The recently completed "Imperfect Victim" is not only this year's summer file, but also one of the best dramas this year so far. The episode focuses on a series of turmoil caused by a "rape case", highlighting a strong sense of reality.
Although the series looks quite "gimmick", the story is told rigorously and seriously. It is neither a "social issue drama" with the top priority and insufficient work, nor is it a "social drama" with loud slogans and only caters to a certain audience group. Cool drama". On the contrary, the 29 episodes focus on the analysis of the multi-party power game in a rape case, making the audience seem to be reading an in-depth report with a strong literary quality but tens of thousands of words, which often makes us contradictory, helpless, and painful. , It is difficult to advance the moment, and because of this, it gives us an unprecedented glimpse of the complex humanity and women's plight behind a rape case. It takes more than patience to watch this show, but a mental readiness to be challenged, offended, and stung at any time.
The Imperfect Victim poster
Regrettably, the whole episode, whether it is barrage, comments from netizens or serious drama reviews, has been emphasizing two issues: first, the victim is "imperfect", and even "Imperfect Victim" "People" itself also takes this as the title, and the main creator also believes that the victim Zhao Xun (played by Lin Yun) in the rape case is "imperfect"; Seeing decentness as the success of life (played by Liu Yijun), he is not that bad, and sympathetic voices have never been in the minority (mainly male audiences).
This article wants to examine the play and refute the above two arguments through the relevant theories of Ueno Chizuko, a well-known Japanese female scholar.
Victims don't care if they're perfect
Whether inside or outside the episode, almost everyone who focused on this rape case grasped one point: Zhao Xun is an "imperfect victim". In this rape case, many of her practices were controversial.
Victim Zhao Xun (played by Lin Yun)
For example, within three months of joining Dacheng Group, she was promoted from Guan Peisheng to the special assistant to the president. She spent more than 800,000 yuan on her before and after success, and bought her a lot of brand-name bags and clothes. She realizes that success has "something in store" for her, why didn't she say no sooner? In three months, she never once said "no" to success, why didn't she say it? Could it be that while she was lucky, she couldn't resist the temptation?
The perpetrator is successful (played by Liu Yijun)
For another example, on the question of whether she was raped, she initially denied it at the police station, but she also accepted the reconciliation conditions successfully offered, and was going to live in Thailand with her family, and was successfully "raised"; but later she regretted it and complained to the police Reported to the police, saying that she was raped; when making a statement, in order to make her accusation stronger, she lied to the police about some details, which led to the passive investigation of the police...
In short, everyone kept staring at and repeatedly emphasizing what Zhao Xun did not do well enough. The implication is: as long as you are a little bit "perfect", you are not greedy or weak, you will get more sympathy, and your accusations will be more serious. even, if you could have refused earlier, this rape case would not have happened.
Did you find out: Obviously many people intended to say that the "imperfect" victim is also a victim, but once the judgment of "imperfect victim" exists, we will definitely not be able to help criticizing the victim, and gradually The perspective of the crusade against the perpetrators has been shifted, or dispersed—we should have opened fire on the perpetrators, but instead we are entangled in the "imperfection" of the victims.
At this time, we have fallen into the trap preset by the perpetrators and the vested interest groups behind them, which is the "self-responsibility theory" mentioned by Chizuko Ueno. subject of decision".
This kind of theory, to put it in an easy-to-understand word, is women's "subjective initiative", "You shouldn't wear such revealing clothes in public", "You shouldn't accept gifts from the president casually", "You should be brave Refused" "It's all your fault that you couldn't help being tempted, and you were lucky"... Therefore, Zhao Xun was still blaming himself in his suicide note.
In the suicide note, Zhao Xun is still criticizing himself instead of attacking the perpetrators, which is the inadequacy of the script.
Even Lin Kan (played by Zhou Xun), the barrister in the play and an independent, sober and rational elite woman, also falls into this thinking trap. When she talked with her parents, Zhao Xun, and policewoman Yan Ming (played by Zhong Chuxi) about her mentor's sexual harassment of her several times, she was full of self-blame and self-loathing, thinking that she was the one who was wrong, and she wanted to get into a better law firm. , actually accepted the help of a mentor who sexually harassed her... It was because she did not "responsible for herself" that she paid the price.
Lin Kan (played by Zhou Xun) was a victim of sexual harassment when she was a student, and she has been self-reflecting.
