This articles contains spoilers
This story hides its main and most harmful theme until the very end. Up to that point, it presents a case of abuse within academia, including all the elements that make it easy for those of us who have been or are victims in similar contexts to identify with it. One of these elements is the invisibility to which the victim is subjected, and how painful their struggle is to be heard, believed, and supported. The second element is the abuse from a female professor (Julia Roberts) — someone the victim initially considered a feminist — who ultimately reveals her true stance by mistreating her and even trying to forbid her from speaking about what happened. The third element is the difficulty of finding support: within the university, the few people who dare to help face cruel retaliation.
Right now, there are victims of university abuse who, like the one in the film, are also speaking out — and like her, we are being made invisible. We, too, experience abuse from male and female professors — some of them self-proclaimed feminists — who also try to silence us. And we, too, encounter enormous obstacles to receiving support, because the very few people who show solidarity are attacked with great cruelty.
In the final part of the film, almost in passing, it introduces an elaborate defense of sexual abuse against a minor. It is revealed that the professor who was mistreating the student was herself sexually abused as a child by her father’s best friend. The film uses three non-legal, unethical, and antifeminist rhetorical strategies to defend that abuse:
- The victim insists there was consent.
- She claims she lied about being coerced because she was jealous when her abuser left her for another girl — as if a minor could ever “consent” without coercion.
- She says that this lie led to her abuser’s suicide.
It is extremely serious that, by the end, the film creates a narrative loop that justifies the professor’s mistreatment of her student as a consequence of the abuse she experienced as a child. One of the most harmful implications of this is the suggestion that survivors of childhood sexual abuse are prone to mistreat other victims. In reality, many survivors become some of the strongest supporters of current victims, though it is also true that a few may side with abusers. The film closes with the professor regaining her position and receiving affection and sympathy from the very victim she mistreated.
Empirical studies have begun to examine the social impact of this film—specifically, how it may influence increases or decreases in harassment and abuse cases. Only once those studies are complete will we know its actual impact. Until then, everything we say and write — including this article — remains opinion and hypothesis, not scientific evidence.
This article is translated from Diario Feminista
PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the best school of education in the world