I agree with this so much, We vilianize her by the end of the show not understanding her pov, its sad😣

I know, right ?Idc what anybody says, Jenny is my favorite character because i can empathize with her due to her upbringing, there is more to her than meets the eye, same goes for character like her, Bojack Horseman, you can find their actions intolerable and still empathize with them, abusive upbringing can damage a person's mind drastically.

Some people look down on Jenny for the way she treated Forrest, probably because they've had difficult relationships themselves. But when you look at what happens with an objective mind you can see she goes out of her way to not harm him. She stays as far away from him as possible whilst she suffers the effects of having been raped as a child. Indeed the worst thing she does is leave him without saying goodbye and deprive him of fatherthood for some time in a later scene. It is quite commendable to limit your pain to yourself rather than becoming corrupted by it to the point of harming your loved ones. It is also quite commendable that Forrest looks past the destructive behaviour she has limited to herself and still sees only the good in her. Whatever limited pain he does experience as an unintentional consequence of her actions he depletes within himself in a productive way through the force of his spirituality kzbin.info/www/bejne/qojdk3ahZp2qitk. This is what Eternal Dharma/Soulmateship is all about, indeed this is what Love is all about. Doing the utmost to not harm the harmless, and depleting the pain you do receive within yourself. But all of that requires great spiritual fortitude that has built up over countless lifetimes. Those who are not so spiritually developed risk intentionally hurting others. For them all you can do is set a good example by living according to Principle, and making yourself available to give therm guidance. But you need to be very careful when you do encounter corrupted persons. On the one extreme you should not judge and condemn them as being worthless. On the other extreme you should not destroy yourself to try and save them, which is a risk that exists if you're spiritually driven because you will find something good in them. Instead you should approach everything in life in an intelligent, balanced way. That means just teach thern Principle if they are interested. Without making the mistake of "falling in love" that is actually lust. Such corrupted persons often suffer from being unloved by those they have loved from a young age, such as their parents. So they have a twisted idea of what love actually is and that can lead to bad outcomes when combined with the greed, hatred, ignorance that arises from their pain. If their love remains unrequited they will destroy themselves trying to replace it with sensual pleasures. Their only hope is to find spirituality and serve the Principle of Love itself rather seeking love from others. And your duty is limited to showing them the way if you have the Wisdom to do so. All of this means you should never help anyone in a way that indulges their greed, hatred, ignorance, out of your misguided love for them, because that will actually harm them tbh with you.

