IS THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD A WOMAN?

Journalist: Elina Turbina

Illustrator: Signe Aanes

Who is a modern woman? A question such as this has been on the tongue of many since the rise of mainstream feminism. ‘Girlboss’, ‘pick-me girl’, ‘bimbo’ - these, and countless other examples are the identities society is trying to define and assign to us. The portrayal of trends and complications of modern womanhood has been more popular than ever, and not without a cause. The media has taught us to learn and understand men to a sufficient degree. They feel more multidimensional, deep, forgivable. Trauma this, emotional immaturity that. Progressive times demand the female counterpart to what it is like to be a woman. And I think that Joachim Trier’s Julie from the Worst Person in the World is a great example of that.

There have been criticisms of Julie’s character being a woman written by a man, which to some negates the sincerity of the character and puts her right into the male gaze stereotype. Yet, however ironic this may seem, Julie feels much more relatable than most portrayals of modern women in media. Julie is complicated, she desperately wants to be good, to keep everyone around her happy. But she does it through ways that do not necessarily make her feel good, instead oftentimes sabotaging her own happiness. She switches between chosen career paths, hairstyles and clothing, boyfriend types, values, and personalities. Her identity is extremely volatile, vulnerable. It is hard for me to speak for the other modern women, but as for myself, I finally felt seen while watching Julie’s complexities come to life.

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek once said in an interview that, while men tend to think they have a strong sense of self, women operate within the true subjectivity of their self. They act with the subconscious notion that the ‘true self’ does not exist, and instead we are all just a bunch of masks projected onto a void. By this logic, no people have a set personality, instead they are a vessel for perpetual transformations. This point of view would then explain why Julie is never settled.

Julie molds herself according to the people she wants to please. She lets herself be vibrant and independent when she meets her romantic interests, yet folds under the pressure of having to decide who she is and what she wants whenever her relationships become stronger and more intimate. She moves on from these uncomfortable realizations to try other personalities on herself, to get to the bottom of what is the best fit for her ‘true self’. On this path, she learns to stop looking for reassurance from other people and instead allow the irony of life move her ‘with the flow’. Although her quest for her ‘true’ identity seems to be ongoing even by the end of the movie, the story finishes in a hopeful manner, neither punishing nor rewarding Julie’s uncertainty.

So, what does the film say about a modern woman? Is she the worst person in the world? The film does not provide us with the answers that would bring clarity to this statement. The truth is that we all feel like the worst person in the world sometimes. But unless we stop looking for others to dictate who we truly are and finally accept our ephemerality, this feeling will persist.

Let go of the desire for easy answers and permanence. Accept that we have no control. Change is all we have.