(The AEGIS Alliance) – The poster for a new movie on Netflix called Cuties has stirred up quite the public outrage for people who say the child actors in it are being sexualized.
The streaming giant has been receiving a lot of backlash for the French film’s promo poster, whose stars are only 11 years of age. In the poster, the children are wearing revealing dance clothes of crop top shirts and shorts while they strike different sexualized dance poses, such as squatting down and kneeling on the ground.
In French, the Cuties movie is called Mignonnes and is described as being a “coming of age” movie. The trailer depicts the same old story for this genre of films, a girl moves into a new area, makes attempts at fitting in, has issues with conservative family members who are having difficulties with newly made friends and interests. The young girl joins a dance group.
Maïmouna Doucouré wrote and directed the film, and it won a directing award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
The synopsis describes the film as: “Amy, 11 years old, tries to escape family dysfunction by joining a free-spirited dance clique named ‘Cuties,’ as they build their self-confidence through dance.”
Media has tried contacting Netflix to get a comment about the nature of the poster advertisements, but it hasn’t given a response.
At the time of writing this, more than 56,000 people signed a petition that was created to call on Netflix to remove Cuties from its platform.
“This movie/show is disgusting as it sexualizes an ELEVEN year old for the viewing pleasure of pedophiles and also negatively influences our children!”
“There is no need for this kind of content in that age group, especially when sex trafficking and pedophilia are so rampant! There is no excuse, this is dangerous content!” The creator of the petition wrote.
Numerous people have been discussing the Netflix poster and movie on Twitter with a lot of them expressing their disgust at the promo.
It is so revealing that the first major @netflix original to centre young Black girls hinges on explicitly sexualising 11 year old children. Whether it’s acting or music, a sexualised image is too often the price of mainstream success for Black women & girls. Disgraceful. pic.twitter.com/18ItsgIZLb
— Claire (@ClaireShrugged) August 20, 2020
It sickens me that Netflix is using its global platform to circumvent child pornoraphy laws by airing #Cuties, a movie about an 11 year old girl twerking her way to stardom! Pubescent girls dancing sensually can only lead to pedophilia and Netflix needs to be strongly censured!
— Irene Armendariz-Jackson (@BorderIrene) August 20, 2020
Netflix has a movie called “Cuties” about 11 year olds in a twerking dance group. Some of the reviews claim it’s a “commentary” on the sexualization of children but this is the poster. And keep in mind that the lead actress is actually 11 years old. In the film and real life. pic.twitter.com/4p2exeSvXw
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 20, 2020
The plot looks…fine, based on the trailer, but why in the heck would Netflix pose the girls like THIS for the poster? https://t.co/aTEr4vnrk8
— Christine Rousselle (@crousselle) August 19, 2020
People on social media have noted that the French promotional poster is completely different and instead displays the cast trotting along a street while swinging shopping bags around, while they wore non-revealing clothes.
https://twitter.com/yeetdere/status/1296280002653282305
You can sign the petition: HERE.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
