That horrible incident is actually why Louisa dresses the way she does, in quirky, retro clothes that seem to come straight from Mod Cloth or Miss L Fire . As she describes herself before the incident, she dressed much more suggestively in spiky heels, skinny jeans, and revealing tops. But after the rape, Lou says, she wanted to make herself as "unattractive" to men as possible, dressing in kooky clothing and styling herself in a way she thought they'd hate.In the book, Louisa eventually recounting her trauma to Will is one of the reasons he stops being so snarky with her. It's also implied that, as a result of the rape, Louisa has physical intimacy issues, which is why it doesn’t faze her that her relationship with Will may not include much sexual activity. While this subplot provides the book with these particular nuances, its inclusion is not only rather shocking, darker even than Will's attempted suicide or his eventual plan to end his life, but totally unnecessary. The added nuance doesn't make up for the fact that we don't need another story wherein the main female character suffers through a sexual assault in order to advance the plot.Thankfully, the entire rape subplot doesn't make it into the movie. As it stands in the film, the reason Louisa never goes to college is left open, Will's question awkwardly unanswered. But that awkwardness is much more preferable to the inclusion of yet another instance of sexual abuse on screen. Louisa is a girl who wears offbeat clothes and doesn't much enjoy sex, and having that simply be the way her character is — rather than the result of a brutal assault — is perfectly fine. The character doesn't need to have gone through sexual trauma as an "excuse" for her personality or the way she dresses. There's far too much needless violence against women on television and in films as it is, and it's particularly egregious when a history of trauma is used as means to make a man feel bad and fall for a woman or to explain her personality quirks.Moyes adapted her own book for the screen, so she was the one who ultimately decided to leave the rape out of the screenplay. It was the right call.