The video resonates because it addresses a current cultural conversation about a popular film and its sensitive subject matter. The creator's academic background in feminism and social media lends credibility to their analysis, while their direct and critical tone likely appeals to an audience that is also questioning the film's promotion.
Summary
The creator discusses how the promotion of the film "It Ends With Us" has been perceived as tone-deaf and potentially harmful to survivors of domestic violence. They argue that Blake Lively's promotion of the film, focusing on superficial aspects and her personal brands, fails to acknowledge the serious themes of domestic violence, leading to a sense of betrayal among viewers who expected a more nuanced and sensitive approach.
Structure
1Introduction to the issue of the film's promotion and its impact on survivors.
2Explanation of why fiction can be important for survivors and the commonality of isolation.
3Critique of Blake Lively's promotional strategy, highlighting the use of superficial branding and a lighthearted tone.
4Discussion of how audiences are media-literate and can see through inauthentic promotion.
5The creator's perspective on the need for actors and filmmakers to engage more deeply and authentically with sensitive topics like domestic violence.
6Conclusion that it is valid for people to feel betrayed and that holding public figures accountable is important for future representations.
Why survivors feel betrayed
by the It Ends With Us drama
Why I think JB is in the
backseat of It Ends With Us
PR
Transcript
okay, the more I look into this the more fishy it is and it just seems a bit tone deaf and it absolutely is really tone deaf and I wanna break it down. Wanna break down why the way that this film is being promoted is harming survivors, why survivors feel betrayed by it, and why this actual conversation and the way that the dialogue around this is playing out is actually kind of a good thing. So I'm Doctor Zoe. I have a PhD in feminism, specifically looking at social media and why survivors share their stories. So firstly, this film is based on a romance novel. This is predominantly it's a fiction book. It might be still based on some true elements from the author's life, but it is a fiction book and fiction is so important for survivors. And I'll tell you why. Sometimes survivors come across books and stories and TV shows and movies that really speak to the nuances and specifics of their domestic violence experience. And the thing about experiencing domestic violence or an abusive relationship is that one of the key commonalities between people's experiences is a feeling of isolation. They feel alone. They feel like no one understands what they've been going through. They feel completely, debilitatingly alone. And then they stumble across a text that seems to just explain exactly what has happened and in a way like fiction can do this in a way that looking up information about what might be happening to you can't. Um, I've had this experience myself as a survivor where I've read books, I've just gone, oh my God, like that just spoke to me. And I know that I have not read this book, but I know that people who have feel that this book really spoke to them and was able to touch them because it deals in quite a nuanced way also, I hear, um, with themes of domestic violence. Okay, and this is key. But moving on to the way that the film has been promoted. Blake Lively has been promoting it like a brand. She has got a brand for it. The florals she's saying wear your florals and bring your girlfriend. And then people have seen her also promoting her own personal hair products and things like that. Um, as well as just using a tone that's very bubbly and lighthearted and fun throughout, along with lots of cookie cutter responses to questions about domestic violence and the film's content. But it's not working. And it's not working because we are all too media literate for this. These days, you cannot control the narrative the way you wanna control the narrative because we know too much and we people see people know, people go, oh, you're promoting a personal hair care brand. Are you leveraging off of a really, you know, meaningful film with lots of dark themes to promote something like your hair care product, to make personal to grow your personal wealth because we're not okay with that. And we can see it and recognize it. And a few years ago, it might not have been picked up on and it might have been kind of accepted. And nowadays it's not. And I think what we're also saying is that Blake Lively has a comfort zone and it does not extend to speaking about the nuances of domestic violence beyond, you are more than a survivor. You're more than that story. You are whatever you want it to be. And so what that tells us and audience who has graduated past Beyonce, putting the word feminist up on a screen behind her. We are in 2024, we're not in 2014 anymore. And her feminism is back there. So she's speaking in platitudes. She's using flowery language to describe these broad feministy feminine ideals. And it is not working on the audience that are too grown up for that. Because we're not at Gossip Girl anymore. So she it feels like she's more comfortable with playing into the ROM com, playing into idea like this is a film about the nuances of being a woman and women can be messy and women can be this and women can be that. And like we already know that and that's like really great. But like we need to go beyond that now for this conversation. But she seems much more comfortable staying in that zone and staying in that zone of this is a fun romcom. So it's starting to feel like she's trying to make the film more frivolous than it actually is. And it makes you wonder if she had any briefing or training around the fact that this is a domestic violence film. Because like at my organization, we have that conversation with people. We say when they come to work with us, we say you're now working for this organization. So people are gonna wanna talk to you a lot more about domestic violence. And then we equip them with the skills they need to have those conversations because it's not just about doing it at work. It's about the fact that your life around work is also gonna change and probably involve a lot more discussion about this difficult topic. So when we put all of this together, we can see that we have an actress here who doesn't seem to wanna engage in the themes and doesn't seem to understand the themes. But she played the main character who was a victim survivor in this film. So did she properly engage with the character? And then we start to feel betrayed because we go, well, this was a really important text and a really important conversation about these things. This text really meant a lot to a lot of people. And it was also for those who didn't know the book already, it's an opportunity to engage with this kind of topic again and to speak to a whole lot more survivors. And people start feeling betrayed because they start feeling like the way that the actor engaged in the film, um, engaged in the content was inauthentic. And then we have a problem because the last thing that a film wants is to be seen as inauthentic. People are feeling emotional and rightly so and feeling betrayed by the way that this is coming across. So some people are saying, well, it's just the actress, she shouldn't be have to be expected to have like a DV professional level of knowledge. And that's fair. But she should have been trained and she should be a little more, I guess on top of the fact that this is a really important conversation and seeing this as an opportunity to rise to that occasion. And I think that it is absolutely valid that people feel betrayed by this, um, kind of turn of events. And I think it's also a really, really good thing because what it shows is that we're at a level now where we have a baseline level of understanding of DV and how it plays out. And we can hold people accountable to that level. We should and we can and it's absolutely okay to. And when we see people with huge platforms in Hollywood talking about this issue and not doing it in a trauma informed way, not doing it in a survivor centric way. It is absolutely okay to hold them accountable and say, do better. Because next time there's a film about this, they'll look at this as a case study and hopefully they will do better.