Just rewatched Forest Gump for like the 5th time: I laughed, I cried, I shrimped, etc. It's one of my favorites. But when reading the discourse of the movie most of the critisism is always with Jenny. Like everyone seems to genuinely think that 30 second Family Guy joke actually is what happens in the movie. I think it just shows how a lot of people don't have experience or knowledge with sexual abuse victims. Jenny is portrayed fairly tragically and realistically. There's a reason this part of her life is clearly pointed out as it's integral to her actions. There are so many movies that have Jenny like characters without that background and the depth, but here when it's being done so accurately, is the time people get the most upset about it (probably bc Forest is so lovable everyone wants to protect him). Yes she isn't the best person (I wouldn't judge Forest if he didn't want anything to do with her) but even watching now I see the internal struggle she always has regarding Forest. But his unconditional and relentless love is something hard to let go of for someone who's been through what she has, growing up in a time where she was unable to get the help from mental health experts she would need. So she tries filling her life with sex, drugs, adventure, etc to keep her mind occupied. And being with all those abusive boyfriends is a very common action for someone who's suffered from abuse. And critics ignore that Jenny seems aware of all this and does try to get away to let Forest live his life without her, that's part of why she keeps leaving. But codependent relationships are much more common and harder to leave without unbiased intervention than people think. And every time she sees Forest or gets too deep in her choices she runs back. I think the perspective it just helps play into this subconscious heteronormative idea that women can be a succubus who will use men who love them and drain them of their love and money but not really care about them. Instead of seeing women as actual people with depth and complexity and especially ones who have been through what she has. And they also ignore how the movie portrays her, breaking it down to small bits that obfuscate the complexities. If a woman isn't a completely altruistic character in a story then she is generally considered a bad person (look at how complicated bad men are treated by audiences in media vs women) and then going further with Jenny being more damaged than that makes her hated. I don't personally think a character has to always be the best person morally to be a great character. And furthermore she indirectly helps Forest succeed. His love for her is what often kept him passionate and moving to be successful. And her leaving all those times gave him space to pursue those activities. I'm not saying she's responsible for his success but she definitely didn't undermine it. Though I can't help but feel my heart break every time I see the scene when she leaves one of the times and Forest is with his mom by the lake and rests his head on her shoulders. Pretty relatable to me especially in my younger dating life. It's just a sad reality of life that the people you love may not be able to love you the same way. But it's all part of the depth of the story, Jenny torn between giving forest his space (she tells him numerous times she thinks she's bad for him) but unable to ever completely relinquish that love he has for her. Neither Forest nor Jenny have been given their fair share of direction in life to love in a healthier way (Jenny being broken by her history and Forest not having been taught to move on from unrequited love). But I also think people undermine Forest's intelligence more than he deserves and put all the onis on Jenny. Kind of like many people in the movie undermine his intelligence (fancy that...). Forest isn't stupid, he just treats and perceives situations in more simplistic and naive ways. A big factor of why he thinks he's stupid is that people keep telling him he is rather than his actions being stupid. He's a product of a time before we understood nuero divergent intelligence, yet still succeeds in spite of all that. The man is a captivating storyteller, was an ideal soldier when things were explained in clear unambiguous ways, yet still knew to break rank to save his platoon in Vietnam, he understood everything that was happening in Vietnam and it's dangers, starting a shrimping business (how many of you could get a boat and start shrimping without KZbin tutorials), didn't let the prostitute sleep with him bc he didn't like her or her breath, understood he was lying in an ad for money, also understands and sympathizes with Jenny's trauma (the not enough rocks line is very underrated imo), etc. He also knows Jenny doesn't love him the way he loves her. He literally calls her out for it and says he understands what love is regardless of what she thinks. He also seems to get that Jenny is dying of Aids (EDIT: It's never explicit what she has) and wants to marry him for the safety and care at the end. Forest chooses this life with her because it makes him happy. I don't really see it as taking advantage of someone cognitively divergent, but two people choosing a situation that works for them. I see it as two wayward souls in a world that doesn't understand how to see anyone not completely binary in their mind and abilities finding each other and living their best life at the end. It's not all perfect, Jenny is not a great person, but Forest is happy and successful. I think that matters. Out of all the critiques on the movie (Jenny, Forest being too pure, coincidences, etc) the only ones that make sense to me now are how weirdly the movie is anti counter culture and pro traditional culture. That anyone can be successful if you pull yourself up by your bootstaps and all the liberals are angry abusive drains in society. And the total belief in a Christian God. I mean damn, the movie implies God caused a storm to ruin the shrimping boats of a bunch of poor black shrimpers just so 2 white guys can become rich. Can't believe I didn't catch that until this viewing. Gump being so effortlessly successful gives unintended creedance to conservative values. As much as I absolutely love this movie and it's one of the few 9 out of 10s in my head cannon, I still can't help but laugh to myself when I think a good tag line would be "Even the dumbest white guy has it easier than minorities and women in this country". But I just blame that on the source material. I mean they fixed up so much from the book (don't read it, I promise you it's not worth it, there's a reason the film rights were sold before the book was published bc the central premise is literally the only good thing about it) it's not surprising some very unuanced anti left aspects stayed involved tbh.

Some people look down on Jenny for the way she treated Forrest, probably because they've had difficult relationships themselves. But when you look at what happens with an objective mind you can see she goes out of her way to not harm him. She stays as far away from him as possible whilst she suffers the effects of having been raped as a child. Indeed the worst thing she does is leave him without saying goodbye and deprive him of fatherthood for some time in a later scene. It is quite commendable to limit your pain to yourself rather than becoming corrupted by it to the point of harming your loved ones. It is also quite commendable that Forrest looks past the destructive behaviour she has limited to herself and still sees only the good in her. Whatever limited pain he does experience as an unintentional consequence of her actions he depletes within himself in a productive way through the force of his spirituality kzbin.info/www/bejne/qojdk3ahZp2qitk. This is what Eternal Dharma/Soulmateship is all about, indeed this is what Love is all about. Doing the utmost to not harm the harmless, and depleting the pain you do receive within yourself. But all of that requires great spiritual fortitude that has built up over countless lifetimes. Those who are not so spiritually developed risk intentionally hurting others. For them all you can do is set a good example by living according to Principle, and making yourself available to give therm guidance. But you need to be very careful when you do encounter corrupted persons. On the one extreme you should not judge and condemn them as being worthless. On the other extreme you should not destroy yourself to try and save them, which is a risk that exists if you're spiritually driven because you will find something good in them. Instead you should approach everything in life in an intelligent, balanced way. That means just teach thern Principle if they are interested. Without making the mistake of "falling in love" that is actually lust. Such corrupted persons often suffer from being unloved by those they have loved from a young age, such as their parents. So they have a twisted idea of what love actually is and that can lead to bad outcomes when combined with the greed, hatred, ignorance that arises from their pain. If their love remains unrequited they will destroy themselves trying to replace it with sensual pleasures. Their only hope is to find spirituality and serve the Principle of Love itself rather seeking love from others. And your duty is limited to showing them the way if you have the Wisdom to do so. All of this means you should never help anyone in a way that indulges their greed, hatred, ignorance, out of your misguided love for them, because that will actually harm them tbh with you