Netflix apologizes for "Cuties" artwork that sexualized children

Here come the QAnon theories...

Goodness, I see nothing wrong with this.

I swear, when I saw that image, I wondered which old politician's face had been photoshopped onto that young girl's body (the one with her arm up) as a joke.

It’s always the ones who seem like major Incest Survivors with massive daddy issues (note the baby voice in the video linked) and closeted Pedos who get in an uproar about this or would even watch it. I watched the trailer and there is nothing that would make me want to watch that movie. Also, the cinematography looks atrocious.

What's even creepier is that the poster is a clear ripoff of Magic Mike.

Netflix knows what it's doing

Honestly I have seen girls dress way more inappropriately than these outfits.

Whores...

R7 is Donald Trump

Apparently this is what the movie actually looks like

LOL!

This is catnip for deplorables and QAnons who are all pedo obsessed anyway. It's a controversy that someone is stirring up and probably will continue to stir up until after the election.

I understand the filmmaker was trying to tell a more nuanced story about how these girls are exploited. But not sure if her "trying" to do that meant she was successful at achieving it. And nuance is lost on many of us, especially deeply dumb deplorables.

And to be honest.....yikes. A bit hard to justify, honestly.

I don't see how it's any different from Toddlers and Tiaras, Honey MuuMuu and the other ten dozen TV shows that exploit and sexualize children.

[quote]I understand the filmmaker was trying to tell a more nuanced story about how these girls are exploited. But not sure if her "trying" to do that meant she was successful at achieving it. And nuance is lost on many of us, especially deeply dumb deplorables.

Had this been promoted as an expose of pageants where little girls are sexualised and encouraged to behave provocatively there wouldn't have been much fuss, but the way it was pushed as empowering them, especially the brave Muslim girl, conflicted by traditional family values and her new friends.

Naturally a gay man with a misogynistic streak felt the need to criticise those outraged by the film, as well as the tasteless way it was promoted.

Here is one of the dances. Sorry, but this is gross.

It's like Dance Moms, but in French. Don't get sucked into the Q hole with this one.

Those uptight American bitches need to take a chill pill. I haven't seen the movie, but I don't see nothing wrong with it. To further trigger prude Americans, Netflix should publish other risque French movies such as Murmur of the Heart, Pretty Baby or Les Valseuses. Make their heads explode!

I will forever side with the French when it comes to the (transgressive) nature of art. Fuck cultural American imperialism!

But but but, it's boring!!! Lotsa cunty girls yelling at each other and their parents.

R15 and R16 I haven't seen Dance Moms, but if it sexualizes children, it's also inexcusable. Opposing this sort of thing does not make one a prude or a QAnon believer. Adults who choreograph this crap for pre-teens should be called out. It's sickening and enables the normalization of pedophilia.

I'd like to walk in on those hot little dames naked!

Paging Larry Birkhead!

I will direct the male version of this . It will be called " Squirt! "

No intention of watching Cuties but I have the same sense of ewwwww as watching adults fawning over 11 year old Desmond.

IT IS FUCKING CREEPY TO SEXUALISE CHILDREN.

I agree with R16. The pedophilia hysteria in the US has gotten so out of hand there's an entire terrorist organization brewing under our noses. And supported by Russian trolls, of course.

The film has a context.

I wasn't even aware of this film until I saw an article about the controversy in the local media. Given the film won an award at Sundance I thought I give the film a look at it is rather ho-hum. It's nothing more than a coming-of-age drama clearly inspired by the females directors own childhood. Certainly, the dance routines, dress sense & some of the behaviour of 11 year girls in the film is a little confronting but the sad reality is that is it based on how some of them behave. There is nothing to be offended about the film overall and frankly the most offensive thing relating to the film is the reaction by people who have not seen the film.

If they hadn't raise a fuss it would have slipped onto Netflix without barely anybody noticing and watching it. I found the film started off well but sort of painted itself into a corner in some respects. But there is nothing here to be offended by unless people choose to be offended.

I haven't seen the trailer that Netflix used to 'sell' the film so I can't comment on that but as a stand alone film it is a pretty standard by the numbers coming of age drama.

Fun note: it steals a Margaret White line from Carrie 'Your a woman now'.

"I don't see how it's any different from Toddlers and Tiaras, Honey MuuMuu and the other ten dozen TV shows that exploit and sexualize children. "

Yeah, I tuned into "Dance Moms" a few times, until I realized that the little girls on the show were taught nothing but a sexy Fosse-ish style, and sent out to perform in little bikinis. It was creepy enough to make me change the channel, so I have no idea who the audience was for these sexy 10-12 year old girl dancers.

It's a French movie. The US should be thankful that they didn't do girl on girl as part of the self empowering arc as well.

Oh they're just building up to their own WAP video. Not a prude, but this is a sad sign of the times.

We are going back to the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy, the only difference being that society is now calling the whore option "empowering".

If only they’d get as upset about organized religion as they did about boycotting Netflix

[quote] We are going back to the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy, the only difference being that society is now calling the whore option "empowering".

