Content Warning: The following post contains discussion of issues that may be upsetting for some readers, including misogyny, sexual assault, violence against women, and homicide.

“I’m teaching my son to be extra nice to ladies, because it has been a very hard week for us,” my friend told me the other day.

We were at the zoo with a group of people, including her family, and we wanted to forget our troubles and admire the many wonders the zoo would present. After electing a president with a terrible environmental record, it seemed appropriate to visit a zoo that was also a conservatory for endangered animals.

Later that day, post-zoo and post-witnessing my friend try to teach her young son the importance of respecting women in a world that so often sees us as objects rather than people, I watched Netflix’s “Woman of the Hour.”

“Woman of the Hour” is the directorial debut of Anna Kendrick, and it’s based on the true events of a young woman who went on “The Dating Game” and unintentionally matched with the notorious serial killer, Rodney Alcala (played by Daniel Zovatto).

Rodney Alcala was a serial killer and sex offender with a disgustingly long list of offenses who managed to stay out of prison for a bevy of reasons: he committed crimes across multiple states, thus avoiding detection from the different law enforcement agencies, and forensic science was not as developed as it is today, about 50 years later. The other, less technical reason was that he often received lenient sentencing, like in the Tali Shapiro case, so he would serve offensively short stints in jail before receiving parole, during which he would resume his crimes. I’m sure that some readers would like it if I were more thorough in explaining what Rodney Alcala did and why it was so bad, but that’s not what this blog is for, and I do not want to do that. I would prefer to not talk about what Alcala did because it feels distasteful and exploitative to his victims, who were people like you and me, who deserved to feel safe and protected by their society but were not. If you’re really interested in him, I recommend reading the many articles about him or watching the 48 Hours episode.

What I want to touch on are the thoughtful feminine perspectives shown in “Woman of the Hour” and why those feel so pertinent to what many women are feeling now after this election.

In “Woman of the Hour,” we see the female characters routinely placed in uncomfortable situations with men (not just Alcala). For instance, Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick‘s character and the titular “Woman of the Hour”) has to contend with her over-friendly neighbor, Terry (Pete Holmes), who clearly wants more than friendship from her. In the movie, when Terry makes a physical advance to Sheryl, she is surprised and caught off-guard, offending Terry. Not wanting to spoil the evening, Sheryl blames herself for her adverse reaction to Terry’s come-on, orders more drinks for the two of them, and eventually sleeps with him, a choice she seems to regret later.

So many experiences within “Woman of the Hour” captures the intense anxiety of being a woman in a world that caters to men’s insecurities. The irritation when a man ignores your cues that you are not interested in spending time together. The fear of accidentally making a man angry and it backfiring. The dread of being alone with a man when he insists on “walking you to your car,” and then you have to think about what could happen if he won’t leave you alone.

I know most men are safe and good people, but it is very difficult to parse those out from the ones that are not good. And unfortunately, it only takes one moment to find yourself in a perilous situation with a man who wants to harm you.

Living with the uncertainty that a man may or may not be dangerous is agonizing. Women are conditioned from a young age to be polite, agreeable, and socially conscious, finding ways to make others feel comfortable and validated for their social blunders. Then, we find ourselves in situations where those very traits can lead to harm. Then, of course, when a situation does become dangerous, we’re expected to automatically know that we’re in danger and then fight back and become everything we’ve been conditioned against so that we’re not blamed for the awful thing that happened to us.

“Woman of the Hour,” deftly depicts these moments in which dangerous, or just presumptive, men force women into uncomfortable situations that women have to 3D-chess their way out of or risk possibly upsetting a grown man.

I do not want to suggest that men do not also feel the pressure and anxiety that women feel. It’s worth mentioning that Rodney Alcala, and other serial killers, targeted men as well. But in our society, media pushes an extremely patriarchal romantic narrative that favors men and wants them to “get the girl.” And it’s hard to explain yourself when you are that girl, and you do not want to let anyone “get” you.

One of the strongest elements of “Women of the Hour” was how female characters would look after each other. The most prominent example of this was the character Laura (Nicolette Robinson), a fictional character who recognizes Alcala as the man who murdered her friend the year before. Laura doggedly tries to explain what happened to her boyfriend (who over-rationalizes her concerns to the point of dismissing them), the people who work at “The Dating Game” (who also dismiss her), and the police (who do not help her because she does not have enough information). While “Woman of the Hour” takes many liberties with characters’ names and events, the purpose of these changes seems to be to pay respect to the people that Alcala hurt without directly naming them. Ian McDonald, the screenwriter, has a great interview where he discusses how working with Anna Kendrick made him adjust moments in his script to be more authentic to the female experience. McDonald and Kendrick worked well together and presented a film that may have been partially fiction but felt real.

In the days after the results of the 2024 election, many women are upset. The results of this election are just another reminder of how incredibly unfair the world is. The president-elect is a convicted criminal with a history of sexual assault, and yet, he won against his opponent, an intelligent, hard-working woman who was more qualified than him. There are a lot of reasons why he won instead of her (and a million think-pieces dissecting all of those many reasons), but that doesn’t change how awful it feels to be a woman in this country and to feel like your life is dependent on the men in it deciding not to hurt you.

I want to reiterate that not all men are bad and dangerous. Many, many good men are willing to stand up for the rights of oppressed people and speak out against injustices. Unfortunately, there are too many men who do not share this perspective.

So yes, it has been a very hard week for ladies. There will be many hard weeks to come. But I appreciate when a piece comes along that understands and empathizes with us. “Woman of the Hour” is a thrilling, frightening film that understands and empathizes with its audience. It may not completely cure your post-election blues, but you may feel more seen after watching it.

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