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Toxicity At It’s Finest: Blake Lively – “It Ends With You!”

 

“With great power comes great responsibility,” quoted by French author Voltaire and made famous by Stan Lee’s Spiderman, is a value-system blatantly misused by Blake Lively (producer and actor) in the promotions for her new movie “It Ends With Us”.  This movie is about intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence (DV), but in the promos for the film, Blake Lively, her marketing and PR team, seem to be glossing over the tough and real subject it deals with and focusing instead on “grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it." 

 

This is classic minimizing of the platform Lively has to make a difference and inspire those that are in such toxic IPV relationships, to work-up their strength and change their fate.  Instead, the focus is on pitching it like a chick-flick, aka ‘Barbie’ wave of wearing pink to go watch the film. 

 

A movie such as this needs to be dealt with sensitivity and care. IPV is a major issue with 1 in 4 women globally subjected to IPV.  IPV includes physical violence, sexual violence (contact and non-contact like sexting), stalking and psychological aggression.  Data from U.S. crime reports suggest that about one in five homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. The reports also found that over half of female homicide victims are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.[1] 

 

According to data from Center for Disease Control) CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), approximately 41% women and 26% men have experienced IPV in the US.[2]  Specifically in India, the 2019-2021 National Family Health Survey states that 32% of Indian women have experienced IPV at least once since the age of 15.

 

As you can see, it is not a light topic; and it is in the premier of this film that this actor has also launched her own alcohol and haircare brand.  Putting it mildly, all her actions are acts of many insults upon many injuries.

 

The movie’s press promos spearheaded by a famous actor such as Blake Lively, is insensitive, misplaced and tone deaf to say the least.  It reeks of narcissistic traits being played out at a global stage and the citizens of the world have rightly called her out on her behavior.

 

Yet another attempt on the part of this actor to earn some feminist miles is by biting back at a journalist who was doing her job perfectly by congratulating Lively on her pregnancy and asking her about the clothes in this movie.  Making this interviewer uncomfortable, being rude and giving mean girl by actually making this interviewer want to quit her job – (that is have intense self-doubt) were again, all narcissistic actions.

 

Survivors of IPV have got a whiff of your commercial leveraging of an intensely difficult life situation, Blake.  IPV has an impact on the mental, physical and biological health not only of the one being subject to this abuse but also children and other family members and friends that are in the sphere of this individual.

 

“It Ends With You” Blake Lively,  take ownership of misusing this topic by saying, “Yes, I made a mistake. I am sorry.”

 

Having said that, your apology means nothing and the fact that it has not come spontaneously, reflects clearly how you choose to be a responsible human in an influential position.  The permission for you to influence has now been revoked. It has ended with you, hasn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Chandra R, Srivastava S, Singh A, Mukherjee S, Patel JK. Locating perpetrators of violence against women in India: An analysis of married men's characteristics associated with intimate partner violence. PLoS One. 2023 Aug 4;18(8):e0289596. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289596. PMID: 37540688; PMCID: PMC10403108.

 

 

Jack SP, Petrosky E, Lyons BH, et al. Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 27 States, 2015. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018;67(No. SS-11):1–32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6711a1external

 

Leemis RW, Friar N, Khatiwada S, Chen MS, Kresnow M, Smith SG, Caslin S, & Basile KC. (2022). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2016/2017 Report on Intimate Partner Violence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 


[1] Jack SP, Petrosky E, Lyons BH, et al. Surveillance for Violent Deaths — National Violent Death Reporting System, 27 States, 2015. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018;67(No. SS-11):1–32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6711a1external

 

[2] Leemis RW, Friar N, Khatiwada S, Chen MS, Kresnow M, Smith SG, Caslin S, & Basile KC. (2022). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2016/2017 Report on Intimate Partner Violence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

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