Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman

Emerald Fennell’s directing debut Promising Young Woman is a rap-revenge dark comedy. The film critiques the depth of rape myth acceptance in institutions, and the justice system as seen in the sentencing of Brock Turner and demonstrates the impacts of the #MeToo movement. The main character, Cassie Thomas, takes revenge on those she deems responsible for her best friend Nina Fisher’s sexual assault and suicide. Fisher was raped at a party by her classmate, Al Munroe, and was blamed for her assault by her other classmates as well as the Dean of the university (Fennell, 2020). It was determined Munroe’s future career as a doctor should not be interfered with over a “he said, she said situation”, despite the assault being recorded (Fennell, 2020, 0:45:02). There is an undercurrent of victim

Survivors of sexual assault often experience feelings of "shame, guilt, anxiety, or depression" that intensify when they are not supported by “friends, families, or authorities” (Chivers-Wilson, 2006, p,114). Rape Myths Over 90% of sexual assault victims on university campuses in the U.S. did not report their assault (National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), 2015, p.2). Hudspith et al. (2023) and Peterson (2019) attribute rape myths and rape culture as the primary reasons why victims do not come forward. Rape myths are predominant beliefs about victims and offenders that are considered facts used to justify the assaults of victims (Peterson, 2019). A literature review by Killean et al. (2022) examined the conception of victim hierarchies and the classification of deserving and undeserving victims (p.874). An “ideal victim” is conceptualized as “a person or category of individuals who when hit by a crime most readily are given complete and legitimate status of being a victim” (Christie, 1986,