In the movie Catfish, Nev Shulman is a young contemporary ballet photographer who bonds with a girl named Megan on Facebook through their combined love of the arts. Their relationship escalates from messaging on Facebook to texting and finally talking on the phone. I think the majority of people would say that is a normal sequence of events for an online relationship, but that would also mean they would agree the final step is meeting face to face. Being able to message every day makes their relationship seem normal enough but they both crave physical contact. This is why Nev sets off to go meet Megan in person using the same means as which they met, the internet. He quickly learns his amazing relationship is not what it seems to be. Megan and all of our friends are essentially puppets being controlled by one woman by the name of Angela Wesselman.
At the beginning of Angela and Nev's interactions, Angela seems like she is not remorseful for lying to this person she supposedly cared for. She makes it seem like a simple hobby to past time, and take her away from reality. She is a married woman with two mentally disabled sons who gave up on her dreams and is stuck in a situation that she has no way of escaping. She made a commitment to those boys and to her family and now she feels she has to keep it for stability.
Although I want to feel bad for her, I simply can not find the will to do so. To purposely deceive someone who thought they could confide in you is a terrible thing to do. It makes you a not so great person whether your intentions were malicious or not. She also lied about having an extremely serious medical condition so Nev and the others would sympathize with her. I do not view this as anything other than manipulation.
It is not enough to file for emotional distress but what about money spent on travel, room and board, lost wages, etc. In Nev's specific case I do not think he would want to press charges even if it was possible because although "Megan" turned out to be another person he did not necessarily dislike her as a person. However, there are a lot of cases from the show where things do not work out so well. What do you think?
4 comments:
I found this all so interesting! Personally I would've pressed charges just because she did not seem as remorseful as she should've, rather, she was more upset she was caught. He spent some quality time talking to Megan, and the lies spread by Angela were too much. I personally would've blocked her out of my life, and I can't believe Nev kept being her friend.
Thats really interesting that you see it that way, i do think catfishing should be illegal that would steer people clear of doing it, even though it would be hard to define what counts as cat fishing because maybe it is just people using pictures that aren't theirs, but i do think it should be illegal because you are taking someone else's life or pictures and using it as your own and that could ruin their life
This is an interesting take on the story! I totally agree that there should be some laws to those who catfish. My question to you is, What kind of sentences or punishments do you think they should face if they are found guilty? Should they merely be banned from the site they used OR something much harsher?
I agree, I didn't feel bad for Angela! Even after she explained why, she needs to take responsibility for her actions. She is manipulative for sure omg I was eye rolling the entire time she tried to get sympathy.
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