New Netflix Movie Sparks Calls for Boycott Over Sexualization of Young Girls
Netflix is under attack now that the movie “Cuties,” which drew outrage even before it was released on Wednesday, has finally made its debut.
The hashtag “#CancelNetflix” was the top trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. on Thursday, according to Variety.
A Change.org petition attacking Netflix for the film has topped 602,000 signatures as of Thursday.
“As Netflix has chosen to ignore the petition and the wishes of its customers, I feel we need to ban together and cancel our subscriptions! Please sign and share,” petition organizer Kelsi Swift wrote.
“Please make the choice to prove to Netflix our children are more valuable than our entertainment, and our money is better spent else where!”
Netflix originally hyped the movie with a summary that read, “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.”
The streaming service later changed that synopsis to: “Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.”
The movie’s trailer, though, depicted tweens twerking in skimpy outfits and posing suggestively, and it generally makes a point of putting down traditional values, all of which led the Parents Television Council to condemn the movie and the tactics used by Netflix.
“By removing the offensive poster and replacing it with a more innocuous one, Netflix might actually have made the situation worse by suggesting that ‘Cuties’ is nothing more than a cute, coming-of-age movie,” program director Melissa Henson said in a statement on the group’s website.
“Although the film tackles an important topic – one that under different circumstances we might even applaud – it’s the way the film goes about it that’s problematic. This film could have been a powerful rebuke of popular culture that sexualizes children and robs them of their innocence,” she added.
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Henson went on to describe some of the movie’s most inappropriate scenes.
“But these young actresses were sexualized in the making of this movie. In addition to being coached and trained in highly sexualized dance routines, these girls use foul, vulgar language like ‘f—,’ ‘b—-,’ and ‘t–s.’ They are made to wear revealing clothing. Amy [the main character] is shown pulling her pants and underpants down so she can photograph her genitals to post online. In another scene Amy attempts to seduce a grown man — a family member, no less — to get out of trouble for stealing his cell phone,” Henson went on.
“Netflix and its board of directors are getting rich off of this kind of content. Worse, they are desensitizing millions of viewers at home by asking them to be entertained by it.”
Many on Twitter shared their disgust as they called for Netflix to face consequences for showing the film.
I’m not a fan of “cancel culture” due to someone’s political beliefs. However, I am a man that tries his best to stand for morality. Today I canceled Netflix for promoting child pornography aka “Cuties”.
#BoycottNetflix #CancelNetflix #putyourmoneywhereyourmouthis
— Iam4_UK_ru (@Iam4_uk_ru) September 10, 2020
Anyone promoting, watching or enjoying that garbage show is a pedophile.#cancelNetflix #BoycottNetflix #NetflixPedofilia https://t.co/kpwihVBoAr
— ??? (@SKYRIDER4538) September 10, 2020
#BoycottNetflix #Cancelnetflix#BoycottCuties @netflix supports pedofilia. It’s pretty much confirmed at this point. There should not be any reason why there should be little girls twerking or being over sexualized.This is disgusting. If you support them you’re a pedofile.FACT
— DailyDoseOfSadness (@DailyDoseOfSad6) September 10, 2020
“Cuties, Netflix review: a provocative powder-keg for an age terrified of child sexuality”
Guys, we are the problem.
We are “terrified of child sexuality.”
This is in the @Telegraph.
What the hell has happened to this world.https://t.co/Z7mfkOGJST
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) September 10, 2020
“Cuties” is director Maïmouna Doucouré’s debut feature, according to Forbes.
She told Screen Daily in January that she got the idea for the film after visiting an amateur talent show.
“Today, the sexier and the more objectified a woman is, the more value she has in the eyes of social media. And when you’re 11, you don’t really understand all these mechanisms, but you tend to mimic, to do the same thing as others in order to get a similar result,” she added in an August interview with Cineuropa.
“I think it is urgent that we talk about it, that a debate be had on the subject.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
