Issues Of Consent And Sexual Assault In The Film - Promising Young Woman

This week we discuss 2020 film called Promising Young Woman.

As an overview, lead character Cassie Thomas is a 30-year-old medical student dropout.  Her medical school classmate was raped at the school. As the film plot plays out you learn there was neither an investigation by the school nor consequences from the legal system of the sexual assault report, the friend sadly committed suicide soon after the assault.

Cassie spends her nights feigning drunkenness in clubs and bars, posing as bait for ‘nice guys’. They take her to their homes, push her to take drink or drugs to sexually assault her during which she is pretending to be unconscious or unable to give consent, then she reveals her sobriety and confronts them when they try to take advantage of her.

As the film goes on, Cassie finds out the rape of her friend was filmed and shared among other students who have now gone on to have successful medical careers. Cassie revisits those who were informed of the rape to see if years on their opinions has changed. Sadly, it highlights the common myth around females who have been drinking and are then sexually assaulted have consented.

It also highlights how the assault not only impacted the victim so severely but also her family and close friend Cassie for years after with her own relationships with men.

The film also plays out a scene where the Dean of the school pretends she cannot remember the allegation and then goes on to state she could not ruin the reputation of a number of boys for the allegations of one drunk female.

The film addresses important issues of capacity, consent, failures of institutions to investigate and the long-term impact of sexual abuse. Sadly, this mirrors true accounts of sexual abuse that still take place today.

This is an important film that raises a number of issues that we see time and time again. Again, this is hopefully will raise awareness of the serious implications of consent and sexual assault and common myths around if an individual has been drinking their account is consider less important.

We would advise anyone who has suffered a similar experience to contact the police to disclose your assault. Also, your local Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.

There are a number of organisations that can be reached if the content of this podcast has impacted you.

• Safeline
• Survivors Trust
• Refuge
• Rape Crisis
• Samaritans

We encourage anyone who has concerns about sexual abuse to get in touch. You can contact Alan Collins at Alan.collins@hughjames.com or Danielle Vincent at  Danielle.vincent@hughjames.com