Usurping the Victim’s Trauma Narrative: Victim-Blaming and Slut-Shaming on Season 1 of You1

Abstract

The American TV series You (2018-) has been the subject of a heated debate on both social media and Academia in regard to its ambiguous approach to feminism and gender violence, due to its prioritization of the perpetrator’s voice over the victim’s (Rajiva and Patrick 2019). In the present context of feminist activism, with movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up fostering female solidarity and giving voice to survivors of sexual violence, the series appears to have an opposite, and even sexist, agenda. Drawing on the concept of ‘trauma narratives’ (Vickroy 2004; Kohlke and Gutleben 2010), I argue that the first season of the show fails to grant the female victim, Beck, a therapeutic space where she can share her traumatic experience with a sympathetic audience, prioritising the perpetrator’s POV, instead. This makes the audience align with him, blaming his female victims for their promiscuity and even falling for his romanticised view of violence against women.