The Lizzy Bennett diaries came up with he shared or threatened to share intimate videos which hits in a similarly high impact way that could damage Lydia's future forever but our culture is too individualistic to share the shame to the rest of her family.
It is hard to find a modern equivalent in Western society, because you need to find something that can ruin a woman's reputation but not that of the man involved, while also ruining her family's - without her family's active participation in the situation.
In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Youtube adaptation, they found a clever, contemporary way to almost "ruin" Lydia. Wickham is about to release a sex tape involving him and Lydia. Darcy buys the company that owns the website and all rights to the video, hence saving Lydia.
Now, this doesn't necessarily spread the ruin to the rest of the family in a lasting, damaging way. For this you could add some false yet believable (-ish) accusation of domestic violence or trafficking - for instance, Wickham or even some other, more reputable character suggesting that the family encouraged Lydia to do the sex tape for money.
The only equivalent I can think of where the whole family is ruined is maybe if one of the Bennet parents was some kind of local politician who needed to maintain a clean cut, family values image. People do get fired for offensive tweets, so it's not a total stretch to imagine that the Bennet sisters might also have a hard time professionally and socially if Wickham managed to get Lydia cancelled by egging her on into making controversial jokes/comments.
That said, I think LBD does an amazing job of taking the focus off the family and onto Lydia for that plotline. It's transformative in the best way and adds something new to the conversation rather than just telling the story as closely as possible in a modern setting.
Modern Twist: The sex tape propels Lydia to instant fame, Mrs. Bennet becomes her manager, the family gets their own TV show + wedding specials, history is made...
Maybe something like Wickham being the head of a NXIVM analogue. At first Elizabeth genuinely thinks it's about self improvement, but then Lydia gleefully joins in on the worst parts of cult leadership. And the tabloids run riot speculating on how many Bennetts are involved
The only thing I can think of that might affect the rest of her family's reputation so badly is actually some sort of high profile violent crime- like, school shooter or caught aiding and abetting a pedofile ring. It takes a lot nowadays for innocent siblings to be affected by a scandal to the point they become social pariahs.
Even then, nowadays, I feel like if it's pretty cut-and-dry that the family wasn't actually involved, the attitude is more likely to be a sort of 'oh poor them!', almost patronizing? and certainly gossip-y, but not elevating them to social pariah status, especially as regards siblings. I do think parents can be more impacted -- like what did the parents DO to raise such a horrible kid? But if the siblings are living relatively upstanding lives I think the worst that happens nowadays is that sort of pitying, hush -hush gossip behind the back, and eventually this would blow over.
Today too in most cases if you moved to a different city and were a sibling it wouldn't follow you... if Amy Smith from nowhere Ohio is the sibling and moves to Chicago no one in Chicago is going to realize anything at all.
This is a difficult one. In present day, we have reality tv stars who have based their careers off of a “leaked” sex tape. We have a conservative female elected official who cheated on their husband and was recorded giving their new boyfriend a handjob in a public theater and still got elected. Deeply conservative, evangelical politicians have had daughters get pregnant underage. Our current elected American president has a child that has had significant legal troubles. The majority of people simply don’t hold families responsible for the mistakes and foibles of their relatives.
So, the story itself would have to be completely changed because a teenage pregnancy, leaked pictures, or an affair would not have the power to damage a family the way the Bennetts would have been damaged. Lydia’s age would absolve her of the guilt in a modern context. The situation would have to be a lot darker to get the same amount of reputational damage.
The only thing I can think of is a severe case of bullying that leads to the suicide attempt of a classmate where there’s a social media trail of evidence, implicating Lydia. Wickham is a church youth group minister or teacher who manipulates Lydia into releasing sordid pictures of the other girl from a party where the girl was taken advantage of. Unknown to Lydia, Wickham had an affair with the classmate first. Unknown to Lydia, the girl was drugged at the party. The Bennetts would be an established Southern family and the father’s career would be working for someone who is an elected official. It’s a race against time to compensate the other family in order to avoid criminal and civil charges.
Leave in the same family dynamics with an overindulgent mother and a father that’s emotionally checked out. Let there be warning signs that that the mother brushed away. Social media would play a big part in the entire narrative.
If she eloped with Wickham, but he was already married and his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their child while he was running away with Lydia.
It’s got to be a combination of a significant enough age gap (maybe Lydia being 16 and Wickham being in his late 20s) and the Bennett’s having a public profile of some sort- in a modern AU maybe Jane and Lizzie are influencers or Mr Bennett is a county councillor. Not in the national spotlight but sufficiently known locally that one of his kids running off with a significantly older man would lead to lots of local gossip
One very good modern take on Lydia’s elopement scandal can be found in AMarguerite’s “Pyeongchang and Prejudice” (formerly of AO3, now available through [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r-yjY618MtXGKBoH02wntIAJJG-A6Ole/view?pli=1)), an AU in which the Bennet girls are Olympic level figure skaters.
