On Aug. 9, “It Ends with Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, premiered in theaters. It quickly became a movie of the summer, grossing over $300 million worldwide. The movie’s protagonist is Lily Bloom, a florist who is in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid, a wealthy and charismatic neurosurgeon. Blake Lively plays Lily, and the film’s director, Justin Baldoni, plays Ryle.
Before the film even premiered, it was met with controversy.
Baldoni’s marketing of the movie emphasizes its key theme — domestic abuse. In several of his interviews and press junkets, he acknowledges the sensitivity of the story, discusses valuable resources for victims and gives his insight on the topic as both a man and an actor who portrays the abuser in the film.
On the other hand, Lively has received criticism for using the movie’s press to sell her haircare line and promote her husband Ryan Reynolds’ film “Deadpool and Wolverine.” On multiple occasions, she has marketed the movie as a fun get-together for friends, with Lively even suggesting that viewers wear florals, gather their girlfriends and go see the movie. In fact, the criticism has resulted in comments being disabled on her recent posts, but fans’ comments can still be viewed on the movie’s official Instagram page.
Hoover and Lively’s hyping up of the movie to be a frilly and fun time out has led to them facing scrutiny across TikTok and their personal Instagram accounts, with people emphasizing that they should mirror Baldoni’s focus on the movie’s portrayal of domestic violence instead of sensationalizing it.
Genevieve Crane, a professor in Stony Brook University’s creative writing program, discussed the conflicting roles publishers play in promotion in an email interview with The Statesman.
“I don’t think a publisher should be responsible for moralizing on creative work, but at the same time publishers in this landscape are obligated to have ‘brand identities’ on social media, which means that their company has more ‘personality’ than it did in the past,” she said. “It can be so easy for enthusiasm/PR to be misconstrued as approval or fetishization of something morally reprehensible.”
She mentioned lips being presented on covers of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial book “Lolita,” which tells the story of a man who falls in love with his 12-year-old stepdaughter and sexually abuses her. Nabokov did not want the cover to focus on the sexualization of the female character, yet publishers went and did so anyway.
“[This is] another example of publishing sidestepping moral quandaries for the sake of sales. Because of this, the accounts representing Hoover’s novel […] run the risk of promoting a popular book in ways that can come off as sort of flippant when the content is centered around domestic violence,” Crane said.
Publishers and bookstores market the novel as a romance novel and its cover exhibits pink flowers, alluding to the protagonist’s job as a florist. However, the cover features pink and flowery associated with romance and traditional femininity, making the novel attractive to young women and girls — the primary readers of romance novels. The novel is often described as a classic love triangle of Lily choosing between Atlas, her first love and whom she eventually ends up with, and Ryle, despite actually being about Lily and Ryle’s abusive relationship and how Atlas helps Lily escape.
Consequently, this mismanaged marketing has led to hundreds of people on social media romanticizing Lily and Ryle’s relationship, with some even labeling the abusive plotline as a “dark romance” to appeal to fans of the growing genre.
Hoover and Lively’s handling of the film’s promotion is a prime example of how popular culture has made it acceptable to take advantage of the interpretive openness of the creative arts to gain publicity on social media. Giving media like “It Ends with Us” the wrong attention harms creative works by falsely depicting the gravitas associated with graphic sexual content and relationships.
“The cover is clearly operating under the bait-and-switch of chick-lit connotative images that you might see on a Tampax box: the pink, the flowers…even the title implies that this book has the trappings of an idealized romance. That means that the ‘twist’ of this novel is the abuse,” Crane said.
This culture of glorifying abuse and dark romance existed before Lively’s commentary. Several novels and movies depict these themes under the guise of love, and victims of domestic abuse often believe that their partner loves them and that they should stay together. Being a public figure is generally equated with possessing a lot of social media power. Anyone who has seen the press junkets, heard about the actors’ comments and engaged with any of the parties involved in managing and producing the film could be inclined to believe the lead actress.
The book has sold over 10 million copies and has polarizing reviews. Readers have either commended Hoover for portraying an authentic perspective of people who miss the early signs of soul-sucking abusive behavior or have heavily criticized the novel as anti-feminist and misogynistic. The latter of the two seems to be a recurring theme throughout Hoover’s canon, with readers complaining about the sexualization of women and children. In her other novels such as “Verity” and “Ugly Love,” characters discuss the genitalia of a newborn, exhibit graphic spousal and child abuse and several of Hoover’s female protagonists don’t have much in the way of identities beyond their love interests.
Dark romance has a high standing among book readers, so it is no surprise that authors and publishers tend to market abuse and their stories under this description. However, just because creative work can be interpreted broadly does not mean that it should. False advertising to gain clicks and trends should not come at the cost of disrespecting people who suffer from domestic violence, and should not encourage young women and men to seek destructive relationships.
The art of creative fiction is that it grants readers the opportunity and pleasure to interpret it however they want. However, the obsession and glorification of dark themes on social media are highly problematic and threaten this very principle of art. In the case of “It Ends with Us,” the misbranding of domestic abuse as a romantic story about falling in love skews impressionable minds about what is healthy and normal in relationships.
Hoover’s harmful depictions often find a way to be justified on social media. So, not only does this teach young impressionable readers that violence is expected, but that it can always be justified — that what they perceive to be violent is an act of love. This physically, emotionally and psychologically distorts perceptions of relationships for years to come, according to Obbie West, a known advocate of domestic abuse awareness. With TikTok and Instagram being such massive platforms, untrustworthy authors can promote their stories to unlimited scopes of audiences claiming anything they want. Likewise, followers and users of #booktok and #bookstagram can get anyone to believe anything, given it fits the “right aesthetic.”
“I don’t have a problem with writing about abuse,” Crane wrote. “But I do have a problem with how it’s packaged and sold.”
