quote. So this will be one of those movies I'll not be watching.

[(Anonymous)]

Also, taken out of context it does make Amy a sympathetic character as many women could empathise.

Aaand that is why that's her internal monologue - she sees herself as a victim.

Not that her husband is better.

[inkdust]

My mom read the book and described part of it to me that seriously disturbed me, put intrusive thoughts of it in my head for days, so yeah, you are not alone. It wasn't even an image that I saw, just her description. She also summarizes it as a book you enjoy until you reach the end.

[(Anonymous)]

In semi-defense of that Cool Girl quote, I haaaaaaated it in the book because it seemed like the most try-hard tumblr post ever, but the way Rosamund Pike delivered it in the movie brought me around on it and made me look at it in a different way. I don't think it should be held up as a feminist manifesto, but it made me realize there was more to the character than I originally thought.

[(Anonymous)]

I have no idea why, but for some reason I misread that as you saying that you had no idea why foot fetishists identified with her and I was really curious about what the fuck was happening in this show/movie

[(Anonymous)]

It disturbs me that both feminists and I'm Not A Feminist Buts are more interested in being mad at women who can relate to Amy's problems than the hundreds, thousands, millions of men throughout the history of literature who have related to sociopathic male protagonists but have obtained legitimacy because "it's art".

[sarillia]

Why do the average people who like terrible characters get defended because it's just fiction but as soon as one of those people identifies as a feminist then it means something more?

[(Anonymous)]

Liking Amy as a character =/= actively rooting and relating to her.
So can we like, put this stupid "lolol feminists only like violent man killers" bullcrap to rest.

[lentils]

I thought Gillian Flynn admits that she purposefully wrote Amy to be a horrible person that some readers would still "like," because she objects to people being able to identify with horrifically fucked up male characters but not giving the same consideration and love to similar female characters? And that the narrative made that obvious? I haven't seen the movie yet, but that's very much the vibe I got from the book.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed.

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: whatsername from Gone Girl in the bath.

Text: It disturbs me that so many feminists root for and identify with her.

[(Anonymous)]

People making comments about liking male characters in comparison to Amy are being disingenuous. There really aren't a whole lot of male characters like Amy that people root for.

I mean someone can bring up Walter White as a counterpoint but even he starts out as a mostly decent person (wanting to provide for his family in light of his impending death) before being corrupted by his greed but even at the end he still has enough humanity that he begs for the life of his brother-in-law who was trying to destroy him.

[lb_lee]

I have no idea what this movie is, but can I assume this is basically Hothead Paisan?

[(Anonymous)]

My issue with that Cool Girl thing is that it's supposed to be about pretending to be someone you're not to please men, but the list of things mentioned is pretty much only traditionally masculine things, except for trying not to be confrontational. That turns the discussion into "women are pretending to act like dudes to please men. If they were true to themselves, they'd act like women." So instead of being a quote that supports women being who they want to be, it becomes a defense of gender essentialism.

Why didn't the author include other kinds of things men supposedly like in women? And this is anecdotal, but still: most of the things I've seen female friends fake to please guys were traditionally feminine things, not the things on that list.

[(Anonymous)]

What about women who are turned on by her sociopathy and sexual violence because they themselves have latent sadistic urges which they would never ever act on, but get a little thrill at seeing them played out fictionally? Um....asking for a friend....

[(Anonymous)]

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about a lot of the fangirling of Bela Talbot that goes on in the Supernatural fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

As a Batman fan, I know the Joker has so many fanboys that totally idolize him. In response to people who think reprehensible and sociopathic male characters don't have people that love them.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh fuck off.

[(Anonymous)]

Is that really what they say in their arguments? See, I happen to think that while the character is a terrible person, the writing is quite feminist for being so full-bodied and realized, for breaking grounds and providing facets of humanity that female characters rarely if ever get to inhabit. So I could very well say that Amy is a "feminist" character while not condoning her actions.

Feminist characters don't have to be good role models. In fact, I'm quite sick of the insistence that women need fictional role models, it's infantilizing and stupid.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh no the evil feminists! Hide your children!

Spoilers

[(Anonymous)]

This movie. I heard so many good thing about it, went to see it and enjoy it in a complete different way. I laughed at like two third of the movie, especially the scene where Neil Patrick Harris' character got gutted. I busted out laughing like a maniac, my sister's friend who went with us even asked if I'm crying. Maybe because of cultural difference, but it reads like a black comedy to me. Or maybe because my sense of humour is incredibly skewed, since lots of my irl friends like it. Shrug.

I don't really have much feeling about Amy herself. She's a good character, but not entertaining enough to make me like her, and that Cool Girl speech is so pretentious it makes sense that Amy thinks that. I wouldn't be too worried about those feminist you are talking about, I find that people on tumblr usually exaggerate their reactions.

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't seen the movie or read the book so I can't actualy comment on the content but I am a feminist and I follow several feminists and feminist publications on tumblr/facebook/twitter and I have literally never seen anything relating to Gone Girl at all.