Amy Dunne from Gone Girl is actually a fucking icon

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a guy that was depressingly familiar. Someone had brought up the masterpiece, the tome of our times that is Gone Girl and he’d predictably responded “oh my god I know some girls like that, some real crazy bitches.” Then we all had to pretend to listen and accept the fact that some girl who’d probably argued with him once is somehow on the same level as a psychopathic genius killer.

For some reason, one in every 20 guys will “relate” to Gone Girl so viscerally because they’ll think it gives them an excuse to call all girls crazy. For girls, Amy Dunne becomes then a cautionary yardstick. It doesn’t matter that what you’re being called crazy for is having an argument with your asshole boyfriend and not murdering your stalker mid-fuck — crazy is crazy. We hold Amy at arm’s length because we don’t wanna be judged by the same logic. But that’s boring, and we should quit it, because Amy Dunne is actually an icon, and we need to embrace her.

OK look, before you inevitably get angry and call me a stupid bitch in the Facebook comments underneath this article, allow me to make an important distinction here. It’s not that Amy is a good person. She’s not a role model. But she’s still iconic. It’s like what the wand man says in Harry Potter about Ralph Fiennes: “After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.”

So yes, nobody is saying you should go out and frame your inattentive partner for murder, but to ignore the planning and cunning and intelligence and sheer balls it took for Amy Dunne to do it is frankly, dumb. I can barely organize my weekend. Amy organized the crime of the century. As far as petty victories go, that’s pretty wild honestly.

And even though she’s not supposed to be relatable or admirable, we’re not supposed to like her, you’d be lying if you didn’t admit that you kinda do. At times, at least.

Who among us hasn’t wanted to skip town and take some time out for ourselves? Is it a crime to want to go on vacation alone and change your hairstyle and your wardrobe and eat Twizzlers all day? I mean sure, maybe some of us would go to the beach for the weekend and read sad YA fiction alone and post emotional Instagrams rather than hiding out in a motel under a fake name and spitting in people’s Mountain Dew. But who are we to judge?

And who among us hasn’t related hard to Amy’s speech in the car as she speeds away from her old life? You know, the one where rips apart the harmful, fake concept of the “cool girl” we’re all trying to be in fewer than five minutes? I literally skip to this part of the film every time I watch it. It’s the epitome of the “fuck it, I’ve had enough” feeling we’re all guilty of.

I’m not saying that Amy was entitled to her revenge but… her lifestyle just sounded exhausting okay? I mean, it is exhausting. We all live it, to an extent. It makes everyone TIRED.

Even Gillian Flynn herself acknowledges the duality in Amy. The character might not be a flattering portrayal of a woman. Flynn fine with that. “I’ve grown quite weary of the spunky heroines, brave rape victims, soul-searching fashionistas that stock so many books” she says. “I particularly mourn the lack of female villains.” Say what you want about Amy, but she’s a female villain we can all in our darkest moments aspire to.

Plus that minimalist blonde bob she’s rocking is fucking gorgeous.

@rosielanners