This is way late, but it needs to be said. Jenny from Forrest Gump. She gets so much goddamn flak from people who have seen the movie. It’s like they tuned out completely at the normal human experience just because they think Forrest is adorable. Jenny didn’t think she was in love with Forrest because she thought she was taking advantage of him the same way her father molested her. For fucks sake, Forrest is retarded. Jenny, out of everyone who’s ever met him, knows this best of all. She knows that her closest friend and only loved one is a fucking idiot. Imagine that. Imagine for one second that the only person who was always kind to you was someone who didn’t know any better. Everyone in the world who knew about your father looked at you either as a victim or as something disgusting, but that one man doesn’t. And it’s because he’s retarded. Jenny doesn’t think that way at the start. As a kid, she just thinks he’s different and is just glad to have a friend. But as she gets older, especially as a teenager, she realizes that her closest friend will never mature like she does. He loves her like he would anything and everything else, so long as its nice or cuddly, like a pet or a sibling, at least in her mind. Her father treated her like shit, and there was no way in hell others didn’t do the same when they found out she was molested. She would have wanted to feel loved. That’s where she gets the abusive relationship crap. She wants so much to be loved that she doesn’t understand that they are taking advantage of her. She thinks that as long as they aren’t forcing her to have sex, that’s normal. Getting beat on, pressured to drug addiction, and dragged around into whatever dangerously extreme political bands they’re into is just fine, as long as they don’t rape her. That’s why she’s so shocked when Forrest defends her from harm. Why would anyone do that if what they’re doing to her is normal? She keeps leaving Forrest behind because she convinces herself that he doesn’t really love her. She convinces herself that his affections are shallow, since he would never be able to really understand love either. I mean really, how many of you honestly think someone who is that mentally challenged could understand the complexities and nuances of love? There’s no way they could. What they have is something simple, and Jenny doesn’t think that could be real. And even IF she believed he could, even IF she got out of that abusive cycle, she knows better. FFS, if that scene with Forrest and her in her college dormroom had the genders reversed, people would be so fucking uncomfortable about that scene because it’d be inching so close to rape. Jenny knows that. She realizes that. That is why she shuts off her feelings for Forrest, above any other reasons to stay away: she thinks she is molesting him. She saw how uncomfortable he was when she did that and thought holy fuck, what the hell am I doing? Can you imagine how twisted you must feel after realizing in that moment that you turned into the father who molested you? How the fuck can you love yourself after doing that to your best friend, when you know what that’s like? Would you ever let yourself get close to them again if you really cared about them? So Jenny kept running away. Every time Forrest gets close and saves her, she runs off before she falters. She won’t let herself get near him, and as the movie goes on, she fails a little more each time. First she blows him off after the strip club, telling him to stay away. Then she walks with him in DC, but still leaves with her boyfriend. Then she stays with him in his house and finally sleeps with him, after that one critical moment. When he tells her he does know what love is, and asks her why she doesn’t love him. She finally gives in and does sleep with him, but can you imagine thinking afterwards? Would you, in her shoes, with absolute and unwavering certainty, think you did the right thing? Or would you be afraid that you did exactly what you had been avoiding because you do actually care that much about him? So she runs away. She hides her child from him, because she thinks he shouldn’t have to worry or pay for something he can’t handle. She thinks she’s wronged him, and the least she could do is set things right by raising a good child, without dragging him down. And then she gets sick. Doctors don’t know what it is, but she’s going to die. Her kid is only a few years old. Can you imagine struggling with that decision to tell your victim that they have a kid and now they have to take care of it because you’re going to die? That’s what she struggles with before coming to terms with the fact that she’s happy with him, and he’s happy with her, and that’s what love actually is. It’s something simple and unconditional, and even Forrest can understand it. It takes her her whole goddamn life to figure out that love is just that simple, and she dies months afterwards. She realized she had been running away from what made her happy, and it isn’t wrong, and she only gets so much time together before it’s over. And instead of realizing that narrative even exists in the story, people just bitch about how Jenny is such a slut, but she won’t even love the only person who cares about her. Jenny always loved Forrest, during the whole fucking movie. She loved him so much, she thought she was taking advantage of him and ran away for his sake. She didn’t realize she was wrong until it was almost too late. Fuck, that’s depressing.
