Promising Young Woman as a Social Problem Film (2020)

Introduction: Defining the Social Problem Film

As Doles (2023) points out, "social problem films (sometimes called social-consciousness films, message movies, or other similar phrases) are films that dramatize some set of concerns, which they depict as broadly representative of the conditions of their historical moment" (n.p.). In essence, a social problem film can be conceptualized as one that fuses a wider social conflict with the conflict — at the individual level — between the various characters depicted therein. The larger social conflict in the case of Promising Young Woman (2020) is victim blaming and the failure to respect the choices and wishes of vulnerable women. Rape culture continues to be perpetuated by the failure to bridge the gender power gap in matters of decision making, and it is this power gap that promotes the oppression of women. It is this same power gap that leads some men to believe they are justified in taking advantage of vulnerable women.

The Public Power Gap in Promising Young Woman

This larger social conflict has been integrated into the conflicts occurring between the film's characters through the encounters that Cassie has as she approaches thirty. Cassie finds — or inserts — herself into numerous scenarios where her apparent vulnerability (feigning drunkenness) serves as a motivating factor for certain men to pursue sexual contact with her. Examples include her encounter with Jerry and her encounter with Neil. The social conflict highlighted here also ties to Cassie's resolve to change the narrative while simultaneously seeking justice for her friend Nina.

It can be argued that the maintenance of male privilege and power over women effectively obstructs attempts to secure justice for female victims of violence. This is clearly illustrated by Dean Elizabeth Walker's failure to properly investigate Nina's reported assault and her decision instead to side with the perpetrator. It must also be noted that a woman's agency must never be used as justification for oppression or violence — including rape — in any of the scenarios recounted in this film.

In the film, "the public" can be understood as the situations women must navigate in both public spaces and behind closed doors, because it is in those contexts that their devaluation occurs. Lip service is paid to women in public, but what society truly thinks is revealed when events transpire in private. In this respect, the film resembles — and differs from — the situation faced by Jews in Gentleman's Agreement, where Jews are denied work, housing, and basic courtesy in public, yet receive private sympathy (as seen in the scene between Kathy and David near the end). In Promising Young Woman, what happens to women occurs behind closed doors, is shrugged off, and women are blamed for what befalls them. The dean herself makes precisely this argument in the film.

The film's opening scene is set in a bar — a public space where this issue frequently emerges — and is further developed through the disturbing dialogue of men who observe the protagonist appear heavily intoxicated. This scene contrasts with the dean's office at a college, another public institution where sexual violence occurs at disproportionately high rates. The dean, rather than challenging this culture, becomes part of it by deflecting blame onto victims. Cassie forces her to confront this complicity by making her empathize with the protagonist's traumatic past.

Public Spaces and Systemic Complicity

What the film ultimately shows is that these violations can occur anywhere: on the street (illustrated through catcalling), in bars, restaurants, high schools, colleges, and courtrooms. For this reason, the film can be characterized as socially conscious horror. One scene set in a high school, for instance, demonstrates how easily a young woman can be manipulated and lured into a car.

The courtroom — a public institution — is invoked when Cassie visits the lawyer whose actions allowed justice to fail, reflecting a real-life reality in which men are rarely sentenced for sexual crimes. There is also the scene where Cassie watches a makeup tutorial on achieving "blowjob lips" in the mirror, which speaks to the ways women are pressured to sexualize themselves in order to be considered desirable. The party itself is another public space where assault occurs; though depicted off screen, it is ultimately made audible when evidence of that night is finally revealed.

Hospitals, too, are public institutions — and it is in this setting that Cassie's boyfriend is introduced, only to later be revealed as complicit in the harm done to Nina. Cassie is also catcalled near the beginning of the film while walking to work, an experience shared daily by countless women. Additionally, the confrontation scene with the second man Cassie challenges is particularly significant: he is interrogated directly and embodies everything wrong with male entitlement and the thought processes that sustain it.

The Evolution of the Social Problem Film

Promising Young Woman (2020) stands out as a testament to the evolution of the social problem film, directly confronting issues that traditional message movies — such as Blackboard Jungle and White Dog — often relegated to subplot status or overlooked entirely. Through the lens of Cassie's story, the film foregrounds sexual violence and critically examines society's complicity in silencing survivors.

