I want to first state that I’ve seen the movie “It Ends With Us.” Unbiased to the book, I was going in as a cinephile, just trying to broaden my horizons on the film and its actors.

I watched Blake Lively growing up and saw her work, from teenage coming-of-age stories to superhero blockbusters. Justin Baldoni was always just a pretty-faced actor to me. But learning of his activism made me question how someone couldn’t like him.

Let’s pick apart the infamous film to begin. It was mid at best, but there were certain directorial choices that I enjoyed, such as the depiction of abuse and manipulation that brought an authentic feel to the film.

But the question on everyone’s minds is when the beef started.

After the film was released, it received mixed reviews. As an audience, we can already see a bit of tension between the two leads. The duo did not appear together in interviews and were not being photographed on carpets.

Lively even brought her very famous husband, Ryan Reynolds, to almost every “It Ends With Us” event; he even changed a few details about the final movie we saw on the big screen. It did, indeed, end with them.

But what triggered the initial hate train toward Lively? Well, the movie takes place at a time in a woman’s life when she is navigating the death of her father, and she’s reminded of her childhood abuse, which leads her to be blinded by her abusive husband in her adult life. Naturally, you’d assume Lively to have a very large philanthropist role in domestic violence and women’s safety. Wrong. She wore pretty dresses, dodged questions and promoted her new haircare line.

However, Slate journalist Heather Schwedel decided to defend Lively after admitting to disliking her way before the movie came to fruition. I personally agree with one of the points she made.

“Yeah, maybe it wasn’t the best idea for Lively to tell us to wear florals to her movie about abuse like it’s the sequel to Barbie, but people are acting like her implying the movie is anything less than a dour public service announcement is inappropriate,” Schwedel said.

Was it incredibly tone-deaf for Lively to treat the press tour like a launch campaign for her hair care line? Yes. Would I actively seek out Lively’s political views as a media source? No.

Now that you’re all caught up, I can assume that you’d hate her too, right? All of these events, following one after the other, set her up as the perfect victim for the mass media to corrupt her reputation. Old interviews were coming out where she was intentionally rude to interviewers, fellow cast members and others. Lively’s name was being skewered. I could not get on TikTok without finding out more and more information, which made her look even worse.

But imagine that all of this suddenly dies down. Social media finds other things to debate about. Then, one day, headlines appear about Likely suing Baldoni.

Lively sued Baldoni for “sexual harassment” and defamation of character. At this point, everyone was confused. However, Lively also has a substantial amount of receipts that could be used as evidence to help her case.

As an audience viewer, I felt completely blindsided. Baldoni, whom I watched in a movie and who advocates for domestic violence and feminism, surely wouldn’t end up like all the other men in Hollywood.

Amid everyone jumping to Lively’s defense, Baldoni raised her lawsuit and fully sent his very own, with a very healthy amount of 400 million dollars.

Baldoni comes with an equal amount of receipts, if not more, exposing Lively for using “inappropriate behavior,” which she claimed that Baldoni had suspected her to.

This includes vague and imposing text messages insinuating that Lively had no boundaries from the beginning, like meeting in Lively’s trailer while she was breast pumping. She even used strange metaphors to her friends, insinuating Baldoni’s possible demise, changing some of his directorial decisions and making him spend his own premiere in a basement of the theatre.

Meanwhile, I just wanted to see a movie about real issues with a stacked cast and enjoy myself. Instead, I’ve ended up in a five-month “he said, she said,” now court battle involving millions of dollars.

Yet, all I am really getting from any of these media outlets is that society still does not believe women and their personal experiences.

I am really tired of the victim blaming. Regardless of how much you dislike a woman, the massive hate train that followed her accusations of such serious abuse is so disappointing.

Although we might never truly know what happened on set between these two actors, women are constantly reminded that no proof is ever enough if the majority of society has made up their minds about you just because they don’t like you.

These lawsuits go on for hundreds of pages. Not one so-called journalist I’ve seen on TikTok or Instagram has contributed to any factual evidence of Lively lying about her experience nor Baldoni’s intention to ever make her uncomfortable.

It’s also notable that society has more empathy for men. A prime example is the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard lawsuit.

Every viewer came to the defence of Johnny Depp. Because Heard was this crazed woman who acted out against Depp, she just wanted attention and money. Fast forward, many people regret not having defended Heard from the beginning.

I feel even more empathetic toward Lively because so much tainted information about her reputation has spread. However, I don’t think her other efforts, including “receipts,” would be enough for her to win the public’s vote. I am not picking sides either, but Baldoni and his family coming out about being banished to a literal basement at the premiere of his own movie are the cruelest of the cruel.

Given Lively’s track record, I think she has been romantically linked to her male co-star. If I had to guess, I would say that Lively enjoyed herself a little too much on set with Baldoni. Baldoni is charismatic enough to entertain her. Perhaps they both crossed boundaries inappropriate to their marriages, and everything that has since come out is just to save face.

I never thought a situation like this would be so complicated for me to conclude upon. There’s so much research and many pages of lawsuits regarding the pair. If only it were a cut-and-dry Diddy situation. However, I’d say that we now have a clear, open and shut case.

Blair Bernard is a 21-year-old theater performance major from Lafayette, La.