Photo Credit: theconversation.com
Netflix is showcasing Cuties, which recently has received a lot of backlash. The movie, originally a Sundance Film Festival movie, has made its way to the popular streaming service. This film is about an eleven-year-old girl, Amy, from Senegal who comes from a strict household in which her mother places conservative morals and values on her.
From the beginning of the movie she is informed about a harsh family situation that is occurring. Being she is young and growing up, she tries to find herself throughout the movie. She meets a group of popular girls her age from school named the “Cuties” and they are a dance team. They receive a lot of attention and Amy longs for that. She wants to escape her troubles at home, figure out who she is and learn more about her femininity by dancing and becoming friends with these girls.
Throughout the movie, there were some scenes that may not have been needed in order to prove a point, or to show what young girls are really doing in this day and age. In the movie, the girls are shown doing provocative, sexual moves/dance routines in multiple scenes leading up to the final dance competition. I felt some parts were a bit cringy to watch because as a normal human being, you would not want to see young girls acting in this way. These girls were mimicking and mocking music videos and chat room conversations that they are seeing all the time, so they think it’s okay. This is what is being shown to them from our media and society.
The director, Maimouna Gueye and producer, Sylvain De Zangroniz, of this movie created this to raise awareness to the way our society is affecting the youth. With everything that the media puts out there from television, radio, print ads, magazines, the internet and social media platforms, these young girls are soaking it all up. They are embodying what the media and society is projecting on to them. The media exploits and sexualizes women all the time, especially young women/teenage girls, however this film is bringing attention to the fact that now it is affecting girls at younger ages.
A lot of people in the mainstream media and social media are outraged with this movie. For example, on Twitter, user Andrea Hodgkinson (@andie1105) said, “If ‘cuties’ is not removed from @Netflix I’m cancelling my subscription. Who’s with me? #BanCuties or #BoycottNetflix”.
In my opinion, if you are seriously outraged by this movie, then you are missing the importance of the message being made. If you cannot see that everything that happens in this movie actually happens in real life, then you have a big misunderstanding of the world we live in. Unfortunately, these are the results of misplaced importance on values in a society that normalizes sexuality in young girls and women as a measure of beauty and importance. If this movie made you uncomfortable, then Gueye and Zangroniz did a good job at fulfilling the portrayal of their message.
Also, many Americans accept beauty pageants as a means to measure young girls’ beauty. Not to mention there is a series called “Toddlers & Tiaras” which features young girls from as young as three years old wearing makeup and outfits older than their age range. Another show is “Dance Moms.” In this show, these young girls dance in competition while wearing barely any clothes as the costumes sometimes.
If we can accept these past times and shows, then Cuties shouldn’t be such a tough pill to swallow.
