Page 9 | Why did Netflix allow this film?

latheritup · 2020-09-11T00:08:51+00:00

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. https://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.

buggeroffvirus · 11/09/2020 10:13

Its painful to watch if you are a normal human being but I suspect that this is suggestive dancing for a certain type of audience hiding in plain sight.
Some mothers need to take their blinkers off.
I would never have allowed my child to dance like that at any age. I do not like to judge but it is very sad in my opinion.

KeepSmiling89 · 11/09/2020 10:14

I'm not a mum (yet) but this is just wrong on every level possible!

HumphreyCobblers · 11/09/2020 10:14

I have only watched the trailer and the dance clip.

The dance clip is filmed in a way that panders to the ‘male gaze’ in the way it lingers in the lead girl’s body and cuts and edits like a sexualised music video clip.

It would have been possible to frame the shots in such a way that the viewer was not put in the position of voyeur. One shot from the front, no close ups, not giving the the music they were dancing to as the sound track - this would have distanced us as viewers.

You still have the problem of getting the girls to do this in the first place.

Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse · 11/09/2020 10:18

Omg wish I could unsee that. I found it hard enough watching the movie Feel the Beat when one of dance groups were twerking. However this is something else What sort of parent would be happy to let their child do this?

ThunderSkies · 11/09/2020 10:19

Haven’t RATFT, so apologies if this has been said.

It occurred to me that they could have had EXACTLY the same content without the girls dancing at all. In this day and age, there’s absolutely no reason (if they’d really wanted to and tried) they couldn’t have used a mixture of adults/ computer generated scenes to get the same dancing result. Children to act. Computer to do the age inappropriate stuff. Not saying I’d like the end result anyway, but better than this...

Original poster

latheritup · 11/09/2020 10:19

So I'm watching it as we speak, thanks for baring with me. Regardless of the films intentions, it still doesn't sit well with me that kids were told to dance like that, bend over for the camera, touch their genitalia and then be filmed like that. I think that's my issue. My DD is 6 months old so I'm very new to being 'mum' and maybe I'm sensitive but it upsets me.

A lot of great points have been raised here,
thank you everyone for joining the discussion whatever your views may be.

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EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide · 11/09/2020 10:20

If I took my child to a dance school, and they even tried to teach them to dance like this, I'd burn the fucking place down.

YummyJamDoughnut · 11/09/2020 10:21

I agree that the dance scenes in this are too much. But i also think that at 11 those young girls were mature enough to understand the context. I knew all about sex, consent & various surrounding issues at that age

And yet luckily the law disagrees with you and says 11 year olds aren't able to consent to sex, enter into contracts and various other things because they are children who don't understand fully the choices they are making.
(I didn't fully understand consent until well into my 20s- eg that forced consent isn't really consent).

SleepingStandingUp · 11/09/2020 10:21

@ThunderSkies

Haven’t RATFT, so apologies if this has been said.

It occurred to me that they could have had EXACTLY the same content without the girls dancing at all. In this day and age, there’s absolutely no reason (if they’d really wanted to and tried) they couldn’t have used a mixture of adults/ computer generated scenes to get the same dancing result. Children to act. Computer to do the age inappropriate stuff. Not saying I’d like the end result anyway, but better than this...

Yes, it's a bit like kids in horror movies. Bad things happen but they're protected as actors from experiencing those things. As adults they can watch it in context

BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs · 11/09/2020 10:26

You don’t highlight child exploitation of young girls by sexualising young girls.

This is where I am at too. I'm all for awareness raising but there's a balance to be struck between showing what you need to make a point, and being 'edgy' for the sake of a director's 'artistic vision', and I think this tips into the latter regardless of whether that was the conscious intention.

It's not at all the same as Tik Tok. A team of adults choreographed this to be deliberately sexual, taught the routine to children, then directed the filming (including giving notes on things like facial expressions). It's a far cry from some children watching a music video and emulating it with friends in their home, and such a long, graphic dance isn't necessary to prove the point. Add to that some of the descriptions of the other scenes I've seen and I can't get past the fact that a child acted them. I have no doubt that the message is powerful in the context of the whole film (well, to those that want to hear it), but this is going to follow these girls for the rest of their careers, not to mention being at school and the potential for issues it will cause them now. I wonder how they will feel when they are adults, possibly with daughters of their own, knowing their parents consented to this footage on their behalf.

Stripesgalore · 11/09/2020 10:26

‘It occurred to me that they could have had EXACTLY the same content without the girls dancing at all. In this day and age, there’s absolutely no reason (if they’d really wanted to and tried) they couldn’t have used a mixture of adults/ computer generated scenes to get the same dancing result. Children to act. Computer to do the age inappropriate stuff. Not saying I’d like the end result anyway, but better than this...‘

This raises another upcoming problem... deepfake child pornography. People will start viewing child pornography under the defence that they thought it was a deep fake not a real child.

