Netflix's 'Cuties' after few months still ignites the wrong debate on young girls' sexuality.
If there was ever a year for streaming and binge-watching new movies and television shows, it was 2020. While we were all trapped in our home avoiding a global plague, we turned on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, VRV, and Amazon Prime. We used them as extremely effective tools of distraction to forget about what was happening around the world. While there were many shows and movies that kept us glued to our screens, not everything we watched was great. There was one movie in 2020 that outraged and shocked people around the world, and that was the movie "Cuties."
What is the movie about?
The movie Cuties is created and directed by a Senegalese woman (Maïmouna Doucouré) who uses important moments of her life where she had to struggle with her immigrant and conservative background while trying her best to fit into French life. So she created the movie Cuties. The movie is about an 11-year-old girl who is from Senegal, like the director.
She lives in an extremely conservative Muslim household where her mother still wears a full burka whenever she leaves the house. The young girl joins a dance troupe, has tryouts, and eventually participates in a competition.
There are a couple of things in this movie that does pose some questions about society. How is the young girl supposed to separate internet culture from reality? Because of the internet and how fast it can change, are some of the trends causing little girls to act more like grown women?
There is a massive scandal around this movie. What happened?
The synopsis above and on many movie review sites say that it is a movie about young girls trying to navigate their actions and how they should behave in a world that is constantly influenced by the internet. And while that is a good message, this movie's backlash did not come from the movie's message.
The first issue with this movie was the Netflix movie poster. Many young 11-year-old girls, who were young actresses 10 to 12, were posed in extremely provocative ways. Netflix took down the post and apologized, but the movie's premiere is when the second backlash begin.
Many people online did not like that the movie had real girls who weren't even in their teens yet twerking and showing up parts of the body and skin for the camera.
While there is excessively sexualized dancing throughout the movie, there is three major part that takes it too far. The first part of the movie that goes too far is where one of the girls has to twerk in front of a cop to get backstage. Many of the dance moves these girls performed we're extremely sexual.
The second part of the movie had the girls dry humping the ground. And the last and perhaps most vile part of the movie is where a girl flashes her bare breasts to the audience.
I don't understand how the director could create this movie was such young girls. Many people online said that she should have hired 18-year-old girls who just look very young.
Did anyone try to defend it?
Yes, quite a number of people on the internet and a few major celebrities tried to defend this movie. One major celebrity that really turned some heads was Tessa Thompson. You may know her as a woman who came out as Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarok. She said it was a beautiful display of young femininity.
Many people online absolutely destroyed her. They were so angry that she defended the movie that many people online called for a complete boycott of all movies. But that never came to fruition.
There was so much anger online that the director even had to publish a statement about the movie and to the people who are outraged on the internet. She said, "Netflix has apologized to the public and to myself." The director also stated that she did not see the initial poster until the movie's premiere, and Netflix did not tell her about it.
But she also wishes that the people who got angry about the movie would actually open Netflix and watch the movie.
Some people on Reddit said the movie was great and it was a true expression of an eleven-year old's sexuality. However, this is only a few people on Reddit. Whenever they posted their opinion, they were immediately reported to mods for their removal.
Many of the comments on their post repeatedly called them disgusting, vile, nasty, and a backward thinker that belongs in the Middle Ages. Many comments also called for their death.
What do people think about it now?
A fw months after the movie premiered, the initial anger and repulse from the internet died down. But that does not mean people have begun to accept this movie. If you bring up the movie's name anywhere on the internet, there will be tons of people in the comments section filled with revulsion and anger.
Anyone on Twitter who defends this movie is quickly reported to the Twitter mods, and an article about their defense of the movie will be published in a few days.
Even though the movie caused such extreme backlash and anger at Netflix to the point where a few people in Congress called for the movie to be reviewed in case of child porn, Netflix did not take it down. It is still available to watch. But if you visit YouTube and type in the movie's name, you will find dozens of reviews by people who saw the controversy and went to go see the movie for themselves.
These YouTubers also reaffirm how terrible the movie is and question the many decisions that went into major parts of the movie.
Conclusion
While the director tried to create a movie about how children are easily influenced by internet culture, there are other ways to make such a movie without hiring little girls who are ten years old to 12 years old and making them dry hump the ground. Hopefully, nothing else truly tragic happened during the making of this movie.
