Post by Space Kitten on Jun 8, 2019 4:42:22 GMT
Has anyone seen the series You? It's based on a novel by Caroline Kepnes, who says the book was inspired by people obsessively following others on social media. The book very much reminded me of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray. The woman, Beck, meets the stalker, Joe Goldberg, in a bookstore. Joe thinks that Beck MUST be the one for him because of her love of books. Later Joe saves her from an oncoming train, just like how Edward and Christian rescue their love interests.
Joe behaves just like Edward and Christian. He watches her through her window at night. He steals her phone and uses it to track her every move because he wants to "protect" her and thinks he knows what is best for her. He is enraged when other men give her any attention. However, the show presents Joe as a predator and in the end he murders Beck.
Penn Badgley, the actor who played Joe, was horrified that women found his character attractive.
"Rodriguez addressed the controversy that ensued when fans began lusting after Badgley’s character, a murderous stalker who becomes obsessed with an aspiring writer, telling him that “your character’s not great.”
“I think the logline on Lifetime was, ‘How far are you willing to go for love?’ But I was always like, ‘No, that’s not what that is.’ To me, it’s like, ‘How far are we willing to go to forgive an evil white man?'” he responded."
“I think the logline on Lifetime was, ‘How far are you willing to go for love?’ But I was always like, ‘No, that’s not what that is.’ To me, it’s like, ‘How far are we willing to go to forgive an evil white man?'” he responded."
[...]
Badgley admitted he finds it difficult to reconcile the thirst of fans for a character exhibiting such reprehensible behaviour.
“The cultural norms incline us to forgive a certain kind of person, namely someone who looks like myself, less so someone who looks like you. The titular character in my case is someone who is doing unforgivable things, and yet we keep performing backflips to figure out how it is that we’re going to forgive him."
“The cultural norms incline us to forgive a certain kind of person, namely someone who looks like myself, less so someone who looks like you. The titular character in my case is someone who is doing unforgivable things, and yet we keep performing backflips to figure out how it is that we’re going to forgive him."