Promising Young Woman - Mythology of False Accusations & The Reality of Redemption

"That the 'niceness' they parade publicly is directly juxtaposed to the inward cruelty they feel comfortable only to express behind closed doors."

Musings on nice guys and the women who falsely accuse them. As always, the title is a polemic, but a few weeks ago, I'd stumbled upon some clips from the criminally underrated Promising Young Woman, which prompted an interesting conversation around the narratives around sexual assault accusations and stories.

The film follows Cassie Thomas played by Carrie Mulligan, on a quest to avenge her late friend, Nina Fisher, who was raped at medical school and , is suggested, to have taken her own life as a result. Along the way, she seeks out all of those who she believes are responsible including the dean of the school, the lawyer hired to intimidate Nina to drop her case, a mutual friend of theirs who witnessed what had happened, and of course the alleged rapist. The film does an incredible job of deconstructing rape culture from the institutional and individual lens. And in doing so, helps us as the viewer to break down some of our own conceptions, particularly those around the "nice guy".

Its expert casting of actors who we've already come to know as charming, kind, nice guys, weaponizes our own preconcieved notions of problematic offenders and enablers. We've got Bo Burham, every 2009 girls' Internet Boyfriend, playing the lovable and goofy Ryan. Max Greenfield, most known for his loveable and slightly neurotic Schmitt from New Girl (my personal favorite character). And as our alleged perp, we've got Chris Lowell who was famous for his role as the thoughtful and genuine Piz in Veronica Mars. Even the casting of Alison Brie, known for her portrayal of the innocent, sweet Annie in Community (my favorite character, after Abhed), serves to show us how other women can even uphold the patriarchy and protect problematic (to say the least) men. And in doing so, the film upends our own assertions, showing us how anyone, even the people we typically assume to be "nice" can be a predator or at the very least problematic.

It's easy to say these "nice guys" are able to "get away with it" because of misogyny and our own beliefs about women and their credibility. But in questioning why their narrative is impactful, it's interesting to look at the way this film frames the accusation of the alleged assault. In looking at how the characters are able to undermine Nina's story, this idea of the "myth of the allegation" comes to mind. It's almost as if Nina's account or allegation is a myth, juxtaposed to what her , then peers, have to say about the incident. It is almost to say that the audacity of this allegation is so high that it must be fiction. But not only fiction, but myth, something almost completely illogical and impossible. And thus, the offenders and enablers offer up a "more logical""reasonable" and in effect more palatable, narrative to support their version of events. They are able to explain away why promising young men would engage with Nina in any sort of sexual manner, making the allegation of rape scoffable and unimaginable. It would be pure lunacy and fantasy to think that men like the ones in the film would be capable of such a horrific act against a woman.

As Nina is no longer alive to tell her story, she in and of herself, functions as a mythical creature, the "alleged victim" who is no longer a corporeal being on earth but whose presence haunts the memories of those who knew her. And in this way her death is used as further a way for the people who've her denied her claims of sexual assault, to minimize and further ignore the reality that it happened. Even her very real mental health crisis which culminates in her suicide is not enough to break them out of the idea that this accusation is just a myth. It's almost plausible that Nin could be moved to such a dramatic and grave action because of "her own lie". The implied idea here is that : she is so crazy that she made all of this up and then killed herself after she was proven wrong.

Futhermore, another assumption needed to support the denial is that : Nina, despite being a brilliant medical student , lacks the faculty and intellect to assign a proper term and descriptor to what's been done to her. And even with surgical levels of examination, something victims of abuse and assault often utilize in order to analyze these situations, Nina's assessment still is not correct. This is to say It isn't rape ! She must be confused! She's using the wrong word. And part of why this assumptioi is so powerful is because In the minds of the perpetrator and his enablers, exists another myth : women are too emotional to be logical. They must not be able to properly assess the harm that has been done to them and assign the proper term to describe it. They blow everything out of proportion. And all of that, all of the logical hoops that they jump through in order to not believe Nina or deny her story, all seem more plausible than the idea that a nice guy is capable of committing unspeakable harm to a woman.

And with this as the context surrounding our main character, Cassie is hellbent and on a mission toexpose each seemingly"nice guy", showing them that they are actually not so nice. She is showing us that the public face of niceness, is distinct from the inward disposition of kindness. Kindness requires integrity in action and an unwillingness, and often a distaste for, doing even slight harm. She is showing these men that the niceness they parade publicly is directly juxtaposed to the inward cruelty they feel comfortable expressing only behind the privacy of closed doors. Cassie puts on the drunk girl act and watches how one by one the men put on their respective hero capes, publicly running to her rescue her and offer her some route to safety. When all the while, their intentions are more nefarious. In each private moment, these men reveal their own eagerness to take advantage of the young woman who's been temporarily entrusted to their care. And when Cassie drops the act, suddenly unveiling her sober state, it brings this horrific realization to light. When presented with the dissonance between the character they portray versus the reality of their own actions/motivations, they are livid, but now with themselves, with Cassie. She only exposes these men to themselves. And that is what sets them off. Instead of taking accountability for their own harmfulness, these men begin to crumble when they must face what their actions reveal about the type of men they really are. And thus, they turn their anger towards the woman who has simply held a mirror up to their own selves.

