Can We Please Talk About The Idea of You

The movie, not the book.

I've been sick for nine days now. Like sick sick. I spent a lot of last week in bed watching movies and trying to sleep in between coughing fits.

One of those movies was The Idea of You. Has anyone else seen this? It's the only movie I remember watching in my fugue state. Maybe because it's the only one that made me mad.

If you've seen it, did it bother you at all?

It's certainly not the only movie I watched that undermines women in subtle-not-subtle ways, but something about this one really got under my skin. 

It starts off by shining a light on the sad, ridiculous, mind bending rule that women can't date younger men and keep their dignity. But then it lets its heroine – and every other female in the movie – be complicit in keeping the shame story alive, and then lets the lead model how to be small and ashamed for her teenage daughter, but they disguise it as a mom putting her daughter first.

Here honey, here's how to let others dictate what you can and cannot do with your body. Let me very specifically show you how to cower and retreat in shame, rather than stand up for myself and for you. 

That's how it landed for me. What about you?

I expect to return to our usual programming next week, but in the meantime, I'd love to know if this movie pissed you off too, or if you loved it. Either way, let's talk about why.