Good Girl, Bad Blood

The villain in Good Girl, Bad Blood is called a catfish. The use of this term to describe something other than the fish species is relatively recent. Merriam-Webster defines the internet usage of the word as follows: “a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes.”

Catfish was first used in this sense as the title of a 2010 documentary film in which the film’s producer was the target of a catfishing scheme. He establishes an online connection with someone he thinks is a 19-year-old girl from the Midwest, but she turns out to be a 40-year-old housewife. The woman’s husband makes a comparison between his wife’s scam and an apocryphal merchant shipping practice. As the story goes, centuries ago, when live cod fish were shipped across the globe, they tended to arrive at their destination sluggish and not very tasty. Catfish are the natural enemy of the cod, so a few of these would be put in the cod tank to keep the cod lively and alert. Thus, they were in much better shape when they reached their ultimate consumers.

Catfishing and cybercrime have both become prevalent ever since the internet became a necessity for modern communication. As a basis for comparison, since the film Catfish appeared in 2010, the amount lost to internet fraud has doubled. In 2020, that number stood at $3.3 billion in the United States. Aside from fraud, total cybercrime losses amount to $1 trillion, with that amount doubling every few years.

The reason that catfishing and cybercrime have become so prevalent is the ease with which someone can represent themselves fraudulently online. There is limited accountability for such deception. This context offers some insight into Pip’s dilemma in the novel. She relies almost exclusively on her social media network and internet websites for the necessary facts to conduct her investigations. While this tactic sometimes works to her advantage, as in the instance of pinpointing Jamie’s movements on the night he disappeared, it more frequently works against her.

Pip’s obsession with finding the truth is often hampered by the very medium she relies on most. She is baffled by lying eyewitnesses who claim they saw Jamie when they didn’t. She is even more disturbed by an online post suggesting that her entire investigation is a fraud. Truth matters far less than the gullibility of a social media audience. Pip’s schoolmates turn on her when they choose to believe an online rumor rather than someone they’ve known for years.

The most extreme example of the conflict between identity and representation is Layla. Layla is a man pretending to be a woman. Because image is all that matters, a photoshopped portrait of a local high school girl will suffice. Targets of a catfish scheme will imbue that image with whatever they need or want Layla to be, just as Jamie did. Pip’s frustration in attempting to solve her catfish case is understandable. In cyberspace, nobody is compelled to tell the truth.