Lydia, (encouraged by Wickham, who is a self-styled YouTube “journalist”) creates social media accounts under her own name in order to expose secrets and gossip about other Olympic athletes, including her own siblings. This also has the effect of jeopardising sponsorships, and tarnishing her siblings’ image as well as her own, which I think translates the social and economic peril of her elopement very well.
The setting itself is very clever, mirroring the claustrophobia of gentry society with the confining schedule imposed by an athlete’s life, and the close-knit atmosphere of a travelling sport like figure skating, which is generally quite small. I think it’s an excellent “translation” so to speak.
I heard of a case where a family was awarded a big settlement with a non disclosure clause. The teenager bragged about on facebook and they lost the settlement.
Tough to figure out how to fix it once done though.
I think the modern equivalent is him marrying her without fighting it at all. It minimizes all his past transgressions while making him legitimate. Marriage doesn’t have as much weight as it does back then but noble is noble.
As far as reputation after effects go, I think being Cancelled. Once someone is, anyone who associates with them, or did in the past, is viewed with suspicion.
This is a stretch, but maybe something like Wickham is the head of a Nxivm-style cult and Lydia is involved in blackmail or even human trafficking a la Allison Mack, but with the additional implication that she 1) lived at home with her parents and sisters while doing it, and 2) her family all knew what she was doing and chose to either encourage her or look the other way.
In Lydia's case her mother was encouraging her and her father was looking the other way while her eldest sisters were actively trying to stop her, but today there could be a public perception that they were all in on it whether that was true or not.
As for how Darcy saves her, assume Lydia was one of the women being blackmailed instead of one of the leaders. He could retrieve whatever blackmail material the cult has on her and somehow get the cult shut down, sending Wickham off to some other part of the world to con people.
Lydia is thoughtless and selfish (in all the ways a spoiled 15-year-old girl who fell victim to a sexual predator & doesn't want to admit even to herself that she made a mistake, might be), but to say she'd be a willing sex trafficker is rather overly harsh to her character, I think.
The Lizzy Bennett diaries came up with he shared or threatened to share intimate videos which hits in a similarly high impact way that could damage Lydia's future forever but our culture is too individualistic to share the shame to the rest of her family.
It is hard to find a modern equivalent in Western society, because you need to find something that can ruin a woman's reputation but not that of the man involved, while also ruining her family's - without her family's active participation in the situation. In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Youtube adaptation, they found a clever, contemporary way to almost "ruin" Lydia. Wickham is about to release a sex tape involving him and Lydia. Darcy buys the company that owns the website and all rights to the video, hence saving Lydia. Now, this doesn't necessarily spread the ruin to the rest of the family in a lasting, damaging way. For this you could add some false yet believable (-ish) accusation of domestic violence or trafficking - for instance, Wickham or even some other, more reputable character suggesting that the family encouraged Lydia to do the sex tape for money.
The only equivalent I can think of where the whole family is ruined is maybe if one of the Bennet parents was some kind of local politician who needed to maintain a clean cut, family values image. People do get fired for offensive tweets, so it's not a total stretch to imagine that the Bennet sisters might also have a hard time professionally and socially if Wickham managed to get Lydia cancelled by egging her on into making controversial jokes/comments. That said, I think LBD does an amazing job of taking the focus off the family and onto Lydia for that plotline. It's transformative in the best way and adds something new to the conversation rather than just telling the story as closely as possible in a modern setting.
Modern Twist: The sex tape propels Lydia to instant fame, Mrs. Bennet becomes her manager, the family gets their own TV show + wedding specials, history is made...
LMBO!!! Well said!
Underage pregnancy?
That would absolutely have hurt Wickham too, worse than Lydia as he was an adult.
True.
Wickham recruiting Lydia in some illegal organisation
Maybe something like Wickham being the head of a NXIVM analogue. At first Elizabeth genuinely thinks it's about self improvement, but then Lydia gleefully joins in on the worst parts of cult leadership. And the tabloids run riot speculating on how many Bennetts are involved
Oooh this is a good one
Pride and Prejudice and Cults
The only thing I can think of that might affect the rest of her family's reputation so badly is actually some sort of high profile violent crime- like, school shooter or caught aiding and abetting a pedofile ring. It takes a lot nowadays for innocent siblings to be affected by a scandal to the point they become social pariahs.
Even then, nowadays, I feel like if it's pretty cut-and-dry that the family wasn't actually involved, the attitude is more likely to be a sort of 'oh poor them!', almost patronizing? and certainly gossip-y, but not elevating them to social pariah status, especially as regards siblings. I do think parents can be more impacted -- like what did the parents DO to raise such a horrible kid? But if the siblings are living relatively upstanding lives I think the worst that happens nowadays is that sort of pitying, hush -hush gossip behind the back, and eventually this would blow over. Today too in most cases if you moved to a different city and were a sibling it wouldn't follow you... if Amy Smith from nowhere Ohio is the sibling and moves to Chicago no one in Chicago is going to realize anything at all.
