Fantasies of the Good Life

Responding to Rape Culture in 13 Reasons Why

Bibliographic Data

ID12975008
AuthorsCameron Greensmith (0000-0002-8308-9842, Kennesaw State University, corresponding author), Jocelyn Sakal Froese (0000-0002-8365-5680, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Year2021
Volume14
Issue1
Pages85-100
Publication date2021-02-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGirlhood Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1938-8209 • E-ISSN: 1938-8322
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/ghs.2021.140108
OpenAlexW3131778131
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited20

Using Lauren Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism, we address the ways in which rape culture, as depicted in Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why and the first two seasons of the Netflix adaptation, shapes girls’ agency and attachment to possible futures. We take seriously the ways in which social and institutional structures in 13 Reasons Why produce girls’ livability as tied to everyday forms of sexist violence, which supposedly grant them access to what they think of as the good life. Bound up in these cruel attachments is a more limited set of options than may appear available: girls are called upon to endure daily violence in hopes of achieving this fantasy or to choose alternative paths, such as slow death or even suicide

Adaptation (eye · Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Everyday life · Fantasy · Futures contract · Literature · Optimism · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Set (abstract data type · Social science · Sociology · The good life · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Law · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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