Happy belated Women in Horror Month, ladies and women who, like myself, gag at the thought of being called a lady. This week, I finally set aside the time to binge watch the Netflix original series, YOU, starring Gossip Girl and Stepdad actor, Penn Badgley. Any fellow GG fan will see the similarities of Badgley’s Joe Goldberg to his former Dan Humphrey: both smart, well read New York outcasts, out of place amongst trust fund party girls.
While Dan was no stranger to lusting over Serena Van Der Woodsen, This time Badgley takes it up a notch. His chilling depiction of a man obsessed, earns him a nod for horror actor to watch out for. He is both loveable and terrifying, going in and out of levels of sanity and reason. He creates beautiful moments as we hear his inner thoughts, directly followed by his real time words and actions.
The show keeps you watching through the Antagonist’s POV, every scene narrated by Joe, while often switching up to see things through the eyes of his girlfriend. It’s incredibly well written; the genius being that it gets you right into the mind of the killer from the start. The same way an actor playing the villain has to step into the mind of his character and feel justified, YOU makes us feel so intuned with his feelings that you start to side with him. He’s murdered people and you still want him to get away at times. I had to continually remind myself what a creep he was in the first episode, because otherwise I liked him more than anyone else in the show.
Actually, let’s go ahead and review his behavior during the first episode. He’s at the bookstore that he manages in the city when he spots Guinevere Beck, mostly referred to as “you” throughout, and right away starts to analyze what she wants based on what he sees; Throwing out old ideas that women dress any certain way at all based on men. He then talks to her, finds out her name, and dives right into the social media stalking. This isn’t abnormal, as we live in a social media driven world where everyone’s lives are uploaded and instantly available at the touch of your fingertips. What is weird, is finding out her address, going to her apartment, and standing outside her window watching her. And then, oh god, is he masturbating in the bushes?! Ok, he just turned up the creep dial. He follows this class act by entering her apartment, (is it still breaking and entering if the door isn’t locked?) rummaging around through her stuff, and stealing her panties. #pervert. No amount of redeemable boyfriend behavior after this makes up for how it starts. No amount. The time they have their first date, he’s already been watching her for days, been inside her apartment, learned almost everything about her and everyone else in her life, seen her naked (that one was maybe on her. Shut your goddamn blinds, you’re on the first floor) and been connected to her every text through her stolen phone. If this isn’t unfair grounds of a new relationship I don’t know what is.
It’s interesting to see how he views himself and his actions throughout. He does unspeakable things, but somehow thinks they’re acts of love, seeing as how he “did everything for You.” He’s killed, but he’s “not a killer.” There is a scene that stands out to me, where he is watching Beck’s friend, Peach, as she watches Beck in the bathtub. He’s appalled at how she can stand there and watch her. He recognizes that it’s crazy behavior and intrusive, yet he is doing it himself.
Now let’s talk about Beck.
She is a non interesting, wannabe writer who lacks discipline and charisma. Around episode 6, I turned to my fiancé and said “She could be recast every scene and I’d hardly notice.” For someone so wanted, she is really quite ordinary and bland. Plus with her whining about how she has things harder than most, but then showing zero grit or follow through, she doesn’t have many redeeming qualities. Maybe that’s why this show is so important. Not every girl who is stalked is remarkable. No one is safe. It’s the old “What were you wearing?” accusation of rape culture, when most girls who are attacked are slumming it or covering up to begin with.
Lack of charisma does not a safe girl make.
This show is a great depiction of what it’s like being a woman in this world. Sure, she doesn’t know how to close her blinds (even in that motel room. Yikes.) but she never does anything to warrant any of this happening. Yet, every predatory man she encounters turns it around and tries to make her feel like it’s her fault, that she came onto him, that she “asked for it”, and that every unwanted advance is somehow based on something she did wrong. This woman can do nothing in life or business without it coming back to sex. Her apprenticeship is almost dissolved because her professor wants to sleep with her, she can’t try to get published without almost being raped, I mean everything, everything she does with her career in mind, is served with a side of “what are you willing to do for it?”
I’ll take “being a woman“ for 300, Alex.
These are the things that I think of when people scoff at women’s marches. The comments of “what do you not have that men do?” How about freedom to be a living breathing human being and not just a sex object no matter what I say or do? Beck’s self worth is being constantly questioned and I’m sure there are still people out there who would bring up the fact that she has sex with a lot of random men throughout the show, like ownership over her own sexuality has anything to do with unwanted and disrespectful come ons and expectations. The truth is, we aren’t taken seriously. We have to bring up rape if we really want to argue our right to our own bodies choices. We have to bring up medical reasoning if we want to fight for our right to birth control coverage on our insurance plans. God forbid we say the real reason we should have access to sex education, birth control, and safe abortions: Because we have a right as human beings to have full control over our own bodies, just like men do. Enough with these 18th century old views of women, enough with the church making all of our natural urges and instincts out to be sins, and enough with men projecting their lack of decency or willpower onto us. We shouldn’t have to be prepared to say we weren’t drunk or scantily clad when it comes to sexual assault, because someone will always find a way to dig down deep and pull out a reason why it was actually our fault.
It’s quite amazing that the only thing we are allowed ownership of is responsibility for men’s actions in regard to us.
The other really good point this show conveys, is that people are not fundamentally good or bad. His relationship to his neighbor’s son is really quite beautiful. He takes care of him, steps in like a big brother, and ultimately saves his life. That doesn’t change the fact that he sticks Beck in a cage. Again, everything he does he has a reason for and personally justifies. It doesn’t mean that he’s not psychotic, but he’s not intentionally setting out to hurt people. It’s significant because it’s critical to be able to read signs, especially in a relationship. Too often, women are willing to make excuses for men because of something else unrelated that they do or say. If you think that dangerous people only make bad choices and aren’t also capable of at least showing love, you’re wrong. The picture of the “handsome, charming, serial killer that no one expected” is a cliche for a reason. Most killers hide that shit well. The side of them that no one sees is in the dark for a reason. Too often, we think of good and evil in black and white, failing to see the grey areas that they live in.
Personal feelings aside, as scream queens go, Beck wasn’t the worst victim. Let’s do a quick Final Girl rating. I was actually more impressed with Beck’s survival skills than I originally thought I would be. The scene where she finds the box in the bathroom ceiling, (beautiful energy shift by the way) is the sort of situation that has driven me crazy in the past. Every time I’d see a girl standing there, red handed, allowing him to know she knows everything, or coming out showing her fear for him, it would have me screaming. But Beck did it right. She shut the door, gave herself time to think, cleaned up the evidence, (sort of) and came out acting normal toward him. I was so proud. But she was messy, and she wasted too much time leaving. Once in captivity, she did two things that were beneficial. One, she tried to convince him she forgave and loved him. Playing along was really the only option if she wanted out. Two, she offered him a solution. Coming up with a plan for pinning the entire thing on the therapist (#SurpriseJohnStamos) earned her creativity points. She went further than the typical Stockholm’s Syndrome sex kitten act, ala Jasmine in Aladdin. (She’s my favorite Disney princess for a reason. Comparatively, Belle actually developed Stockholm’s syndrome). It was a solid effort, made faulty only by her damn shifty eyes ogling the door. As final girls go, I give her a 6.5 out of 10. There’s not much I could have done better, but you can’t be a final girl if you die.
what did you think of YOU? Let me know below in the comments.
Til next time,
🔪Madame of Horror
Madame of Horror 
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