By: Betsy Peters '27
Lily Blossom Bloom, the steampunk flower shop owner from Boston, is in serious trouble. On top of recently opening her own business, she also just met the cutest neurosurgeon… who happens to be her best friend’s brother! Their chemistry is undeniable, but so is Lily’s commitment to her friend. Will she have to choose between the two? If so… who will it be?
This is the plot advertised for the movie It Ends With Us, released in theaters in early August 2024. The movie, purely going off of the previous context, sounds like a delight to see, an easy, light romantic comedy. “Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see!” proclaimed star actress, Blake Lively, in an interview with BBC. Except, upon doing just that with my sister in mid-August, I was startled to find that the movie was… not quite the aforementioned breezy, fun watch. Sitting dumbfounded in my reclining chair, listening to the heartbreaking opening chords of Taylor Swift’s, “My Tears Ricochet,” I found out that It Ends With Us is, in fact, a movie unpacking the conflicting struggles of domestic abuse. Looking around at the fellow shocked faces in my local AMC theater, I realized I was not alone.
It Ends With Us was a smashingly successful book by Colleen Hoover before it was adapted into a movie. As of now, the book has had 10 million copies sold and has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for 169 weeks. The book was popularized for how it portrayed domestic violence in a more realistic light, showing both the highs and lows to make for a tragic yet heartwarming read. Hoover announced the movie’s creation in 2019, starting the buzz around it five years before its release. In those five years, fans’ expectations had time to skyrocket while the movie entered the realm of reality as the director, Justin Baldoni, released more about the film. So, imagine the utter horror of the eager fanbase when August rolled around, and their treasured novel was being promoted as yet another girly romance movie! Outrage ensued. Social media blew up over night. And, when all was said and done, the public pushed one culprit into the center of the ring of fire…none other than their very own Lily Bloom–Blake Lively.
Clips of Lively throughout this press tour were analyzed and reanalyzed, picked apart and sewn back together to fit a new narrative. Cate’s own Pari Malik ‘27 described the situation as “lowkey crazy” saying, “She should have taken time to educate herself, even if she didn’t understand why.” The backlash from the movie began to overshadow the film itself, and soon, nobody was talking about the choices made in the movie, rather those made by Blake Lively. These critics drew from not just It Ends With Us, but also regarded interviews dating back to 2016 and beyond. Online discussions began to analyze the quality of Blake Lively’s character. Upon entering the search “Blake Lively” into TikTok, I was met with dozens of videos, the first one being content creator Matilda Patterson, saying that Blake gives off “mean girl vibes.” Such mass hate in such a short period of time made me wonder…why? What exactly had Blake Lively done to deserve this? Sure, mistakes were made, but did the punishment truly match the crime? And, furthermore, why did the situation feel so familiar?
My déjà vu was because I have seen this situation before, countless times with countless different women in Hollywood. The situation is always set up in a similar fashion: high expectations, poor execution, woman takes the blame. Just a few months ago, Jennifer Lopez experienced similar amounts of mass hate over her recently released film, This is Me…Now. Though the criticism started with the movie, it expanded into something far more hostile. Videos resurfaced of Jennifer interacting with fans, all portraying her as cold and out of touch. News sites like the Daily Mail painted her as “bonkers,” and so began her “fall from grace.” Sound familiar? You might not even recognize the pattern from either of these two women. Actress Rachel Ziegler fell victim to the cycle not two years ago during her press tour for the movie Snow White. Charli D’amelio, a Tiktok star, hit a similar wall after a clip of her hitting 100 million followers went viral.
Dozens of women, same story. The public is quick to hop on a bandwagon, taking the barest of evidence supporting their ideas and spinning it into a cyclone. In its wake; destruction and chilling emptiness. These stories make their rounds, reach the hungry eyes and ears of their viewers, and promptly move on. Of the twelve videos I saw regarding Blake Lively in It Ends With Us, eight of them were dated within the week the movie was released, and the remaining four within the following two weeks. Negative press hits hard and fast, leaving a vacancy for the next woman to take the fall.
The best way to combat this ruthless pattern is awareness. The more we acknowledge that we have all been a part of some form of mob mentality, the better we can be at spotting it in the future. Actions of reflection, simply asking ‘Why, exactly, am I angry right now?’, can be the first steps in tearing down the revolving door of villainized women in the media. So, as you head out to see It Ends With Us in theaters, challenge yourself to form your own opinions about the film and the actors. And please, do not make the same mistake I did—bring tissues.
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