Netflix Defends 'Cuties' Against Accusations of Sexualizing Young Children

Netflix defended the docuseries film "Cuties" as "social commentary" against the sexualization of young children.

The film was accused following a misleading market campaign and is still targeted by social media users online, claiming that "Cuties" sexualizes young girls. The Doucouré receives death threats. There are over 300,000 people who signed a petition demanding "Cuties" to be removed. The petition claims that the film sexualized an 11-year-old girl for the viewing pleasure of pedophiles.

A spokesperson of Netflix said in a statement to Variety that "Cuties" is a "social commentary" against the sexualization of young children. "It's an award-winning film, and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up - and we'd encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie."

Doucouré explained why she made "Cuties," a six-minute featurette that comes with the film on Netflix. According to Doucouré, she met hundreds of young girls to portray their understanding of what femininity is.

The filmmaker said that she put her heart into the film as it is her story. "Our girls see that the more a woman is sexualized on social media, the more she's successful. And yeah, it's dangerous," she added.

NME called "Cuties" in a four-star review as a powerful exploration of how young girls subconsciously are encouraged to perform for the male gaze. The review went on by stating that the film is a vivid and very alarming part of a young girl struggling to live with two competing forms of deeply ingrained patriarchy.

According to Independent, "Cuties" titled Mignonnes in France received a critical nomination and won a directing award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. The film is about an 11-year-old girl who tries to escape family issues by joining a free-spirited dance clique called "Cuties" and builds their self-confidence through dance, as per Netflix's synopsis.

Lots of social media users are sharing screenshots of the IMDb parental guide for the film. IMDb cites several scenes in "Cuties" to back up their 18+ rating for the film, such as "excessive and lengthy closeup shots of bums, breasts, and spread crotches of scantily clad 11-year-old girls."

A petition on Change.org calling Netflix subscribers to cancel their subscription due to the inappropriate content "that exploits children and makes a disturbing vibe," gained more than 600,000 signatures.

"Cuties" became controversial after the promotional poster of Netflix for the film, which is accused of sexualizing young girls. On Thursday, a reporter for conservative publication the Daily Caller, Mary Margaret Olohan, tweeted a video clip of the girls in the film dancing and twerking. The report commented, "Netflix is comfortable with this. Plenty of people will defend it. This is where our culture is at." Olohan added, "I understand this video is upsetting and depicts little girls in a gruesome light. I tweeted it for those who will say that 'Cuties' is innocent."

After reviewing the film, the conservative advocacy group Parents Television Council, said, "it stands by its earlier criticism that the TV-MA-rated film sexualizes children."

According to PTC, the young female actors were trained in lines with "foul, vulgar language," highly sexualized dance routines, and clothe-revealing. Besides, in one scene, the 11-year-old named Amy acts asshe is pulling down her underwear to take pictures of her genitals and post it online. In another scene, the young girl tries to seduce a man, who already has a family, to get out of trouble for stealing his cell phone.

Check these out:

Tiger King's Joe Exotic Pleads for Trump Pardon through Sending Personal Letters

Nicole Young Seeks $2 Million Monthly Spousal Support from Husband Dr. Dre in Divorce Proceedings

Robert Pattinson Tests Positive for COVID-19, Leads to Pause in 'The Batman' Filming