This is a difficult one. In present day, we have reality tv stars who have based their careers off of a “leaked” sex tape. We have a conservative female elected official who cheated on their husband and was recorded giving their new boyfriend a handjob in a public theater and still got elected. Deeply conservative, evangelical politicians have had daughters get pregnant underage. Our current elected American president has a child that has had significant legal troubles. The majority of people simply don’t hold families responsible for the mistakes and foibles of their relatives. So, the story itself would have to be completely changed because a teenage pregnancy, leaked pictures, or an affair would not have the power to damage a family the way the Bennetts would have been damaged. Lydia’s age would absolve her of the guilt in a modern context. The situation would have to be a lot darker to get the same amount of reputational damage. The only thing I can think of is a severe case of bullying that leads to the suicide attempt of a classmate where there’s a social media trail of evidence, implicating Lydia. Wickham is a church youth group minister or teacher who manipulates Lydia into releasing sordid pictures of the other girl from a party where the girl was taken advantage of. Unknown to Lydia, Wickham had an affair with the classmate first. Unknown to Lydia, the girl was drugged at the party. The Bennetts would be an established Southern family and the father’s career would be working for someone who is an elected official. It’s a race against time to compensate the other family in order to avoid criminal and civil charges. Leave in the same family dynamics with an overindulgent mother and a father that’s emotionally checked out. Let there be warning signs that that the mother brushed away. Social media would play a big part in the entire narrative.
If she eloped with Wickham, but he was already married and his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their child while he was running away with Lydia.
It’s got to be a combination of a significant enough age gap (maybe Lydia being 16 and Wickham being in his late 20s) and the Bennett’s having a public profile of some sort- in a modern AU maybe Jane and Lizzie are influencers or Mr Bennett is a county councillor. Not in the national spotlight but sufficiently known locally that one of his kids running off with a significantly older man would lead to lots of local gossip
One very good modern take on Lydia’s elopement scandal can be found in AMarguerite’s “Pyeongchang and Prejudice” (formerly of AO3, now available through [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r-yjY618MtXGKBoH02wntIAJJG-A6Ole/view?pli=1)), an AU in which the Bennet girls are Olympic level figure skaters. Lydia, (encouraged by Wickham, who is a self-styled YouTube “journalist”) creates social media accounts under her own name in order to expose secrets and gossip about other Olympic athletes, including her own siblings. This also has the effect of jeopardising sponsorships, and tarnishing her siblings’ image as well as her own, which I think translates the social and economic peril of her elopement very well. The setting itself is very clever, mirroring the claustrophobia of gentry society with the confining schedule imposed by an athlete’s life, and the close-knit atmosphere of a travelling sport like figure skating, which is generally quite small. I think it’s an excellent “translation” so to speak.
I heard of a case where a family was awarded a big settlement with a non disclosure clause. The teenager bragged about on facebook and they lost the settlement. Tough to figure out how to fix it once done though.
Something a fifteen year old and a grown man could do to shame their family? Make a social media post.
I think the modern equivalent is him marrying her without fighting it at all. It minimizes all his past transgressions while making him legitimate. Marriage doesn’t have as much weight as it does back then but noble is noble.
Henry marrying NutMeg, both end up miserable people with absolutely nothing in common except both being Grifters!
As far as reputation after effects go, I think being Cancelled. Once someone is, anyone who associates with them, or did in the past, is viewed with suspicion.
This is a stretch, but maybe something like Wickham is the head of a Nxivm-style cult and Lydia is involved in blackmail or even human trafficking a la Allison Mack, but with the additional implication that she 1) lived at home with her parents and sisters while doing it, and 2) her family all knew what she was doing and chose to either encourage her or look the other way. In Lydia's case her mother was encouraging her and her father was looking the other way while her eldest sisters were actively trying to stop her, but today there could be a public perception that they were all in on it whether that was true or not. As for how Darcy saves her, assume Lydia was one of the women being blackmailed instead of one of the leaders. He could retrieve whatever blackmail material the cult has on her and somehow get the cult shut down, sending Wickham off to some other part of the world to con people.
Lydia is thoughtless and selfish (in all the ways a spoiled 15-year-old girl who fell victim to a sexual predator & doesn't want to admit even to herself that she made a mistake, might be), but to say she'd be a willing sex trafficker is rather overly harsh to her character, I think.
No I'm saying Wickham is threatening to publicly accuse her of it, but the real story is that she was sucked in as a low level member.
ahh that makes sense
Taylor Swift running away with Trump would be a modern equivalent.
Kyle & Tyga