Why did Netflix allow this film?

[latheritup]

Please take a second to watch the video on this link, this is the final dance scene of the new movie on Netflix called Cuties.

mobile.twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1303908536553017349

I cannot understand why Netflix thought this was the right film to add to their selections. These are children.

There are several petitions going round to get this removed off their platform.

Thanks @Siepie. So Netflix do have something to answer for despite the original context of the film. Dear me.

I have seen the same kind of thing on Dance Moms.

@Vigoro

Okay, just watched the trailer and it is deeply uncomfortable viewing.

It does, however, strike me as very odd and hypocritical that people are criticizing this movie by sharing it's most uncomfortable scenes.

I dont think that's particularly different to what the film itself is attempting to do.

This is what I think too. The film shows girls in a sexual way in order to criticise it. People online are sharing clips of girls in a sexual way in order to criticise the film, without seeing the irony.

I have actually watched the film, and scenes like that are only one part of the film. It looks at overcrowded social housing, a black girl trying to straighten her hair with an iron in a launderette to fit in with white friends, finding a balance between strict Islamic dress and hypersexualised dance outfits, polygamy in Senegalese immigrant families, bullying, racism...

I do have mixed feelings about the use of dance scenes to criticise them, but people whipping up a frenzy on social media based on one 90 second clip ought to watch the film before forming an opinion.

Honestly, I think I was sucked into the online uproar based of the clips shown too. I'll give the film a watch tomorrow. I'll always hold my hands up when I'm in the wrong.

Ugh that’s disgusting. On that twitter feed there’s Joe Biden being creepy too. It’s shocking that girls as young as 6 have to learn how to get out of men’s creeping hands/lips.

Netflix have obviously fucked over the true intentions of film and portrayed it differently hence the uproar.
I apologise for not researching first.

Twitter is a cesspool. It is not the friend of the exhausted new mum. Nor is it the home of rational, considered thinking.

You know when something upsets you and you get frustrated (plus I'm exhausted from night feeds) you end up venting.

This is behind a lot of the trouble in the world today. Too many people too quick to get outraged and too slow to think.

Hopefully you now recognise that the actual creator of the film had no say in the promotional materials that misrepresent it. The director - a woman, of course - has been sent death threats by the outraged mob.

I’ve gone and read a couple of reviews.

I assumed it was a documentary and they were critiquing something already happening. It is actually a drama. So the director got child actors to learn and perform that dance.

I don’t see how that is acceptable and I don’t see how watching the film knowing that is in it is acceptable.

Are we all being groomed?

Bit of an overview of the film here:

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/cuties-mignonnes-the-extraordinary-netflix-debut-that-became-the-target-of-a-right-wing-campaign

Also, should this thread have a trigger warning, or at least the link?

It reminds me of when Compliance came out and the reviews said it was about starting a conversation, debating issues etc.

People ended up walking out of the cinema due to the scenes.

@latheritup

Honestly, I think I was sucked into the online uproar based of the clips shown too. I'll give the film a watch tomorrow. I'll always hold my hands up when I'm in the wrong.

You're not in the wrong, you have opened an interesting discussion. Should this have been filmed and shown in the first place? Could those little girl actors in the film consent to performing this sexual routine even considering the hidden subtext? Why has Netflix marketed the film in this way?

What’s scary is the dances scenes have been directed that way, it’s not a a documentary showing real life clips.

I’ve yet to watch the film so will reserve judgment but I worry that it’s another form of Blaxploitation, showing mostly young black girls twerking under the guise of showing contrast between conservative Senegalese immigrant culture and western hypersexualisation of children.

Some reviews by women have noted that there is a focus on the dancing.

I do think it's reasonable to discuss whether a line has been crossed. I'm in two minds but, if that sort of dancing is normal for girls of that age in contests in France, then I'm not sure if recreating it (to criticize) is wrong.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/cuties-netflix-poster-hypersexualisation-controversy-mignonnes-watch-why-trailer-release-date-b405032.html

I've just switched this off. Awful.

Plus 'cuties'??? Wtaf.

The kid grinding into the floor? Ugh

They allowed it because it is controversial and will get publicity and up their ratings at a time when people who took out a subscription in lockdown are cancelling it.

That Independent article really highlights the problems, albeit unintentionally.

Why are black women and girls so under-represented in film that the only way a black female director can get a film distributed by Netflix is by getting eleven year olds to twerk and simulate sex acts?

Why is objecting to 11 year olds simulating sex acts for adult entertainment ( the film has an adult rating) considered online policing and cancel culture? It’s not cancelling someone for holding an opinion; it’s objecting to sexualised footage of a child being distributed for adult entertainment.

I wonder how many people who have watched this film have actually concretely done something to reduce child exploitation as a consequence.

So disgusting.

Why are black women and girls so under-represented in film that the only way a black female director can get a film distributed by Netflix is by getting eleven year olds to twerk and simulate sex acts?

I agree.

Oh WOW! My mouth literally dropped open in shock watching that!

That's terrible! Who the hell allows a dance choreographer put together a dance for that for their child!!!

If I was at a strip club I would expect to see this....no where else ....and never with children!!

Well, according to Twitter, it’s because of Joe Biden. I’m calling buuuuuuuulshiiiiit.

I agree that it's similar to Dance Moms. I've seen video proudly posted by parents on fb which I personally found extremely disturbing. There's definitely an issue with working-class children being exploited in this way in the UK. Without having watched the film in question, I can well believe this extends into other marginalised cultures.

Is it an accurate representation of what goes on in France? It sounds like something more typical of the US, and so I wonder if someone is creating a scrap for the ratings.

Gross

Probably all the critics were men