I never saw it like that, but damn you’re spot on. She was running from Forrest because he could never understand love, but in reality it was her who didn’t understand
Jenny from Forrest Gump. She gets so much goddamn flak from people who have seen the movie. It’s like they tuned out completely at the normal human experience just because they think Forrest is adorable.
Jenny didn’t think she was in love with Forrest because she thought she was taking advantage of him the same way her father molested her.
For fucks sake, Forrest is retarded. Jenny, out of everyone who’s ever met him, knows this best of all. She knows that her closest friend and only loved one is a fucking idiot. Imagine that. Imagine for one second that the only person who was always kind to you was someone who didn’t know any better. Everyone in the world who knew about your father looked at you either as a victim or as something disgusting, but that one man doesn’t.
And it’s because he’s retarded.
Jenny doesn’t think that way at the start. As a kid, she just thinks he’s different and is just glad to have a friend. But as she gets older, especially as a teenager, she realizes that her closest friend will never mature like she does. He loves her like he would anything and everything else, so long as its nice or cuddly, like a pet or a sibling, at least in her mind. Her father treated her like shit, and there was no way in hell others didn’t do the same when they found out she was molested. She would have wanted to feel loved.
That’s where she gets the abusive relationship crap. She wants so much to be loved that she doesn’t understand that they are taking advantage of her. She thinks that as long as they aren’t forcing her to have sex, that’s normal. Getting beat on, pressured to drug addiction, and dragged around into whatever dangerously extreme political bands they’re into is just fine, as long as they don’t rape her. That’s why she’s so shocked when Forrest defends her from harm. Why would anyone do that if what they’re doing to her is normal?
She keeps leaving Forrest behind because she convinces herself that he doesn’t really love her. She convinces herself that his affections are shallow, since he would never be able to really understand love either. I mean really, how many of you honestly think someone who is that mentally challenged could understand the complexities and nuances of love? There’s no way they could. What they have is something simple, and Jenny doesn’t think that could be real.
And even IF she believed he could, even IF she got out of that abusive cycle, she knows better. FFS, if that scene with Forrest and her in her college dormroom had the genders reversed, people would be so fucking uncomfortable about that scene because it’d be inching so close to rape. Jenny knows that. She realizes that. That is why she shuts off her feelings for Forrest, above any other reasons to stay away: she thinks she is molesting him. She saw how uncomfortable he was when she did that and thought holy fuck, what the hell am I doing?
Can you imagine how twisted you must feel after realizing in that moment that you turned into the father who molested you? How the fuck can you love yourself after doing that to your best friend, when you know what that’s like? Would you ever let yourself get close to them again if you really cared about them?
So Jenny kept running away. Every time Forrest gets close and saves her, she runs off before she falters. She won’t let herself get near him, and as the movie goes on, she fails a little more each time. First she blows him off after the strip club, telling him to stay away. Then she walks with him in DC, but still leaves with her boyfriend. Then she stays with him in his house and finally sleeps with him, after that one critical moment.
When he tells her he does know what love is, and asks her why she doesn’t love him.
She finally gives in and does sleep with him, but can you imagine thinking afterwards? Would you, in her shoes, with absolute and unwavering certainty, think you did the right thing? Or would you be afraid that you did exactly what you had been avoiding because you do actually care that much about him?
So she runs away. She hides her child from him, because she thinks he shouldn’t have to worry or pay for something he can’t handle. She thinks she’s wronged him, and the least she could do is set things right by raising a good child, without dragging him down.
And then she gets sick. Doctors don’t know what it is, but she’s going to die. Her kid is only a few years old. Can you imagine struggling with that decision to tell your victim that they have a kid and now they have to take care of it because you’re going to die? That’s what she struggles with before coming to terms with the fact that she’s happy with him, and he’s happy with her, and that’s what love actually is. It’s something simple and unconditional, and even Forrest can understand it.
It takes her her whole goddamn life to figure out that love is just that simple, and she dies months afterwards. She realized she had been running away from what made her happy, and it isn’t wrong, and she only gets so much time together before it’s over.
