Blog Posting- Representation

  In season 1 of You, Joe Goldberg is introduced as a young man who happens to meet the "love of his life" at his bookstore. He instantly lays eyes on Beck and decides that she is the one. The constant representation pattern in this season is shown through his toxic masculinity and psychopathic behaviors. The Narrating "I" is persistently used throughout the season to put the audience in Joe's mind. This use of sound through the show dives deeper to provide context and reasoning as to why Joe makes the decisions he does.

 

Throughout this first season, Joe constantly "protects" Beck, in a manner of killing possible threats to their relationship. The representation patters throughout this first season revolve around the gender stereotype of a man stopping at nothing to protect the one he loves. In this series, the audience views Joe's inner thoughts using the Narrating "I". This use of sound demonstrates his thoughts of the woman, Beck, being defenseless, and in need of his help getting rid of the toxicity in her life.

  Another representation pattern in this season of You is mental health. Joe's obsessive behavior and violent tendencies comes from deep rooted mental anguish from being abandoned as a child. His constant need to control Beck is displayed as he stalks her. He fantasizes about her and looks up to her as an amazing woman. Joe, in this clip, focuses on Beck's flaws and interests and deeply hyper-fixates on her life. The Cutaway shot is used to show that Joe is outside of Beck's home. The timing of her posting on twitter bounces back to Joe getting the tweet that she posted, and that he is actively watching her every move, both digitally and physically. His inability of properly processing his emotions paves the way for him to associate himself with Beck, and he makes up an excuse to promote his value to her. He disassociates from his life just to obsess over Beck. Joe's interest in her only comes from an addiction of wanting to be accepted and loved as a result of his deep seeded need to not be left again.

  

Overall, this season has two constant representation patterns that reflect Joe Goldberg's personality. The trauma from his past plays a crucial role in his version of masculinity and mental state. The videos show accurate examples of him displaying these parts of his questionable personality towards Beck. He perfectly represents a major problem in today's society. The need of controlling women is an unhealthy, poisonous obsession. Often times, these fascinations can wind up being fatal to the people involved. Furthermore, the representation of problems occurring throughout the series are related to real world issues.