[15] Uproxx music editor Derrick Rossignol wrote that, at the time of its release, the film marked Eilish's "biggest statement" about body shaming in her career.

She comments on the public discussion around her physical appearance and acknowledges the varying opinions people hold of her, but she questions whether they "really know" her enough to make assumptions about her body.

Lars Brandle wrote for Billboard that Eilish got to demonstrate her "creative juices" with the film's visuals, and he commented positively on the background music.

[16] Other music journalists, including Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone,[10] Ruth Kinane of Entertainment Weekly,[17] and Dorany Pineda of Los Angeles Times, found Not My Responsibility an effective, powerful takedown of sexist beauty standards.

[24] The album's lyrical themes discuss the struggles that young women face in the entertainment industry: emotional abuse, power imbalance, and misogyny.

[25][26][27] In a Happier Than Ever commentary for Spotify, Eilish described the song's lyrics as "some of my favorite words that I've ever written", though she felt nobody paid attention to its message.

[28] A spoken word, ambient, electropop track[29][30] that uses synthesizers,[27] "Not My Responsibility" was written in part by Eilish; her older brother, Finneas O'Connell, receives co-writing and production credits.

[33] Eilish performed "Not My Responsibility" as part of the Disney+ concert film Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles, released on September 3, 2021.

According to them, the song exemplified the album's crucial motifs: the intense media gossip around Eilish as a young woman, as well as her reflection on its negative effects.

[27][37][38] Analyzing Happier Than Ever for Slate, Carl Wilson wrote that amid all the speculation about her personal life, "the focus on her body has clearly hit Eilish hardest".

[39] "Not My Responsibility", for Pitchfork's Quinn Moreland, sets the tone for the second half of the album, which deals with topics such as power dynamics, voyeurism, and sexuality.

[40][42] Courteney Larocca, as a reply to Ahgrim, wrote: "slapping it haphazardly onto an official tracklist only evokes an eye-roll and a guarantee of pressing skip".