And instead of realizing that narrative even exists in the story, people just bitch about how Jenny is such a slut, but she won’t even love the only person who cares about her. Jenny always loved Forrest, during the whole fucking movie. She loved him so much, she thought she was taking advantage of him and ran away for his sake. She didn’t realize she was wrong until it was almost too late.
Fuck, that’s depressing.
EDIT: Obligatory gushing, but actually I just wanted to add a TL;DR:
TL;DR: Jenny thought she was molesting Forrest because he couldn’t understand what love is, so she either suppressed her feelings or ran away.
Second EDIT: I want to make things clear, I in no way am the author of this post. I am not op, I copied this from someone on Reddit who copied it from another user on Reddit.
Jenny was sexually abused as a child and believed she was sexually abusing Forrest. This is why at the end Forrest tells her “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is.” He’s telling her that their relationship was consensual and that she was not taking advantage of him.
It’s fine if you still believe she’s an asshole to Forrest, but most folks don’t understand this context.
Is that why she didn't tell Forrest that he was a father, and allow him to be part of the baby's life? Your overly charitable reading of the character doesn't hold water, JackbyDev
Yeah well we can try to understand each other and our motivations and what makes us human or we can simply judge others and get angry and call people names. Jenny thought Forest was mentally retarded (to use an antiquated term). So no she’s not going to pursue a relationship and no she’s not gonna entrust her child to him even tho objectively she should have she simply did not have the perspective the audience does. So she made a lot of bad decisions because she never was shown the right ones. And at least she learned from her mistakes.
Honestly, with that reading I think she didn’t tell him, because she didn’t want to be a burden to him, especially when he got somewhat “successful”. She only told him after she was dying, knew she couldn’t abuse him for long, if ever. On top of that, where would the sun actually have gone? Doubt her relationship with her parents or her family was anywhere close to stable, so she chose someone she knew would love and care for the child. The other option probably would’ve been foster care, which, as most probably know, is a horrible experience
I’m not making an argument as to why folks should not view her as an asshole, I’m pointing out an aspect of the character many people overlook. If anything I’m only saying she’s less of an asshole. I haven’t watched the movie in a long time to definitively say if she truly is or isn’t an asshole. Like I said, it’s still fine with me if folks believe she is.
We should also acknowledge that, not only did she wait until she was dying to tell Forrest about their son, there’s also every possibility in the world that she was lying about him being the father in the first place.
As far as we are shown, they only had sex one time. Meanwhile she had recently arrived afteryears of a destructive and careless lifestyle including sexual promiscuity. And after they had sex, she left the next morning. It’s not impossible, but the odds that her pregnancy resulted from her one night with Forrest, rather than her sexual partners before (or after) she showed up at the plantation, are pretty low. Especially given Forrest Jr. did not inherit any of Forrest’s mental handicaps (an is in fact of higher than average intelligence).
The odds that she was dying, didn’t have any clue who the actual bio-dad was, and so lied to and used her handicapped, lonely, yet wealthy childhood friend as a means to secure her child’s future regardless of his paternity, though, is way higher. None of that is confirmed, obviously, but… it doesn’t look great.
Especially given Forrest Jr. Did not inherit any of Forrest’s mental handicaps
Did they ever specify any conditions he had? I see zero evidence that it was hereditary. Just because something “doesn’t look great” doesn’t mean it is true. It’s not supposed to look good. It’s supposed to look bad. The film is not trying to absolve Jenny in that moment.
Seemed to be a general learning disability. A parent with a learning disability is more likely to have a child with a learning disability. It’s not necessarily hereditary, and I’m not saying someone with a learning disability can’t have a gifted child. But given the whole set of circumstances, it just compounds the likelihood that Forrest is not Forrest Jr.'s biological father. It’s not impossible that he is, but it’s far from a certainty.
It feels so weird to see her character compared to cartoonishly evil ones like Darth Vader and the Joker. When watching the movie she is clearly a very damaged person, her character is tragic. The way she treats Gump makes sense, her culture is intensely ableist which combined with her trauma provides context to her actions. The idea that she is somehow a bigger asshole than a domestic terrorist with no concrete backstory, a serial killer, or even evil space jesus, is ridiculous. Frankly it reeks of casual sexism whenever I see people smear her, it feels like folks are either parrotting the opinions they found online, or never tried to understand her character while watching the movie.
