Parents flex their power with anti-woke ‘Cancel Netflix’ boycott

For years, many parents have had a wary relationship with Netflix. 

Back in 2020, the streaming giant sparked global outrage when it released “Cuties,” with its sexualized depiction of preteen girls.

Netflix insisted the French film was a critique of grooming and child exploitation — but for millions of families, it was an unmistakable sign that the company was willing to push woke sexual boundaries to the extreme. 

That breach never fully healed.

Ever since, conservative parents have voiced concerns about various incidents of progressive social themes slipped into the streamer’s “family” programming — cross-dressing boys in “Strawberry Shortcake,” a nonbinary bison character in “Ridley Jones,” the openly transgender lead in “Dead End: Paranormal Park,” and many others. 

For those just looking for a harmless dinosaur cartoon or a colorful bedtime adventure, using children’s entertainment as a vehicle for identity politics felt like a bait-and-switch.

But while the grumbling simmered for years, it never caught fire — until last week.

That’s when Libs of Tik Tok reported that Hamish Steele, the creator of one of those woke shows, had dismissed Charlie Kirk as a “random Nazi” after his assassination.

The outrage that followed resurfaced a series of old Netflix clips, most dating back to the height of leftist influence in 2020 and 2021, reminding parents of the sexual and ideological themes embedded in its children’s content. 

The “Cancel Netflix” campaign was born. 

As screenshots of canceled subscriptions spread across X, Instagram and Facebook, what had been scattered parental frustration morphed into a full-fledged cultural campaign.

When Elon Musk joined the fray — posting “Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids” on X — the company’s stock price experienced a 5% drop.

The unofficial face of the boycott became a clip from the animated “Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous,” in which two young girls reveal their mutual attraction and share a passionate kiss.

“Why does this belong in a pre-teen dinosaur show?” parent after parent posted. 

The outrageous examples parents have been unearthing read like a paid advertisement for a competing streaming service that runs only wholesome, family-friendly content.

If that’s what it is, it’s the best ad campaign I’ve ever seen.

Angry activists have zeroed in on Netflix’s internal culture, making Wade Davis, the company’s vice president of “inclusion strategy,” a particular target. 

It was Davis, a former “LGBT inclusion consultant” for the NFL and Barack Obama campaign surrogate, who oversaw an explosion of DEI initiatives inside Netflix.

In 2021, for example, the company boasted that it had sent all its vice presidents through a “privilege” workshop that denigrated executives who were white or non-transgender.

That same ideological framework clearly influenced the cartoons these execs have been feeding our kids.

Now it’s not just online activists — Congress, too, may be piling on. 

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said last week that he intends to haul Netflix executives before the House to explain why they are “pushing sexualized transgender shows on young kids.” 

“Let’s get on it,” Burchett thundered Friday on the Benny Johnson podcast.

“They need to be brought in and we need to find out what their agenda is and why they are pushing this. Evil and demonic!” 

Congress can’t dictate content decisions — nor should it.

But such hearings would be a public-relations nightmare for a company already concerned about subscriber and stock losses in an increasingly crowded streaming market. 

The “Cancel Netflix” moment has power precisely because it taps into a broader cultural fatigue. 

After years of COVID mandates, school-curriculum battles, and relentless political messaging in every corner of public life, families are worn down. 

Parents don’t want political lectures slipped into our children’s entertainment.

We don’t want to pre-screen every episode of every cartoon.

We want a baseline of trust that “kids’ programming” means what it says. 

Netflix has broken that trust.

A dinosaur cartoon with a same-sex kiss isn’t an isolated storyline; it’s emblematic of a company that seems determined to inject progressive sexual politics into even the most innocent genres.

Netflix still boasts over 260 million subscribers and a deep library of hit shows. 

But what’s clear is that grassroots outrage can now snowball in an instant, fueled by social media and turbocharged by grief or anger tied to a public figure.

Even if “Cancel Netflix” fades, the company has been put on notice: Parents are watching, politicians are circling, and competitors are salivating.

For a decade, Netflix embodied the future of entertainment.

Today, it looks increasingly like a battleground in a culture war the left thought it had already won.

Bethany Mandel writes and podcasts at The Mom Wars and is a homeschooling mother of six in greater Washington, DC.