Why are we ‘Not Okay’ with unlikeable female characters? by Mia Jenkins

Love bled a letter. Why are we Not Okay with unlikeable female characters?

by Mia Jenkins [CW: terrorist bombings]

The satirical black comedy Not Okay attempts to create an insightful social commentary yet fails to leave a clear resounding message with its audience. Nevertheless, the fi lm frames an important statement on the absurdity of internet culture and the gap between antihero and antiheroine characters in Hollywood fi lms. While its cast offers praiseworthy performances, the writing of the fi lm falsely proclaims itself to be socially enlightened, and ultimately makes an example of the exact behaviour it criticises.

The fi lm follows Danni Sanders, a lonely 20-something New Yorker, fuelled by her desperation to become loved, successful, and famous. When she fi nds herself wrapped up in a lie about going on a writer’s retreat to Paris, Danni decides to fake her dream life by photoshopping pictures of herself in Paris on Instagram. Yet, immediately after posting a picture at the Arc de Triomphe, news breaks that a thread of terrorist bombings has hit major Parisian landmarks. Danni then spectacles her fake trauma on social media using the hashtag “#iamnotokay”, garnering national support and making her dream life a reality. This façade of unjustly victimising oneself to gain attention and success is directly aligned with the reality of infl uencer-corruption on social media. Although the fi lm is a satire, its compelling depiction of the dangers of confusing reality with the make-believe world of social media is anything but exaggerated.

The fi lm’s cast includes big names such as Zoey Deutch, portraying main character Danni Sanders, and Dylan O’Brien, portraying social media infl uencer Colin. Both actors offer praiseworthy performances through their ability to physicalise their characters in an extremely realistic manner. Yet it is breakout actress Mia Isaac who shines in her ability to bring depth and rawness to her performance, establishing her fi nal monologue as the most memorable scene in the fi lm. If anything is to be commended in this fi lm, it is Isaac’s delivery of Rowan’s speech of spoken word in this closing scene. Her impassioned and emotional performance offers a powerful sentiment to the audience and makes a commendable effort to make up for the fi lm’s undiversifi ed writing perspective.

Directed and written by Quinn Shephard, the young fi lmmaker attempts to make commentary on internet culture, race, sexuality, social class, political power, fast-fashion, and hook-up culture. Yet it appears that a genuine voice behind the fi lm is lost through Shephard’s excessive comedic jabs on societal inequalities. This is typifi ed when a matcha café owner forces a woman experiencing homelessness off their street to leave an “infl uencers eat free” sign in her place, and again later in the fi lm when Danni ‘compassionately’ offers the same woman an infl uencer freebie bag with a teeth-whitening kit. Although this commentary demonstrates the unethical nature of infl uencer culture in convergence with issues of social justice, the fi lm overwhelms itself in attempting to combat an inundated number of social issues.

We see this further when Danni exclaims “Yass queen, slay!”, at the mention of her co-workers’ queer-bowling night, and again during a montage of “#iamnotokay” tweets which parade self-victimising testimonies, including “my boyfriend only loves me because I’m hot”. The list of these satirical jabs goes on, in which Shephard uses

with unlikeable female

her characters to mock one’s desperation to feel loved and included – whether that be as a part of a minority or a self-victimising social media movement. While these jabs are humorous, Shephard makes the mistake of generalising all social and political issues, in which one real and raw message is largely lost upon the audience. It is this transparent goal to create a socio-politically sophisticated movie for her “zilennial” audience that causes the insuffi ciency for a true transformative power.

Although Danni’s character isn’t given a redemption arc, the audience is still positioned to empathise with her. Shephard intentionally includes empathic scenes of Danni helping Rowan overcome her stage fright before their rally, and of Danni being violently harassed after the public learns of her lie. Moreover, this decision to ultimately encourage the audience to commiserate with Danni is encapsulated in the fi nal scene, where we see Danni attempt to make amends with Rowan. In this scene, Danni is seated in the auditorium of Rowan’s spoken-word recital, reviewing her pre-written apology. This notion of creating a formulated and insincere ‘apology’ that failingly attempts to reconcile the damages of one’s actions is undoubtedly a replication of the actions of real infl uencers.

We’ve all seen them: teary YouTubers reading their apology from a script off-screen, Instagram posts with a blank backdrop, typewriter font, excessive full stops and lower-case characters – all these theatrics just for their followers to forget about it the next day. Yet after watching Rowan’s performance, Danni leaves the auditorium, tears rolling down her face, her fi nal attempt of reconciliation symbolised through handing the narrative’s voice to Rowan and exiling herself from the story altogether. Although Shephard attempts to resolve the fi lm through Danni’s fi nal decision to remove herself from the story, the directorial choice to focus on Danni’s sadness and guilt during Rowan’s speech is defective. While it is important that Danni’s character is still seen as a human being who doesn’t deserve to receive death threats, the decision to position her audience to ultimately empathise with Danni is distasteful.

Furthermore, in her interview with MTV (see: [1]), Shephard divulges that Danni’s character is partially based on herself, and the character should be relatable to “all young white women on the internet”. However, this begs the question of whether Shephard has commendable authority in her depiction of social struggles. Shephard, who was largely introduced to the fi lmmaking world through her mother, a pre-established Hollywood director, is bold in her decision to partake in a criticism of societal structures from which she, herself, has largely benefi tted from. On one hand, Shephard makes an important exposition on the necessity for antiheroine characters like Danni, who in their womanhood are complex and unconventionally immoral, and face a greater response of aversion from audience members compared to their anti-hero counterparts. Yet, while Shephard deems it okay to have entirely unlikeable white female main characters, it is not okay to have well-rounded, fully developed and partially fl awed person of colour (POC) female characters.

In essence, Rowan’s character falls into the trope of a saintly and morally superior POC character who comes to the aid of the white main character to teach them a lesson (see: [2]). Shephard’s perpetuation of this trope in which a POC character lacks any humanistic moral fl aws is problematic, and ironic when considering the fi lm itself aims to provide social commentary on racism. Evidently, Shephard’s portrayal of female characters highlights the issue of intersectionality in Hollywood fi lms.

Ultimately, this fi lm misguidedly oversimplifi es the complexities of social struggles, and it lacks a clear, impactful message on the detrimental impacts of social-media infl uence. Nonetheless, Shephard creatively illuminates the juxtaposition of social triviality and political gravity. While the satirical comedy in the fi lm offers relief to the serious subject matter it attempts to navigate, Shephard falls short in her aspiration of creating a forward-thinking social commentary.

References:

• Oken A. Internet Scammers And Doomscrolling Sparked Quinn Shephard’s Viral Hit “Not Okay” [Internet]. MTV. 2022 [cited 2022 Oct 20]. Available from: https://www.mtv.com/news/u8fsdg/quinn-shephard-not-okay-interview

• Magical Negro - TV Tropes [Internet]. TV Tropes. 2010. Available from: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro

• Cusic S. The Magical Negro Trope in Literature and Film – Confl uence [Internet]. Gallatin. 2021. Available from: https://confl uence.gallatin.nyu.edu/context/interdisciplinary-seminar/the-magical-negro-trope-inliterature-and-fi lm