🌙Mooncake🎀

I only came across American Psycho two years ago, but boy was I hooked when I looked at the film synopsis on Wikipedia properly. I genuinely thought that it was impossible for a character like Patrick Bateman to have a true committed equal because of how monstrous he is. I even made an OC to ship with him, but unfortunately this woman was just some well-designed fleshlight that only encouraged Patrick’s worst tendencies. Don’t worry— this OC is in a better ecosystem in case you were curious about her :)

Later, when I found out about the book I was MINDBLOWN about his relationship to Jean on a literary level. I could be seen as grasping for straws in the eyes of other people who read the book (since I’m judging this from what Patrick *doesn’t* say, or rather, evades) but from what I deduced, Jean is probably one of the only characters in the book that he can’t quite objectify or flatten. Which is HUGE because he literally describes almost anyone like freaking mannequins and body parts throughout the book. Jean doesn’t get that treatment, at least not successfully.

He might describe the exact dress, brand and fabric type of an outfit that some random woman is wearing, but sometimes (later in the book I think) Jean would be described as wearing something, like his GQ magazine filter glitches when he tries to categorise Jean under a neat label.

Also, at least in the book, Jean doesn’t end up being one of Patrick’s targets/future victims, and in the film he actually lets her go from his apartment because his own self-loathing protected her (IM ACTUALLY SO ILL—) tho some people see that scene as Patrick not killing Jean bc he got interrupted by a call from Evelyn… girl, he could have just killed Jean afterwards if he was that cold-blooded. Kinda off-topic, but I also ship Patrick and Luis for a similar reason because Patrick can threaten Luis all he wants but he never really brings himself to actually eliminating him lol 😭😭 (and Luis is a freak for Patrick anyway so yeah)

Finally… Bret Easton Ellis himself said that Jean is the woman that Patrick “probably ends up marrying.” Like, I do NOT care if that was meant to be loosely thrown out by Ellis out of irony or something but clearly he only gave out that information because it implies that Patrick is capable of settling (to a degree) on a genuinely peaceful life.

For a man that literally has no sense of self and quite literally killed innocent people, I genuinely find his dynamic with Jean super interesting, even if Jean didn’t get that much screen time or didn’t get mentioned that many times in the book. But when she does get mentioned? Girl, that chapter when Patrick had a daydream about running in Central Park and letting go of balloons is literally my Roman Empire. That beat genuinely threw me because it was the most wholesome and childlike thing this psychologically diseased man has ever narrated— and Jean was in the centre of it. Like, come on, this guy is so freaking pathetically in love with Jean 😭🙏

Speaking of being in love— his line ‘Jean, my secretary, who is love with me’ is the most pathetic wet cat of deflections of all time. Sure, maybe in the book Jean eventually confesses to her own feelings in the End of the 1980s chapter— but you’re telling me *that* is the epithet that you’re giving her? Some might argue that this is a label that is just as diminishing as the other ways Patrick describes other people in his social orbit, but like, dude… Imagine saying that your secretary is the one who is love with you when you’re daydreaming about her. Corny ass mfer 💀