Not Okay is an American 2022 satirical film about a young aspiring author that gains overnight fame, and later notoriety, or deceivingly convincing social media that she was a survivor of a terrorist attack in Paris.
The film mainly concerns itself with themes surrounding trauma, PTSD and its interplay with popular media.
Danni Sanders, the anti-hero of the film, is a photo editor at a web magazine titled “Depravity.” Danni is unsatisfied with the status of her career and desires to be promoted to a writing position at Depravity. Right from the initial scenes of the film, the filmmakers have well-established the unlikeability of Danni’s character. A specific scene that marks her–arguably–objectionable and distasteful character traits is when Danni attempts to pitch an article to her superior and fails to do so, she mentions the micro-misfortunes of her life–one being her “FOMO” of missing out on 9/11 owing to a cruise ship vacation and consequently is unable to experience the collective trauma with her peers. It is evident at this juncture of the film that the central character is completely insensitive and oblivious to the actuality of human emotional trauma and traumatic lived experiences.
To streamline a definition–individual trauma is caused by an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that an individual perceives to be physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening and has long-term negative effects on the individual's functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration., 2014)
The following night, Danni becomes inebriated, out of jealousy of her coworker who was invited to an out-of-country writer’s retreat and has the idea to fake being also invited to a retreat in Paris by editing herself into photos as documentation of her trip. Later, Danni finds herself going viral on social media and garnering a large influx of attention to her media presence.
What acts as a turning point for the film–is a terrorist attack in the same region as Danni’s altered image posts. Danni, here, does not make the choice to admit the truth and not incriminate herself further–instead, plays along to the circumstances and goes as far as to fake being in the exact vicinity of the attack. Danni garners sympathy, and an enormous amount of likes for the victim narrative she employs in the favour of her social media presence. She manipulates the actual trauma faced by the real victims and uses it as an opportunity for nationwide fame.
When discussing the marketability and monetary tokenisation of trauma, Vox., (2022) reports the word ‘trauma’ being hash-tagged across social media an incredible 6.2 billion times. Trauma, as a conception of pain, has both been heavily ingrained into cultural references as well as misappropriated into a commonly used idiom. The Vox., (2022) article references the origin of the word, and traces it to large world tragedies such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protest after the murder of George Floyd–however–the rise of the collective self-awareness about traumatic lived experiences and its public acknowledgement extends itself to as early as the 1970s, the era of western civil rights activism and institutional protests.
Going back to the commercialisation of trauma– Danni joins a survivor's group to learn more about PTSD and life after a traumatic event in hopes to imitate their experiences for further attention. Here, she is met by a 17-year-old activist who is also a school shooting survivor–an event at which she had tragically lost her sister. Danni uses her help and co-opts her experience to write and manufacture an article about her own “trauma”-- as she finally receives the post of writer for Disparity. Danni eventually does feel guilt after truly comprehending the magnitude of her lies, but the guilt does not act as reparation for her mistakes as she is found out by her co-worker and is publicly shamed just as fast as she gained fame.
In an article written for Psyche.co., (2022), clinical psychologist Ahuna Guha details a term known as “trauma baiting,” simply put, is produced by individuals who aim to sell products or ideas by means of presenting trauma as a product, or who want to position themselves as relatable social media influencers, and have simply recognised that trauma sells–similar to Danni. What consequences does the exploitation of the abstraction of trauma bring out? Guha., (2022) elucidates that this results in the possibility of the promotion of over-diagnosis and incorrect-self diagnosis–which may in turn direct the allocation of correct resources for people in need to those who do not, producing an intolerance to negative experiences and reduced overall level of resilience. The use and understanding of trauma must be handled with the utmost care, in addition, the misappropriation of psychological terminology calls for more intricate mechanisms to provide spaces for those experiencing difficulties that do not necessarily result in trauma as to demarcate what genuinely constitutes as trauma– a term that has and will continue to carry sociological and psychological implications.
Guha, A. (2022, October 23). A broad definition of trauma is useful; an open-ended one isn’t. Psyche. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://psyche.co/ideas/a-broad-definition-of-trauma-is-useful-an-open-ended-one-isnt
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4884. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014
Pandell, L. (2022, January 25). How trauma became the word of the decade — and the Covid-19 pandemic. Vox. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22876522/trauma-covid-word-origin-mental-health
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