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Gone Girl:  An Analysis on the Misogynistic Accusations of the Film 

by Dominique Bernardino

Major:  Film & Video Studies

Introduction

Gone Girl is an original film adaptation directed by David Fincher and written by the best-selling author, Gillian Flynn. The story revolves around the dysfunctional marriage between Amy Elliot Dunne (Rosamund Pike) and Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck). The film begins on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick goes out for a drink exclaiming about how displeased he is with the status of his marriage. Soon after, his integrity is tested as he comes home to an uncanny accident finding no trace of Amy at all. Believed to be an abduction, senseless Nick heads out to report the incident to the authorities, only to be pinned as one of the main suspects for her disappearance and soon-to-be murder. Nick is driven into a status conferral frenzy as journalists and reporters chain him down to a misandrist stereotype: The abusive husband that killed his wife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though not expected from many film directors, this Fincher piece is undoubtedly a literary masterpiece painted on the big screens as it captures every bit of amazing there can be found in the book itself. Partnering Fincher’s naturalistic film techniques with Flynn’s poetic and sinister writing, translates beautifully into a psychological thriller everyone needed in 2014. Garnering at least $160,000,000 in the domestic box office alone (Box Office Mojo, 2014), this perplexing thriller wreaks of havoc for every feminist out there as it is argued to be “decisively misogynistic” for presenting a wide range of awful female characters and their worst traits (Capello, 2014).

 

Although it is questionably a misogynistic approach to a murder mystery, this film presents us with direct implications of gender stereotypes influencing behaviors. Understanding how gender stereotypes heavily influence society and a person’s character is important to developing a greater understanding of the contextual implications of the film. Furthermore, picking apart the different layers to a film like Gone Girl will help us gain a broader idea of feminism that is essential to harnessing equality among everyone.

When dealing with Gone Girl, several approaches can be hypothesized in order to reach a general understanding. To the eyes of many, Gone Girl is 1) a mess of gender roles and an insult to women, 2) an elongated failed marriage story, 3) a misandrist retribution thriller or 4) a haunting reality about female sociopaths. Still, most critics focus on the argument that Gone Girl is a misogynist film that defeats the purpose of feminism and presents the audience with a hurtful collection of female behavior. Instead, I argue that Gone Girl is far from a misogynist film, but a beautiful literary awakening for every human being as it unravels a harsh depiction of men and women’s personalities only denied by many due to humans’ innate egocentric nature.

A Misogynistic Struggle

Gone Girl is a beautiful yet disturbing film exposing short takes of female villainy by cutting up scenes into flashbacks and simultaneous cuts into the present. In the beginning, Amy, a smart, witty, and experienced writer is introduced to us as a cunning beauty not short of capability. She’s smart, successful, rich, and ambitious. She knows what men want and she makes sure that she doesn’t give herself too easily. In short, she’s a strong and independent woman that knows her worth.

 

As the film progresses, however, the only image being portrayed of Amy is that of a manipulative and vindictive woman that wants nothing but to destroy Nick and ruin his life for cheating on her with a 20-year-old. Not only that, but the film explores into detail the aspects of Amy’s personality that make her the most conniving villain: she fakes her disappearance, plans everything out to make it look like her husband murdered her, unapologetically stains his name and reputation, and comes back only to keep him miserably chained to her side by coercing her own pregnancy.

 

In the past years, the author and screenwriter of the film adaptation, Gillian Flynn has wrestled with comments and accusations made against her being feminist and more of a misogynist. Why? Because critics have seen Amy as the most heinous portrayal of a female character. No values, morals, or respect for anything. It’s through her stories that Flynn addresses the struggle between the true essence of feminism and general feminism. In fact, in an interview with The Guardian, Flynn rebuttals their accusations by saying that feminism isn’t just a movement for female empowerment, but “it’s also the ability to have women who are bad characters …”(2013). The reason why critics have claimed the film to be misogynistic is because they have only looked at the larger picture: Gone Girl, a film about a self-absorbed woman who manipulates people to get what she wants. Instead, what critics should really be focusing on is the dynamic of a female author writing about a woman who struggles to keep hold of her own identity because of the stereotypes embedded in society and hence uses these stereotypes as a leverage for success.

Misogyny is the hatred or prejudice against women. It is a big word to blatantly throw at a scholar like Flynn because of her support for feminism. In fact, writer and editor, Amanda Dobbins, defends that calling out Flynn for writing a “misogynistic” piece completely ignores the main difference between misogyny and films with unlikable characters (2014). She explains in her written piece for Vulture that most people claim the film to be misogynistic because of Amy being “a true legendary piece of work.” She checks all the boxes for the crazy, emotional, manipulative, and conniving woman no one wants to be.

 

However, Gone Girl is not a misogyny, because it wasn’t created with the intention to prejudice or hate on women. Instead, it was created to dramatize the different aspects of a woman’s personality to be experienced by society. It is just the mere presence of an unlikable female character that make people hate the idea of Amy Dunne and of Gone Girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Not Misogynistic

Now, embracing the idea of female villainy can be hard for many since society has been built with gender-biased expectations. In fact, in a survey tackling what Americans value in each gender, the Pew research center found that about 97 percent of respondents used words like kind, honest, and caring to describe women (2018). Furthermore, the influence of brands and mega companies dictate how we perceive culture and society. Gendered media present to us an ideal image for women as they are portrayed as “significantly thinner passive, dependent on men, and only drawn to housework” (Davis, 1990).

 

Hence, the mere image of a conniving woman succeeding in her evil endeavors even builds more rage for sexists because women succeeding in their evil plans just isn’t acceptable, and for feminists because women shouldn’t be painted onto a dirty image of using their struggles and turning it into a fiction murder novel.

