Netflix is facing intense backlash from members and subscribers of their platform after the arrival of the award-winning French film, “Cuties,” which is being heavily criticized for sexualizing young girls.
The film, known as “Mignonnes” in France, won a directing award for World Cinema Dramatic, awarded by the Sundance Institute. The film follows an 11-year old girl named Amy growing up in the poor suburbs of Paris. Trying to fit in and make friends, she joins a group of friends who have their own dance group in defiance of her mother’s rules.
The movie is receiving backlash due to its sexualization of young actors. The choreography for the movie is thought by many to be overly sexualized. Mia Montalbano shared why she agreed with the critics.
“Nobody should ever want to watch little girls show themselves [off] like this,” Montalbano said.
The creator of the movie says the movie deals with self-image and femininity in young girls. However, the movie does not seem to focus on this issue. It seems to focus more on the dancing and making sure the audiences see them dancing sexually. Montalbano felt very strongly about the dance scenes and revealed her discontent for them.
“The point of the movie can be reached without these grossly sexual scenes,” Montalbano said.
The movie’s point is supposed to make people uncomfortable because this topic is not talked about as big of an issue as it is. But the movie addresses the issue of sexualizing young girls without giving any context as to why that’s bad. The movie itself doesn’t seem like it’s making these gross images of young girls a problem.
Woodside Senior Josh Corales shared his views on the movie’s controversial scenes and compared how the trailer portrayed the movie versus how it was actually displayed.
“The movie trailer looks nice,” Corales said. “If I didn’t know about the gross dancing scenes, the story might make sense.”
In the end, the same question was being asked by all my interviewees, and I found myself asking the same thing. While the movie addresses a harsh issue, it doesn’t address the one question I had asked myself when watching the trailer and scenes. “Why does it have to be sexual?” Corales asked.
