A single female friend is feeling uncomfortably targeted by Netflix. The content categories the streamer is now offering on her homepage include Grown-ass Women Living Their Best Lives (sample content: Sex and the City) and Sad Girl Fall (Gossip Girl). It feels a bit patronising – like an acquaintance loudly “go girl-ing” your lifestyle choices without anyone asking for their opinion in the first place. It’s pedestrian, too. “Where are my Period Drama Sluts?” she complains. She’s not alone: social media users have expressed their bemusement at being offered Sad Girl Fall viewing.
It made me and my friend wonder whether Netflix gives men similarly dopey, stereotypical suggestions. Snooping at my sons’ Netflix profiles, I was relieved neither is being targeted by any Angry Man Autumn content (though given how much lengthy black-and-white auteur cinema they’ve made me sit through, I doubt they’re enjoying the Watch Together for Older Kids offerings of tween sitcoms). We started brainstorming: I came up with It’s Got Vin In, It’s a Win and It Doesn’t Count As Crying If There’s Sport. She suggested Lasers and Explosions and Art Flicks for Mansplaining. Netflix, call us.
