The Tragedy of Ruth Flemming <3 <3 <3
"You're splitting me in two!"
Ruth Flemming has only ever wanted to be loved. The only girl in a small friend group of nerds, Ruth is constantly told (and telling herself) that she will never know what it feels like to be wanted. People tell her to die every day. Ruth isn't seen as a girl. She's seen as a nerd. That's her entire identity. She craves to be touched not just because she's unbelievably horny, but because it would mean someone wants to touch her; it would mean someone thinks she's worth that level of intimacy. She would be someone. When you watch coming of age movies and you get to the part where the guy sees the girl for the first time and the world stops and maybe their hands touch as they reach for some fallen items and there's such an intense electricity that they have to pull their hands and flinch away--that's all Ruth Flemming has ever wanted. To be the girl in the movie. In her final moments, Ruth gets her standalone moment. She gets an entire song where she not only gets to sing, but monologue and act and act out being the girl of a movie (even if this girl is now middle-aged and overlooked and unwanted; the latter of which being how Ruth feels about herself). I could say so much about Just For Once, I know many people dislike that song but I think it's genius, especially in conjugation with the rest of the development and twists that NPMD places on different typical 2000's movie tropes, such as Richie's development and death. But I'm veering off track. She has just done something she's wanted to do for a long time. She acted. Even if it was just for herself, it was a start. Much like Richie starting to feel acceptance from the football team, Ruth is starting to feel a small build of confidence. And then Max destroys it. Not only does he mock her performance, but he kills her in the most painful possible way I can imagine Ruth being killed; a fucking wedgie. Obviously this continues the theme of Max killing his victims with extreme bullying methods (though this only happens to his first two victims, Richie and Ruth), but it's more than that. How often do you hear of a girl getting wedgied? I know it sounds ridiculous to read, but really. Think about it. You don't. And this brings me back to my earlier point; Ruth isn't seen as a girl. She's just a nerd. And nerd's get wedgied all the time. In Ruth's final moments, Max destroys everything Ruth had just built up. She's not a girl, she doesn't get her moment, she's a bad actor ("You SUCK, Flemwad!"), and the past five minutes that she had to feel herself and perform are now tarnished by the knowledge that she was being watched and the watcher wasn't a fan of what they saw. Max does more than take away Ruth's life, he takes her spirit. I love you Ruth Flemming. You deserve the world, you deserve the Globe Theatre, you deserve love and you deserve attention and you deserve life.