YummyJamDoughnut · 11/09/2020 10:31

@Stripesgalore

‘It occurred to me that they could have had EXACTLY the same content without the girls dancing at all. In this day and age, there’s absolutely no reason (if they’d really wanted to and tried) they couldn’t have used a mixture of adults/ computer generated scenes to get the same dancing result. Children to act. Computer to do the age inappropriate stuff. Not saying I’d like the end result anyway, but better than this...‘

This raises another upcoming problem... deepfake child pornography. People will start viewing child pornography under the defence that they thought it was a deep fake not a real child.

I'm pretty sure it's already illegal to possess photos/Pseudo-photos/CGI generated images etc of sexual abuse of minors. I am not a lawyer though.

TheVanguardSix · 11/09/2020 10:32

It's just pure, undiluted shit, really, isn't it?
It's everything that's wrong with humanity.

Stripesgalore · 11/09/2020 10:33

I also think it is currently illegal. I don’t want to start blurring the boundaries by the film industry making deepfake child actors.

ThunderSkies · 11/09/2020 10:39

@Stripesgalore

‘It occurred to me that they could have had EXACTLY the same content without the girls dancing at all. In this day and age, there’s absolutely no reason (if they’d really wanted to and tried) they couldn’t have used a mixture of adults/ computer generated scenes to get the same dancing result. Children to act. Computer to do the age inappropriate stuff. Not saying I’d like the end result anyway, but better than this...‘

This raises another upcoming problem... deepfake child pornography. People will start viewing child pornography under the defence that they thought it was a deep fake not a real child.

I have no words. You’re absolutely right

Jux · 11/09/2020 10:40

Those kids are going to be on dirty old men's computers until the day they die. Deep faking means that they won't just be performing dance routines in hotpants.

Poor kids. Porn stars at their age.

ThunderSkies · 11/09/2020 10:41

@Stripesgalore

I also think it is currently illegal. I don’t want to start blurring the boundaries by the film industry making deepfake child actors.

I don’t disagree with you here, but the reality is that they’re actually using the real children.

YummyJamDoughnut · 11/09/2020 10:41

@Stripesgalore

I also think it is currently illegal. I don’t want to start blurring the boundaries by the film industry making deepfake child actors.

Yes, I completely agree with you there.

YummyJamDoughnut · 11/09/2020 10:42

@Jux

Those kids are going to be on dirty old men's computers until the day they die. Deep faking means that they won't just be performing dance routines in hotpants.

Poor kids. Porn stars at their age.

That's made me feel sick

yellowgusset · 11/09/2020 10:47

I can see what the director was trying to do, but I also cannot understand any parent who would let their child be involved in this.

At 11 you cannot consent to these things, and anyway it would be a case of "if you dance like this then you'll be in this big film and be famous", forgetting that these girls will grow into women with a knowledge that this footage is in the public domain and they have to live with that.

Doggodogington · 11/09/2020 10:51

I’ve watched the film and I’m with OP. Shots zooming in on breasts and crotch, girls making sexualised gestures at the camera for no reason. There is making a documentary raising awareness of child exploitation and then there’s this...!

len1234 · 11/09/2020 10:52

That was practically child pornography! How did Netflix allow it? How did these children's parents allow it? I agree a lot of dance competitions are sexualised but that was to the extreme.

Think about all the people involved in making this movie that let this happen.

ArabellaScott · 11/09/2020 10:54

@HumphreyCobblers

I have only watched the trailer and the dance clip.

The dance clip is filmed in a way that panders to the ‘male gaze’ in the way it lingers in the lead girl’s body and cuts and edits like a sexualised music video clip.

It would have been possible to frame the shots in such a way that the viewer was not put in the position of voyeur. One shot from the front, no close ups, not giving the the music they were dancing to as the sound track - this would have distanced us as viewers.

You still have the problem of getting the girls to do this in the first place.

Agree entirely. That clip turned my stomach. It would have probably conveyed the message far more effectively had they filmed it more as you suggest here - as a documentary style.

Original poster

latheritup · 11/09/2020 10:54

@len1234

That was practically child pornography! How did Netflix allow it? How did these children's parents allow it? I agree a lot of dance competitions are sexualised but that was to the extreme.

Think about all the people involved in making this movie that let this happen.

I think this is why I posted without watching the film. I didn't need to watch the film to express my anger with the clips being shared.

But of course I was flamed and asked why I was posting when tired, without watching the film or understanding the context.

I really don't care the context of the film, it could have been done in different ways.

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Original poster

latheritup · 11/09/2020 10:55

@Doggodogington

I’ve watched the film and I’m with OP. Shots zooming in on breasts and crotch, girls making sexualised gestures at the camera for no reason. There is making a documentary raising awareness of child exploitation and then there’s this...!

It's not even a documentary, that's what's bad. It's a directed film.

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