Most compelling of all wasn’t the way the stylish Sienna Miller’s betrayed wife, Sophie Whitehouse, came to terms with the betrayal and the implications that come with it. It’s that at no point does her over-privileged husband, rising star MP James, believe he’s done anything wrong. It may be fiction, but I could remember half a dozen “James” and “Sophie” from my college days without even trying.
The Netflix show Anatomy of a Scandal was like holding up a mirror to Polly’s college experience and the divided society within it. Credit:netflix
Dissecting the show and its incredible wardrobe department, I had countless conversations with other women who couldn’t understand why Oxford graduate Sophie agreed to support James after he was charged. of rape. Having existed in this world, I completely understand. From the moment she entered into a relationship with him – turning a blind eye to the pack mentality he exhibited when he was with his booze society buddies, and accepting that she would always play second fiddle – she implicitly agreed to endure whatever he threw at her. to her. Whether she realized it or not.
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When I was in Cambridge, I went out with a member of the liquor society, who was not allowed to speak to me until 10 p.m. on Friday because it was his liquor society night. A night that seemed to consist of going out to dinner with a group of girls from different colleges, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, then throwing his arms around his pals and whining to Robbie Williams angels or The Righteous Brethren You lost that feeling of love at the college bar. None of us girlfriends ever complained.
In a university where, on learning that it had to accept girls as students, one college lowered its flag and the students of another carried a coffin through town, that was it. In Anatomy of a ScandalSophie and James Whitehouse create what initially looks like the perfect marriage, but the uneven dynamic of their relationship grows alongside them.
While it’s awkward — and a little awkward — to date someone who won’t recognize you until after 10 p.m., it doesn’t even begin to touch the gray area around consent that dramas love. Anatomy of a Scandal and the movie 2020 Promising young woman enlighten. Men who get you too drunk to say no or who get so drunk they pretend not to understand you when you do. Or try.
That’s what I wanted to see in my novel on campus The meeting, which tells the story of Emily, a girl whose life is mangled by the events of one night when she drinks too much and loses the ability to say no. Years later, in a new life, she returns to settle old scores.
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While, to some extent, she comes out on top, just like Anatomy of a Scandalit’s Sophie and Promising young woman‘s Cassie Thomas hold their own oppressors to account, outside of fiction things aren’t often so clear cut. I am in no way saying that every lothario student is a predator, and it would be unrealistic to imagine a world where every vulnerable student is offered the chance for revenge. But it shouldn’t be unrealistic to imagine a world where no means no – and every man, and every woman, accepts that.
The meeting (Simon & Schuster) by Polly Phillips is now available.
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