Recently, many women and girls have been expressing their femininity through highlighting female icons featured in media, mostly in online spaces. They’ve made numerous analyses and edits dedicated to the fictional women who impacted their lives. While some characters that have been highlighted are mostly agreeable, there have also been some controversial ones that have been circling around, mostly surrounding the concept of feminine rage. Movies like Pearl and Promising Young Woman have been brought into the limelight, but one of the most prevalent examples that fall under this morally gray category is Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne.
If you’re not familiar with the plot of Gone Girl, either the book or movie adaptation (spoilers ahead), it initially revolves around the disappearance of Amy Dunne, and how her husband, Nick Dunne, may have been behind it. It’s later revealed that Amy had set up an elaborate plot trying to frame Nick for murder due to his infidelity. Both deal with their separate hurdles, as Nick deals with accusations and evidence constantly stacking against him, and Amy keeps trying to keep herself under the radar. In the end, she murders and pins her “kidnapping” on a childhood friend and returns to Nick.
Although Amy goes through with actions that range from morally questionable to absolutely wrong and illegal, some women seem to stand with some of Amy’s ideas. Usually, they stand with the concept of her “cool girl” monologue, which Amy speaks about around the time the audience finds out that she manufactures her missing person’s case. In the movie, you see her driving away, making her appearance unrecognizable, and checking off items on a detailed list. She explains how for many years, she’s tried to be the “cool girl,” by trying to fit in with men by eating junk food and “being game” with everything, while also still being feminine-appearing, such as staying skinny and being sexually desirable. Despite her best efforts, it backfires when she finds out about Nick cheating on her with a college student, as men could eventually grow bored and move on with something or someone else. Rather than just having a divorce or talking things out, her solution is the ultimate revenge: try to get Nick arrested for her “murder” and ruin his reputation.
Many people have compared women liking Amy to men liking icons such as the Joker from DC Comics or Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Both franchises show these men committing heinous acts, yet men relate to the fact that they can’t fit in within their respective societies. This has been more apparent with the recent lonely men epidemic, however, they are criticized for idolizing psychopaths. Amy’s appeal is slightly different from these male characters. Living in a patriarchal world where women feel the need to appease men to be seen as “ideal” or “cool” puts a lot of pressure on us, especially when we know that they can easily up and leave at any time. This is a sad reality for many women, and it’s still a big issue to this day. As women, we’re still surrounded by constant judgment and double standards.
However, there are a lot of things that aren’t brought up about Amy’s story, both before and after the “cool girl” monologue. Growing up, her parents wrote a series of books titled Amazing Amy, which is heavily based on her life. However, whenever she faced shortcomings in her childhood, her parents made “Amazing Amy” overcome them, thus solidifying her issues with identity, perfectionism, and how she’s seen by others. These issues manifest into horrible acts, such as framing a high school classmate as a stalker, a former lover for sexual assault, and Nick for her murder. All instances come from her image, whether as a student, girlfriend, or wife, and going to extreme lengths to protect it. Additionally, she returns to the vicious cycle that she criticizes later in the story. When she sees Nick go on a talk show and confess how he wants to be a better husband for her, she decides to return to him (but not without tying a few loose ends, such as pinning her kidnapping on an old friend she was hiding out with, and conveniently murdering him in “in self-defense”).
While she isn’t the best feminine figure to look up to, there are aspects of Amy that make her appealing. She encompasses elements of “feminine rage,” which has been a popular concept to analyze in media today, along with having technically correct viewpoints on maintaining feminine perfection in the eyes of men. Even with these silver linings, a broken clock is capable of being right twice a day. While we can recognize that someone who’s bordering on evil can make good or even great points about patriarchy and modern women, it doesn’t make them the absolute feminist icon that many people see them as.