You don't have to go that far back.

Curiously i read fantastic reviews of that show.

Anyway, sometimes wanting to catch the attention has undesirable consecuences. There was a lot of controversy in Spain with Patria (Homeland) HBO's artwork

...isn't that the whole POINT of the film? To criticize how young girls in Western society feel the need to sexualize themselves?

In the clip at R14, the adults in the audience are looking on disapprovingly which shows that it wasn't something that was being encouraged or accepted inside the movie's world either.

LE who work in Vice widely condemn kiddie beauty pageants et al saying it triggers and strongly encourages pedophiles into thinking all little girls want sex with them. Not good.

R4, Statistically very few American women have not been molested at least once in their lives or at least sexually harassed in the extreme.

Netflix immediately was projected to lose 9,000,000,000 when Cuties was announced. Now they're trying to backtrack?

Surprised that the Muslim community and authorities have not widely condemned this film as it clearly encourages defiance rather than submission of young girls. It shows a child stealing rent and food money out of her mother's purse too.

Good Morning America and MichaelStrahan promoting an 11-year-old boy doing DRAG SHOWS

R32 it’s like at the end of “Fame” when to show how she’s being exploited they have Irene Cara topless. Exploiting to show exploitation

More proof that America has lost its capacity for critical thought.

Please fuck off with the America-bashing, Boris r36.

Really weird that out of all the people who provide Netflix content it's the Obamas and the Sussex who get called out in the media.

And the drag version for those who missed it...

Okay, I did a little research, and it seems the director's intent was to make a film that criticized both Western and Islamic attitudes towards women. She condems western society for sexualizing children, and shows that Islamic male domination makes women miserable, the film shows the central character's mother trying to cope with her husband taking a second wife, and she's forbidden to object even though it breaks her heart.

Sadly, the director seems to have missed the mark, and has made a film that is chiefly of interest to pedophiles, and pedo-hunters.

Why would you put a slutty cheerleader costume on a child?

Sick sad world

Why don't you ask Mrs. Patsy,or the countless pageant frau moms out there, r41?

What makes these people think a low budget French indie film has anything to do with "Hollywood"?

They are Qanon nutters. Hollywood is pedo central run by nefarious Jews and depraved homosexuals who are pedos and all conveniently are liberal or left leaning.

R42 "Cuties" is a foreign indie film and has nothing to do with Hollywood. Dumb meme.

R14, that is the only real dance in the film. There are some moves, but that section is the only real dance and it ends with the heroine running away to reclaim her childhood at the end.

R42 here's a better one

The real reason this movie is stoking outrage despite worse things seen on IG and TikTok. It's a conservative boycott over the Obamas deal with Netflix to produce documentaries and movies. They are lying and saying the Obamas signed off on this and are "running" Netflix. They are basically going to tie this into the Qanon CT that all democrats are pedos and have a global child porn ring.

That explains a lot, R49.

Yeah, R5, I was told the movie was an indictment of how girls are overly sexualized by society but then the RW's nutbags started screaming about pedophilia and now it all makes perfect sense. Some of them boycotted as soon as it was announced that the Obamas had signed a deal with Netflix. Racist shitstains.

This isn't about the Obamas. You're just stretching here. It's about a justifiable concern that the movie itself is sexual exploitation of these young girls. The intentions of the filmmaker seem to have been well meaning and she seems sincere in her interviews but she could have told her story while still avoiding doing exactly what she was trying to expose. I'm afraid she failed. You do not rape someone to expose rape.

Netflix doesn't give a damn about this subject except how well it will sell. The subject matter certainly deserves further discussion and perhaps the filmmaker can contribute to that.

R52, they say it is about the sexual exploitation of the young actresses, but that does not make sense. There has been no outcry about Dance Moms, Toddlers and Tiaras, tween dance competitions, and any number of American shows that document sexual exploitation.

I suspect the problem is that viewers can get off on those other programs and films without being made to feel bad about it, but Cuties relentlessly takes any possible joy out of sexual exploitation.

[quote] There has been no outcry about Dance Moms, Toddlers and Tiaras, tween dance competitions, and any number of American shows that document sexual exploitation.

Then you missed it because there was an outcry. People were always talking about the exploitation of those participants. As bad as those other shows are there is a difference between just parading around looking trashy and dancing like some stripper. I'm not remembering how they danced in Dance Moms or tween dance competition. And I don't want to frankly.

What difference would it make anyway? Finally someone woke up and saw this for what it turned out to be. Good for them. Doesn't excuse past exploitation or not complaining about it.

R54, I am guessing you have not seen Cuties or any of these programs.

It is not about looking trashy. The dance moves are every bit or more sexual than Cuties and many of the girls are younger. (Burlesque dancing is a category.)

And unlike Cuties, they do not cut away or make it look unappealing.

They have literally nothing to apologize for. If Tulsi the TERF dislikes it enough to join the right-wing smear campaign against Netflix, then it must not only be good, but Oscar-worthy and one of the greatest movies of all time that should be required viewing in every film school on the planet!