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Flynn recognizes this imbalance of representation explaining that “in literature, they [women] can be dismissably bad – trampy, vampy, bitchy types – but there’s still a big push back against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad and selfish” (Flynn, 2013). It seems like for any female antagonist movie, that there must be a valid reason for a woman’s actions like a drug addiction, a mental disorder, or a family problem, and since Amy doesn’t have a societally acceptable reason for her actions, makes her unaccepted by anyone.

In spite of these criticisms thrown at her, Flynn argues against critics of her work by claiming that literature needs a taste of true female villainy. She explains that the lack of female villains in novels is something she mourns for. Adding that she longs for female villains who are not of the stereotypical ill-tempered character who scheme for more clothes or hot men. She says that she wants “violent, wicked women. Scary women. Don’t tell me you don’t know some” (2013).

The mere fact that Flynn is longing for a character so venomous and so real is a piece of reality that we are missing from the whole story. She makes it clear that these violent, wicked, and scary women are real, but what’s not explored by many is the probability of these heinous traits being part of women, innately. She also argues that although most of her stories revolve around a woman taking extreme measures whether emotionally or physically does not imply psychopathy. She says, “I don’t write psycho bitches. The psycho bitch is just crazy – she has no motive, and so she’s a dismissible person because of her psycho-bitchiness” (2013).

Amy’s behavior is neither that of a psychopath nor a sociopath. She is driven to the edge due to the imbalance in her marriage and in herself. Her constant battle with herself is what drew her closer to the edge because she was so used to being in control of her circumstances that when she was turning into the person she hated, she broke down. Part of what broke her are the stereotypes placed on women. In fact, the film explores three of the major female stereotypes in society.

 

First is Amazing Amy, a character that symbolizes Amy’s longing for success and power. Amazing Amy is happy, she’s fun to be with, she’s caring toward others, and she has a dog. Second is the idea of the Cool Girl. In the film, Amy conformed to the image of a cool girl, which she declared in an exceptionally written monologue: “Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex….. cool girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl” (Flynn, 2014). Third is the housewife which is where Amy tries her best to become the apron-wearing, cookie-baking, kitchen wife that pleases her husband.

 

 

 

These gender stereotypes are embedded in society and are not easily removed from what people are used to. Hence, we’ve grown up with sexist remarks engraved into our personalities and some of us may even struggle to get rid of these: calling a woman “crazy” or “emotional” for expressing herself, calling out women for improper behavior because “women don’t do that” etc. The presence of media doesn’t make this any easier. The internet makes everything fast, temporary, and desensitized. These stereotypes are all around and it puts us in a constant battle between wanting to be ourselves, breaking the stigma of female stereotypes, but also wanting to fit in and be accepted.

There is no doubt that Gone Girl has broken into the minds of many, but questionably enough, this film and this author deserves to be recognized for addressing the weaker points of feminism and presenting an idea contradictory to that of society. It teaches us about the weight of gender stereotypes and pushes the boundaries of feminism we are not aware of. Not only teaching us about deceit and anger in the world, but also giving us a glimpse of what we run away from about ourselves.

 

As best said in the words of Rothman, “Gone Girl has resonated for a reason. It has found a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us, and expressed it” (2014).

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, although more contextual evidence and research will be needed to gain a deeper understanding of gender stereotypes and how it has influenced a broad range of circumstances, I argue that the film itself is not misogynistic because it does not purposefully hate on women, but instead does paint an understandable picture of how gender stereotypes can build personalities.

 

Studying the film from an outsider’s perspective, the author is trying to address the need for a broader spectrum of feminism, and an understanding for the complexities of self-perception and narcissism by showing the inner dynamic of a woman who is confused about her personality and tries to conceal her underlying desires by conforming to what the society expects from her. It’s not misogynist because we are not hating on women. It is a vivid depiction of what women can be and are underneath.

 

We all have an ego in nature, and no matter how hard someone may deny it, a critical person will know how cruel they are on the inside and how one struggles to balance being authentic and being likable.

 

Bibliography

Burkeman, O. (2013, May 1). Gillian Flynn on her bestseller Gone Girl and accusations of misogyny. The Guardian. Retrieved from             https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/01/gillian-flynn-bestseller-gone-girl-misogyny

Cappello, N., ContributorScreenwriter, & Writer, F. (2014, July 9). How “Gone Girl” is   misogynistic literature. Retrieved July 21, 2019, from HuffPost website:       https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-gone-girl-is-misogynistic_b_5572288

 

Gone Girl (2014)—Box office mojo. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2019, from https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=gonegirl.htm

 

Fincher, David. Gone Girl. 2014.

 

Davis, D. M. (1990). Portrayals of women in prune-tune network television: Some demographic characteristics. Sex Roles, 23, 32.5332.

 

Grice, L. (2016). Simply amazing: A study of female oppression, power, societal response and     cultural impact in gillian flynn's 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2gone    girl1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2 (Order No. 10128991). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1799283725). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-        com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/1799283725?accountid=14541

 

NW, 1615 L. St, Washington, S. 800, & Inquiries, D. 20036 U.-419-4300 | M.-419-4349 | F.- 419-4372 | M. (n.d.). How

Americans describe what society values in men and women.  Pew Research Center. Retrieved July 25, 2019, from             https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/interactives/strong-men-caring-women/

 

Rothman, J. (2014, October 8). What “Gone Girl” is really about. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/gone-girl-really

 

Saner, E. (2014, October 7). The Gone Girl backlash: What women don’t want. The Guardian.  Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/07/gone-girl-backlash-david-   fincher-misogynist-feminist

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