Pack the littluns off to bed, lower the shades and steel your soul: Hulu is warning viewers that original movie “Not Okay” features “an unlikable female protagonist.”
On Hulu, a notice in front of the R-rated movie says: “ConTENT WARNING: This film contains flashing lights, themes of trauma, and an unlikable female protagonist. Viewer discretion advised.” “Not Okay” stars Zoey Deutch as a villainous, pathologically ruthless internet fame-seeker. It premiered Friday, July 29, on Hulu.
Of course, Hulu’s trigger alert about the “unlikable female protagonist” is actually a meta-joke — it’s meant to be cultural commentary about disagreeable women characters being worthy of a mature-content disclaimer on the order of, say, exploding-head violence or graphic nudity. Note that the original trailer for “Not Okay” features a comically oversize red warning card punctuated with exclamation marks that has the same caution about the film’s unlikable main character.
In a recent interview with IndieWire, writer and director Quinn Shephard (“Blame”) said the “unlikable female protagonist” warning is intended to provoke the audience. “It was interesting to me that a large chunk of the audience seemed genuinely upset by the fact that the film was about Danni [the main character], and so I just wanted to kind of poke at it a little,” she said.
But without any context, some have taken Hulu’s content warning at face value — leading to a spate of irate, confused and derisive reactions on social media…. along with a few attagirls.
Why is Hulu warning me about “an unlikeable female protagonist”? Do unlikeable male protagonists need content warnings? pic.twitter/gHTmzgJaIW
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) July 31, 2022
We as a society need to have a serious convo about the term “unlikable female protagonist” & how incredibly destructive & misused this phrase has become.
— Amy Trueblood (@atruebooks) July 31, 2022
lmao what how is "unlikable female protagonist" a content warning next to things like flashing lights and themes of trauma