However, as Chizuko Ueno said: there is a dilemma in the field of sociology: structure or subject? The more the subject insists on "self-determination" as an individual, the more the structure can be exonerated... "The subject may be able to temporarily transcend the structure, but it is undeniable that the pressure of the structure has an overwhelming advantage on the subject."
What does that mean? For example, why did a rape case happen? It can point to the issue of subjectivity, that is, women's "self-responsibility theory", is it because women are not doing well enough, and there is something wrong with women that leads to rape. ; it can also point to a structural problem - which is the fundamental problem, namely, the whole patriarchal social structure we live in that makes it so easy for a powerful man to rape a woman, most of the time There is no need to pay for it.
When we keep discussing the victim's "imperfection", we are talking about the issue of subjectivity, and naturally we downplay the criticism of structural issues. Our firepower is diluted, and we are already helping structural issues invisibly. "Excuse me."
It was only in the finale of the series that it was long overdue to point out this point
Therefore, the term "imperfect victim" in rape cases may have been problematic from the very beginning. The victim herself does not matter whether she is perfect or not. She can be imperfect, cowardly, greedy and vain, because the real culprit is "Structure" is the incarnation of "structure" and the perpetrator.
Don't care if the victim is perfect, but "listen, empathize, protect"
We always think that summing up some experiences from "imperfect victims", such as letting women bravely say "no" and telling women not to be greedy, is to let other women learn to protect themselves. In fact, this is strengthening the "self-responsibility theory" , which is invisibly helping the structure to excuse. Therefore, instead of examining the weakness of the victim, it is better to attack the perpetrator who takes advantage of the weakness of human nature.
"Imperfection" is sometimes just a common weakness of human nature in the face of structure, so there is no need to be too critical of yourself.
What's more, where there is no "perfect victim", they must have the ability to find out the "imperfect" place of the victim. Taking a step back, even if the victim is not perfect, even if Zhao Xun can't resist the temptation and hopes to use the chairman's favor to accelerate his promotion, even if Lin Kan got into a good law firm with the help of a mentor, they don't have to criticize themselves. As Chizuru Ueno said, "Everyone is an egoist, regardless of gender, but women have always been placed under the structure of 'pursuing their own interests only through men', so their survival strategy is either to seduce men, Or else it's taking advantage of men... in this structure, women will of course make the best use of the resources at hand to survive, and you can't blame them."
"It's just good for a man to be careful"
In order to broaden the audience's understanding of "rape" - not only "reckless force" is rape, gentle coercion will also be judged as rape; "Imperfect Victim"'s portrayal of the perpetrator breaks the stereotype The cognition in my impression - he is not necessarily rude, and he may spend hundreds of thousands of clothes and bags for Zhao Xun like the success in the play, and he keeps promoting Zhao Xun. Gentle and drizzly...
This did create an "illusion" for some viewers—they had a lot of sympathy for success, thinking that success was just a misunderstanding of Zhao Xun's meaning, and if Zhao Xun said "no", he would not continue; There is a rather nasty saying: success is rich in money, and there is no kind of woman you want to find for more than 800,000 yuan... Some men also said: If women are "beaten up" like Zhao Xun, then how can men dare to pursue women in the future?
Behind the argument of sympathy for success, it not only puts the responsibility on women, but also reflects that many men are not aware of the "harm" of structural problems at all.
Why didn't you realize it? On the one hand, men, as the vested interests in the structure, have long been accustomed to sit back and enjoy all the benefits, and are used to being the "superior" in the relationship between men and women. This has even been internalized into their instincts. They are accustomed to this Why don't you check.
But women who have always been in the "lower position" position in the structure have always been plagued by a sense of insecurity-this kind of trouble that most men have never felt. Just like in the movie "Barbie", when Barbie came to the real world and when many eyes looked at her, she felt vaguely uneasy, but Ken didn't feel this way. This is because there is a natural and unconscious gaze, appreciation and judgment in men's eyes.
The different positions of the two in the structure also lead to great differences in the cognition of some people. For example, Chenggong always thinks that he is pursuing Zhao Xun. As long as Zhao Xun does not say "no", even if her eyes are dodging, resisting and uneasy, Chenggong will regard it as "rejection and welcome", and he enjoys it.
Successfully "playing" Zhao Xun's painful entanglement
When Chenggong was investigated by the public security agency on suspicion of rape and was released after a few days in the detention center, he immediately asked for an appointment with Zhao Xun, wanting to ask Zhao Xun in person why she did that, he survived more than half of his life He has experienced so many turmoil in his life, only this time he was unexpected. Judging from the expression of success, he was really confused, and he really didn't realize where he was wrong.
