Why the ‘Feud’ Between Olivia Munn and Ms. Rachel Is Even More Ridiculous Than It Seems

The internet-driven “feud” between Olivia Munn and Ms. Rachel this week seems to prove we’ve completely lost the plot—and women in the public eye are under an unsustainable level of scrutiny.

Look, the internet isn’t a friendly place in general. Especially if you say the wrong thing. But in 2025, even the most benign comment can be twisted and misconstrued to lead to an avalanche of backlash, and it seems like it’s getting worse.

Let’s make one thing clear: Olivia Munn and Ms. Rachel have never been in a fight. Munn never actually said anything critical about Ms. Rachel specifically. What she did do was make a pretty innocuous and relatable comment about programming for kids.

Munn, who has two young children with her husband, John Mulaney, sat down for an interview with People this week and made a comment about how she couldn’t stand kids TV. As an example, she cited Ms. Rachel, a popular children’s entertainer on YouTube who also has a show on Netflix.

“I know kids love [Ms. Rachel], but the thing is, if I can’t watch it, I’m not going to spend the rest of my life going crazy,” she said. “These kid shows drive me crazy.”

She also said she couldn’t stand Blue’s Clues, saying the only show she doesn’t mind is Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood because it helped her son, three-year-old Malcolm, prepare for the arrival of his new baby sister, eight-month-old Mei.

Not only did Munn make the comments as a lighthearted conversation topic and not as a serious critique of the programs, but hating kids TV is pretty common among parents. It’s a frequent discussion on parenting message boards or at the playground, and any parent you ask probably could rattle off which shows they don’t mind and which make their ears bleed (I’d take Gabby’s Dollhouse over anything on Nickelodeon any day).

But almost immediately, Munn’s innocuous and relatable feelings were twisted into something ugly. People titled their original article “Olivia Munn Doesn’t Let Her Kids Watch Ms. Rachel. Here’s Why,” which some took as a sign that Munn was specifically saying she hates Ms. Rachel, not making a more generalized statement. And the backlash was swift.

The problem, though, isn’t just that Munn’s comments were taken out of context. It’s that women in the public eye are walking a tightrope that is getting ever narrower. If they make one wrong move, from misspeaking to doing something even slightly negative, they face the potential of getting excoriated online. And it’s not just being criticized—they are subjected to violent misogyny, unrelenting hate, and in the case of Munn, even death threats.

Once the words were out of Munn’s mouth, they were twisted by the internet into something completely different and out of control. The narrative went that not only did Munn attack Ms. Rachel both personally and professionally, but she was actually a terrible person for depriving her kids of her programming. Predictably, she was cast as the dreaded “bad mother,” too selfish to put aside her “own needs” for the “good” of her kids.