Almost all of the men in this film all follow suit, when Cassie reveals to them one by one their complicity with Nina's assault and subsequent suicide, they all respond in anger towards her, reluctant and defiantly refusing accountability for what they've done. This is perhaps the worst and most-gut wrenching to watch when it is revealed that the loveable heartthrob who'd stolen our hearts singing The Stars are Blind in the market aisles, was present when Nina was being assaulted. He begins apologizing profusely to Cassie, but when she refuses to accept his apology, he immediately flips into self-preservation mode, now trying to protect the reputation he has built up. He, like most of the men, in the film are in a battle against their true character and the reputations they have built publicly. What would happen if people had found out the guy they've come to see as this gentle successful doctor, had enabled harm of a promising young woman?

When Cassie finally confronts Al, Nina's rapist, at his Bachelor Party, this all comes to an apex. Al is so worried about the truth coming out and destroying his reputation that he is driven to murder Cassie. It may be safe to say that now that we've seen it in for ourselves, Al doesn't seem like a very nice guy. Perhaps one of the most underrated moments of this film is watching Joe, Al's friend rushing to comfort Al, after he has just committed murder. He coddles him like a baby! It is a pointed commentary on how we enable men who we consider to be "nice guys"even when confronted with clear evidence of the contrary. In doing so, we often go against our own morals and beliefs in order to defend them despite their wrongdoings, no matter how obvious.

Thinking of the set up this scene, Cassie enters Al's bachelor party. His life is plentiful. He has friends, a partner, all of whom have either enabled him or his own imagery of himself as a nice guy. But here, instead of being held accountable for the harm he has now caused to 2 women,(again this is a man who has now allegedly committed sexual assault and has now committed murder), he is being held like a baby and being told that these things, which he did, are somehow not his fault. And here enters perhaps one of the most reductive and disgusting myths that nice guys and enablers alike will perpetuate to themselves : that the harm they caused was not even their fault, but the fault of their victims. This is a new aged way of saying "she was asking for it", rephrased now as "She made me do it". And this wildly illogical myth is powerful allowing abusers to excuse their behavior by finding fault in their victims. In our popular zeitgeist ,we often hear this as "She was crazy. She was slutty. She was drunk. She was dressed in xyz fashion", any excuse to assign blame anywhere else but to themselves. But in the bittersweet end, Cassie dispels this and all myths, succeeded in having her death serve as of harbinger of justice and public acknowledgment of what happened to her and Cassie and the truth about Al.

I want to acknowledge one last myth that the film wrestles with - the notion of redemption. Often in these situations, the idea of redemption seems absolutely impossible. Rarely in our society do we extend forgiveness to allow a person truly redeem themselves after the harm they've done. This is rarer in the cases of sexual assault abuse etc. But the film does show us one avenue through which actual redemption may be possible. The only person who acknowledges the harm that has come to Nina and his role in her death is is Al's lawyer Jordan. Jordan spends the years after her death riddled with guilt knowing that he has been complicit in silencing women who have come forward about alleged assaults. He knows in part, he is responsible for Cassie's suicide because he spearheaded the intimidation and smear campaign that added further injury to her assault. Upon meeting Cassie, his remorse is genuine and authentic. She is moved to forgive him, but Jordan goes beyond acceptance of her words. He goes as far as to make amends to both Cassie and Nina, by now helping them secure justice after their deaths. By giving the Cassie's files to the police, he sets off the events that lead to Joe and Al's arrests.

And perhaps, in this way the director is telling us, that despite all the bad men and enablers out there, there is a path of redemption. Yet, the conditions here are clear. It's not by getting a new house, or partners or successful careers, parading around as good guys without true acknowledgment of what they've done, like Al or Joe or Ryan. Redemption comes for those who are willing and able to face themselves, own up to the harm they've caused, make amends and finally dismantle the internal myths that enabled them to excuse harm done to women.

On a wide scale this movie asks us to question these tropes in our society, "the nice guy" "victim". But on a personal level, this movie gives us characters and figures who are so recognizable and feel as real to us as people in own lives. And because of that, I think the movie is asking us, much like Cassie does, to look at our own selves. Where do we really fall? Have we been in positions like the ones we find our characters in? What are attitudes when a woman claims that man has harmed her? Do we believe women or only in particular circumstances? Only when the story is convincing enough? Only when the perpetrator makes sense to us? Do we give in to the myths spread by patriarchy or nice guys in order to coddle them and avoid our own discomfort with what they've done? Do we search for excuses to justify why women should be harmed? Are we enablers or perpetrators? Are we Cassie? Are we Joe? Are we Al? Are we Ryan? Are we Jordan? Are we Nina? When I first watched this movie, I thought I knew who I was, but now I reevaluate it from a completely different standpoint.

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