A Promising Young Woman

A book cover based off of the movie A Promising Young Woman. The major theme behind the plot of the film is the way our culture deals with rape on social and legal level. The media’s portrayal of women through an unnessarily sexual lense condones our culture’s belief that the assualt of women is a natural pursuit. To depict this alliance bewtween media and rape culture, the design collages together images found in advertisements that sexualize the female form.

The one image of a man that is included within the design is a hand held over the lips of a woman while holding a bottle of alcohol. This symbolizes how when alcohol is involved in rape, our legal system often uses this as a way to negate the actions of the criminal. In addition the hand held over the womens mouth represents the the way sexual assualt is often swept under the carpet. 

The back cover references a quote from the film in which a man being accused of rape refers to the circumstance as “every man’s worst nightmare”. To which the protagonist of the film promptly responds with “Can you guess what a woman’s worst nightmare is?”.