In traditional social problem films, the emphasis frequently falls on resolving broader social issues — juvenile delinquency in Blackboard Jungle, racism in White Dog, antisemitism in Gentleman's Agreement — with sexual violence functioning as a plot point that receives neither the scrutiny nor the resolution it demands. Promising Young Woman diverges from this pattern by making the repercussions of sexual violence and the systemic failures to address it the nucleus of its narrative. The film articulates a powerful critique of societal indifference and the ways in which systems of power protect perpetrators while further victimizing survivors. This is vividly illustrated in the scene where Cassie confronts Dean Elizabeth Walker about her disregard for Nina's assault, exposing the institutional betrayal that so often accompanies such incidents.

Moreover, the film challenges the white, patriarchal perspective that has dominated traditional social problem films. By centering a woman's quest for justice in a society that routinely dismisses her trauma, Promising Young Woman reimagines the message film for a contemporary audience. It represents a mutation of the social problem film, demonstrating how these narratives can evolve to address the nuances of modern societal issues.

Comparing the film with Gentleman's Agreement — which tackles antisemitism rather than sexism within American society — Promising Young Woman extends the conversation around discrimination to encompass the pervasive issue of gender-based violence. Whereas Gentleman's Agreement sought to challenge societal prejudices through its protagonist's lived experience, Promising Young Woman uses Cassie's quest to illuminate the often invisible barriers and biases that survivors of sexual violence encounter.

Promising Young Woman contrasts sharply with films like Blackboard Jungle and White Dog in its treatment of sexual violence. While those earlier films reduce sexual violence to plot devices, Promising Young Woman centralizes it, refusing to allow the issue to be swept aside. This shift not only emphasizes the film's critique of societal negligence but also challenges viewers to confront their own biases and complicity in a culture that frequently prioritizes the protection of male perpetrators over the justice and dignity of survivors.

This narrative decision to foreground Cassie's revenge against those who wronged Nina — and by extension, against a society that enables such wrongs — speaks to the film's broader critique of contemporary gender dynamics, a critique largely absent from earlier social problem films, which, despite their progressive intentions, often failed to engage fully with the complexity of gendered violence. As Schatz explains, genre films achieve the effect of "stop[ping] time" — a concept that helps explain how social problem films make the leap from fiction to message-delivery system. Cassie's actions and the film's ending can be understood as a message sent by the director to the audience and to society: rape is wrong, and yet society appears to implicitly condone it through silence. That silence echoed in Gentleman's Agreement with respect to antisemitism; Promising Young Woman makes that silence felt in the twenty-first century with respect to the treatment of women.

In this way, Promising Young Woman not only enters into dialogue with its predecessors in the genre but carves out a new path, demanding that audiences reckon with the reality of sexual violence and the systemic structures that perpetuate it.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, Promising Young Woman (2020) remains a compelling example of a social problem film that lends weight to the social ill it foregrounds. Viewers are able to identify with Cassie's struggles at an emotional level and to recognize the issue as a problem within the broader social context. Cassie's crusade against this injustice can largely be described as empathetic in its orientation.

Through Cassie's story, the film invites viewers to reflect on the complexities of justice, the nuances of victimhood, and the societal transformation necessary to address the enduring issue of sexual violence. Promising Young Woman represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of social problem films. Juxtaposed with its traditional predecessors, the film reveals not only a shift in narrative focus but a broader commentary on the possibilities and limits of societal change. In doing so, it serves as a modern reimagining of the social problem film — one that is acutely aware of the multifaceted nature of contemporary social issues and that refuses to let its audience look away.

References

Doles, Steven. 2023. Social Problem Films. Oxford Bibliographies.

Fennell, Emerald, director. 2020. Promising Young Woman. Film Nation Entertainment. 114 min.

Maland, Charles. 1998. "The Social Problem Film." In Handbook of American Film Genres, edited by Wes Gehring, 305–328. New York: Greenwood Press.

Schatz, T. G. 1976. Hollywood Film Genre as Ritual: A Theoretical and Methodological Inquiry. The University of Iowa.