Chizuko Ueno must have never read "The Imperfect Victim", but she once wrote a paragraph in the book to describe the "don't know" reaction of men, which is exactly the same as success, "They must have been Doing the same thing, only once in a while being accused by a woman and being horrified... 'I've always been like this, how could there be a problem?'"
Shocking success, really bad and unaware
Some men are unaware of structural problems. In addition to enjoying the benefits and not realizing it, there is another situation. They are aware of their own filth, but they know how to package it better.
This is also what another line in "Barbie" said, "Does the patriarchy not exist?" "No, the patriarchy is just more hidden." Ueno Chizuko also had a similar judgment, "Social change is not the truth, but the truth. Principles and words of the scene".
In other words, in order to achieve the possession and violation of women smoothly, some men will pack up to "respect women", such as being as personable as successful, generous, full of tenderness towards women, and also say various "scene words", such as "Barbie The male president of the Mattel Group in ". But in fact, they just found a more ingenious method, they are still standing in the position of "superior" to stare at women, define women, and possess women...
Such a move is very deceptive. But "Imperfect Victim" is to tear down this "camouflage", and even more to warn of this "camouflage"-with the awakening of more and more women, as women's self-awareness increases, this "sugar-coated cannonball" For some women it doesn't work at all, the women turn them into "bullets" to shoot at men. Therefore, after a short period of hesitation, Zhao Xun insisted on calling the police, Yan Ming insisted on investigating the rape case, and Lin Kan even decided to give up everything and "turn over" to defend Zhao Xun...
Although in real life, there are still not many women like Zhao Xun, Yan Ming, and Lin Kan who speak out against injustice, but there will be more and more. This is also Chizuko Ueno's judgment on the new generation of women. She believes that the times are changing, and women are also "evolving". Men used to be used to the position of vested interests, and now this position is in danger of collapse and disintegration. Growing up under the care of his parents, he firmly believed that women are not inferior to men in all aspects, so he uttered an extremely legitimate and reasonable cry: 'I can't stand such injustice!' 'It's unreasonable!'".
Therefore, success does not need to "break the defense", men do not need to "break the defense", because this is destined to become a trend, no matter how wronged you have to suffer, and you have to get used to it if you are not used to it.
Some people will jump out and criticize, women are "punching" again, and so on, and it is becoming more and more difficult for men to survive. But as Chizuko Ueno asked, “Shouldn’t men’s problems be solved by men? It’s the perverts who force women to no longer trust men, but why don’t the majority of men turn their anger on perverts? Why don’t men take the initiative to attack The satyr movement also regards women's accusations as slander, and insists that "sexers are wronged"? The men who are most qualified to be angry with sexual harassers are men who do not sexually harass, but why do they want to cover up the scum instead of scolding them? "
Women don't have to worry about men being "careful" and will cause new exclusion to them, etc. Ueno Chizuko said, "Think about it, what would happen if they weren't careful with you? It's just good for men to be more cautious." She "It's entirely possible that their 'inadvertent act' of 'naturalness' is downright 'sexist,'" he said.
Women have been cautious under the structure for a long time, and men feel that they can't stand it just now? If you don't have a family and cheat like you are successful, plot against other women, and don't have the idea of gender equality in your mind, you will feel that "careful" is nothing at all. Your mother, wife, and daughter are all women, and other men " Careful" is good for them, so why aren't you a beneficiary?
Zhao Xun finally won the lawsuit
Of course, the discussion in this article is indeed very idealistic. For example, some people will examine the victim in various ways, so that the victim will bear more pressure from public opinion (the harsh criticism of Zhao Xun outside the play is a ready-made example); for example, the identification of rape cases in reality Very rigorous, women's "imperfection" may indeed prevent her appeal from being supported by law... But in any case, we still want to emphasize: the victim does not need to be perfect, and does not need to blame himself, let us stop reviewing the victim's "" Imperfect" and focus on reviewing the imperfection of the perpetrator; at the same time, we must also warn all perpetrators: even if the law is not on the side of the victim, we can use public order and good customs and the power of public opinion to make you pay the price. In the end, Lin Kan, Yan Ming, and Zhao Xun jointly made success pay the price, just like Ueno Chizuko said-"A woman's anger is by no means powerless."
