Tara travels to Malia, Crete, with her friends Skye and Em after their school exams. The 16-year-olds want to drink, dance, and help Tara have sex for the first time. Tara then has a bad sexual experience with Paddy, a boy who ignores her fear and uncertain answers. The film starts as loud and funny party drama, then turns sad and tense as Tara struggles to understand what happened.
The main woke elements come from the film's strong focus on consent, pressure on girls, and harmful male behavior. The story repeatedly shows how friends, alcohol, club culture, and boys can push a girl toward sex she does not truly want. Em also has a visible same-sex connection with Paige, so LGBTQ+ content is part of the friend group's story. These ideas shape Tara's whole journey and are more important than any political speech, but the film presents them through personal events rather than lectures.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for How to Have Sex.
Woke representation / casting
The film has a visible same-sex subplot between Em and Paige. The two girls flirt and kiss during the holiday. The three main friends are girls, but that choice fits a story built around their friendship and does not show a wider casting pattern.
18%
Woke political dialogue
Most dialogue feels like natural teen talk about virginity, hooking up, drinking, jealousy, and group dynamics rather than scripted lectures on politics, identity, or systemic issues. Situations and character choices illustrate pressure and consent problems. The director has expressed educational hopes for sparking consent talks, but the script itself stays observational and character-driven.
10%
Identity-driven story themes
The story centers on Tara's fear and confusion after sexual encounters that do not feel freely wanted. The girls face repeated pressure to lose virginity and prove themselves through sex. The film also gives Em's attraction to Paige a visible same-sex subplot. These themes drive Tara's choices and the ending, so identity-driven concerns are a major part of the story.
57%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film shows a party culture that treats drinking, sexual display, and hookups as normal steps into adulthood. Tara's friends and the boys pressure her, while Paddy ignores signs that she is not comfortable. The story treats male entitlement and harmful gender rules as causes of her pain. It keeps this critique inside teen relationships and club culture instead of attacking a named government, church, or economic system.
52%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is an original contemporary story with no established characters, source material, canon, or real historical figures being reinterpreted through identity or DEI lenses.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. There are no notable or widely reported anti-woke, conservative, or right-leaning complaints accusing the film of pushing woke, DEI, identity politics, or activist messaging. Critical and audience coverage has focused on authenticity, performances, and consent themes rather than agenda. Minor online debate exists about specific scenes and what counts as assault, but this has not become backlash framing the title as propaganda or identity-driven. Evidence for this category is absent or negligible.
0%
Creator track record context
Molly Manning Walker's earlier work also deals with sexual assault, trauma, and failures by people and systems. Her public comments about this film stress consent, female pleasure, and starting talks about sex. Her repeated focus makes her a strong woke creator-context signal for this title. The other producers mostly have ordinary film business backgrounds, so they add little to this score.
61%
Production
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