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Let's Face It: We All Have a Wendy Jones

Let's Face It: We All Have a Wendy Jones

Vogue3 days ago
Anyone who has ever been in a relationship has a Wendy Jones: someone who lives and breathes so viscerally in your head they're practically part of you. You know everything about them, from the jeans they wear and the pilates studio they frequent to the names of their siblings and which Greek island they visited five years ago. You hear their voice when you close your eyes at night. You see their shadow lurking in every corner. You loathe them. You worship them. You're hopelessly addicted to them.
Wendy Jones is a character in Lena Dunham's new Netflix series, Too Much. Played by Emily Ratajkowski, she is the new girlfriend of Zev (Michael Zegen), the ex of main character Jessica (Meg Stalter), whose fixation opens every episode by way of a voiceover addressing Wendy directly. 'Dear Wendy Jones,' says Jessica, before proceeding to unleash various soliloquies about her new life in London, where she has moved in search of a fresh start after her relationship of seven years with Zev came to an end.
What follows throughout the 10-episode series are several social media deep dives and emotional outbursts illustrating the hold that Wendy has over Jessica's soul and spirit. She can think of little else and, at one point, pretends to watch an entire film with the man she's just started dating while secretly scrolling through Wendy's Instagram. It doesn't help that Wendy is an influencer, giving Jessica endless information and content to pore and cry over.
To reduce this set of feelings to jealousy would be myopic. It's not that Jessica necessarily wants to get back with Zev. Nor is it even that she wants to be more like Wendy, with her self-made social empire and goddess-like face (this is EmRata, remember). The fixations we have on an ex's new partner run far deeper than that. I know that because I've experienced them—many, many times.
Whenever an ex of mine has started dating someone new, I've seen it as an invitation to obsess. It's exciting, in a way, like the new partner becomes a blank whiteboard for me to project all of my worst insecurities onto. Generally, against my better judgement, I start by looking at her body: how does it look in comparison to mine? What clothes suit her figure that wouldn't suit mine? How much natural frizz is there in her hair when it dries naturally? Are her feet so wide that she often needs special shoes, or are they delicate and narrow, like a ballerina's?
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French baby names are having a moment—and Olivia Culpo's pick shows exactly why

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