• 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.

      • 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.

          • 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.

    • 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?