Listen, we all know Darth Vader may have used the threat of genocide to get Leia to talk… And he may have even lied and done it anyways… And just the general idea of genocide and destroying a planet is awful… But have you considered women bad?
Um, professor umbridge from Harry Potter. She’s basically an asshole just to be one.
The other ones all have some sort of justification to their shittyness. Jenny was abused, Vader was a literal slave that was taken advantage of by both the Jedi and palpatine. The joker has literal mental issues.
Umbridge was straight up a child abuser with no remorse or tragic back story. She harmed kids while enjoying it and drinking tea.
You see later that she was a blood purist and tortured only those who she thought of as blood traitors or whatever. That’s par on course with people who sided with voldemort. After the quidditch world cup the death eaters tried to torture a muggle family, including the children I think.
For anyone wondering, Hannibal Lecter is not the same guy as Hannibal from Carthage in the Second Punic War. When I was a child I always found the idea of that historical character being a sociopathic cannibal a bit weird.
Rewatching this once again a few months back, I changed my mind on this
Forest is really weird about sex. I used to think it was because his mom was always bringing men over and his nerodivergence, but his reaction to it is a trauma response - he dissociates whenever people make a move on him.
There’s a lot of hints that Jenny was sexually abused by her step dad, but in the beginning forests intro about him can be interpreted as him having done something to forest as well
In that context, think about their first kiss in her dorm - he gets weird and she freaks out. I assumed it was because she felt he wasn’t able to consent, but maybe she freaked out because she realized she was triggering a trauma response and felt sick to her stomach
Then when they have sex, it’s forced and uncomfortable for both of them. “I’ll show you what love is” He did it just to fulfill her needs so she’d stay - but obviously that’s not something she’s ok with
In that context, it’s not that Jenny doesn’t love him, it’s that he would be hurt to be sexual with her, and if she’s around he’d be hurt if she was with others
You might be right, that sounds kind of familiar now. Was there another scene like that? I remember a moment where she was like “oh shit what have I done” and freaks out
It’s been a while now, I remember coming up with this theory in the beginning last time I watched it and it really hit different, I might have to rewatch it
The people who hate Jenny over everyone else are the same people who Skylar over Walter from breaking bad. Edgy 14 year boys who will hate a child sexual assault victim over literal murderers, cannibals, and genocidal maniacs. Misogyny at it’s finest.
People hate Jenny the most because they probably have seen a Jenny in their lives. Joker, Hannibal and Vader are too removed from normal life to genuinely hate.
Yeah, I can’t understand anyone who doesn’t come away with a deep sorrow for her character - certainly compared to infinitely lucky forest. She tries so hard to be a good person despite everything awfull happening to her every single time, he just does what he feels like and every time he has the best luck ever.
There’s no debate. Jenny used forest and threw him away as soon as he didn’t have what she wanted. When she ran out of places to go, she comes to forest just to torment him, get pregnant, then run away again. Then, she appears out of nowhere to hand off forest’s kid that she had been hiding from him for years right before dying of the aids that she probably also gave to forest.
That was a pretty accurate, if cynical, read of Jenny’s role in the story. But that’s definitely not a good summation of the story as a whole. Forrest is the protagonist and his relationship with Jenny is more a recurring blip on the plot than the actual plot itself. Forrest’s story is fantastic and and compelling independent of Jenny. It’s still worth a watch, I promise. Can’t speak on the book, but I’ve heard it’s good too.
I was kinda being mean just for the sake of the meme. I know there’s a lot of nuance when it comes to Jenny and forest’s relationship. I fall into the “it’s understandable, but still not justifiable” camp.
I totally agree about the movie. Easily one of my top 10 movies
That snippet isn’t what the movie is focused on. It’s just the actions of a side character, who has a big effect on the main character’s life sure, but it isn’t what the movie is about. That’s like saying LOTR is something you wouldn’t enjoy based off nothing but a description of Gollum’s role in the story and nothing else.
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