My Thoughts on 365 DNI
So one of my friends and I absolutely LOVE TikTok. I mean, we each probably spend 1–3 hours a day on it and we send each other probably 20+ TikToks. Many times we’re either laughing about a humorous TikTok, going awww over a wholesome puppy TikTok, or trying to figure out a TikTok trend that’s going on like we’re middle aged women and not Gen Z kids too.
A few nights ago in the midst of us spamming each other TikToks and trying to figure out the whole hype around sm6 band, my friend asked me if 365 DNI had showed up in my for you page because it was all over her for you page and people were flipping their shit over the movie. I said no, and naturally she sent me a few of the TikToks so we could try to understand yet another TikTok trend together. A top comment on one of the TikToks was, “porn but not so porn, movie but not so movie.” Many of the TikToks were clips of the kid watching the movie and being absolutely comedically shocked by some lets just say very *sexual* scenes.
My friend and I being my friend and I, confused by this recent hype in TikTok, were intrigued. And I decided to watch it last night on a whim.
Here’s a little synopsis of the movie and my first impressions:
Synopsis: Massimo is a member of the Sicilian Mafia family and Laura is a sales director. She does not expect that on a trip to Sicily trying to save her relationship, Massimo will kidnap her and give her 365 days to fall in love with him. (From Google)
First impressions:
- the girl masturbates with a dildo & and the guy gets a blow job from a flight attendant within the first 10 minutes?!!?!?!
- ok this has to be sexual assault
- this is so fucking dramatic and unrealistic. like a guy sees a girl at an airport once and then he sees his dad die and then he falls in love with this girl and “searches around the world” for 5 years to find her?!??! and after he’s kidnapped her he gives her “an opportunity to fall in love in 365 days”?!?!?!?!?!?
- it’s only been 30 minutes and i’ve seen way too many ass cracks already
Ok. I’ll admit it. I kind of enjoyed the movie. The guy was hot as fuck. And that’s on him having facial hair and me absolutely despising facial hair on my men. My overall emotions throughout the movie were alternating between feeling wildly uncomfortable (especially during the literal 10 minute scene where the main characters have nonstop sex in probably 10 spots on a boat) (JESUS JESUS JESUS WE LOOOOOVE TO PRAYYYYYYY) and then laughing at a funny text I sent my friend about a scene I had just seen. But, I unfortunately like myself a good trashy, unrealistic, dramatic, romantic teen movie on a rare occasion.
But as I thought about it and my reactions to the first few scenes of the movie — especially the scene where the guy basically forces a random flight attendant to suck his dick. This has got to be some form of sexual assault. The fact that a man literally kidnaps a girl he’s “in love” with after ONE encounter (where words weren’t even exchanged) and stalking her for five years and they fall in love?!?!?! It’s literally a mafia, wattpad, Fifty Shades of Grey, turned Polish movie. To say this plot about love is unrealistic is an understatement. But why is TikTok & Twitter, two social media platforms dominated by Gen Z kids, flipping their shit over this over this basically sex movie on Netflix? Why are movies like Fifty Shades of Grey and After so successful even though the plots are predictable? My friend said it best: “Everyone’s obsessed with marrying mafia people these days. People r romanticizing getting kidnapped because just bc the mafia/gang leader is “hot”. That’s not how it is sis.” That REALLY is NOT how it is sis.
I see all over TikTok kids our age joking about how Gen Z kids aren’t scared to fight a cop but are too awkward to talk to their relatives on the phone or ask a waiter for a napkin. Us Gen Z kids are weird. We have the weirdest sense of humor (exhibit a: all of TikTok). We suffer high rates of mental health issues. We’re obsessed with social media. And in this situation, we’re obsessed with toxic things.
I’m not going to go into how 365 DNI glorifies Stockholm syndrome or whatever because there’s enough articles out there on that. I don’t have any solid opinions of my own either. I’m not going to trash on it because I obviously admitted to secretly enjoying it. I just have some questions. Are movies like this contributing factors to why there’s a major rape/sexual assault/sexual harassment/lack of consent issue in our society right now? Women fantasize about having a borderline abusive, but hot, partner? Men think that doing borderline sexual assault actions are viewed as attractive and ok? Does this glorifying of toxic relationships make teens like me think toxic relationships will turn out great like in these movies? All a guy needs to be is hot and he can get any girl? (YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT WHEN YOU SEEEXXXYYYY) I mean overall, how are these things in the media affecting our minds and opinions? Netflix sure does a great job of understanding its market, providing a movie in quarantine that has been extremely successful among Gen Z kids (#2 on Netflix on June 9th). How are some other movies molding our perspectives on the world around us? Media holds a much more powerful hold over our minds than we think each time we watch a movie. That power is also super dangerous. Are we putting the right type of glorification in the media? I don’t really know the answer myself. But just some questions from philosophical Gen Z kiddo who just watched a sex movie because of a TikTok trend…
Some funny article titles/tweets I’ve seen about 365 DNI:
If you understood all of the bolded TikTok references in the parentheses, I appreciate you.
