Calls to cancel Netflix as Cuties film accused of oversexualising children

Netflix is under fire over an award-winning French film some think is disguised child porn secretly appealing to paedophiles.

There are fresh calls to cancel Netflix after the release of a film many have accused of being an incognito child porn film targeting paedophiles.

Whether people are calling for Netflix to receive a wider cultural “cancelling” or for people to simply stop their subscriptions is a little unclear, though the latter is a lot easier to pull off and many have been posting on social media to say that they have.

The hashtag #CancelNetflix was trending on Friday morning.

The backlash is in response to the French film Cuties, which released on the platform on Wednesday.

The film focuses on a young Senegalese girl who joins a French hip-hop dance troupe.

It’s supposed to be a coming-of-age dramedy, based loosely on the experiences of writer and director Maïmouna Doucouré, who makes her directorial debut.

Writer and director Maïmouna Doucouré poses at the Netflix premiere of Cuties (Mignonnes) during the 70th Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin. Picture: Andreas Rentz /Getty Images

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The film premiered at Sundance film festival where it was then acquired by Netflix earlier this year.

One of the themes of the film is the hypersexualisation of girls, and Ms Doucouré said she was inspired by a talent show she witnessed in her old Parisian neighbourhood.

“There were these girls on stage dressed in a really sexy fashion in short, transparent clothes,” she told Screen Daily.

“They danced in a very sexually suggestive manner … I was transfixed, watching with a mixture of shock and admiration.

“I asked myself if these young girls understood what they were doing.”

The use of social media and its impacts on young people’s self-perception is another theme of the film.

While Ms Doucouré’s film apparently aims to shine a light on the challenges facing young girls growing up in an ultra-connected, image-obsessed world, some people are furious with the way she’s depicted it, and how Netflix has promoted it.

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It’s past time to send the message loud & clear to entertainment corporations that if they sexually exploit children, we’re done. No business. Period.

Hundreds of thousands are pledging to cancel #Netflix. Every subscription counts. Keep going, everyone!#CancelNetflix

— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) September 11, 2020

I warned you all last year and this year about the filth Netflix was producing to sexualize kids in their projects and about how they target kids with adult + political content. Please listen & #CancelNetflix.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 10, 2020

just got off the phone with @netflix customer service. they said that as of this time, they have no plans to remove the pedo film “cuties” from their platform. keep fighting until they pull it down. they won’t do it unless it starts affecting their bottom line. #CancelNetflix

— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) September 10, 2020

We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.

— Netflix (@netflix) August 20, 2020

Stop defending #Cuties. Yes, the sexualization of young girls is an issue that needs to be discussed. But creating content that puts young girls in suggestive and explicit positions is terrible, no matter the context. There are so many other ways we can explore the topic.

— Mariela Arreola (@quirkynerdette) September 10, 2020

Imagine there were grown up man and woman while they were filming #cuties and there was a director too who was telling little girls to deliver these kind of expressions.. #Netflix needs to be banned... It's disgusting

— Prabh (@Adameganse) September 10, 2020

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Some also made the point that even if the movie is critical of the hypersexualisation it depicts, the actual production of the film would still involve large numbers of young girls acting out sexualised behaviour, including those who auditioned but did not get cast.

They’ve also pointed out the film is intended for an adult audience and has an adult rating.

After the initial backlash to the promotional poster (since changed), actor Tessa Thompson (not in the film) defended it as a “beautiful film” with a “fresh voice at the helm”.

Disappointed to see how it was positioned in terms of marketing. I understand the response of everybody. But it doesn’t speak to the film I saw. https://t.co/L6kmAcJFU1

— Tessa Thompson (@TessaThompson_x) August 20, 2020

Incidentally, I'm a critic who highly recommends Netflix's #Cuties — it's a wonderful, poignant, challenging and nuanced coming-of-age film, smartly crafted by a wonderful director. The controversy surrounding it seems to be propaganda fueled by QAnon types and anti-Semites.

— Aja Romano (@ajaromano) September 10, 2020

This is going to blow your mind, but #Cuties (arriving today on #Netflix) is... exactly what rational people presumed it was!! Double shock: It explicitly condemns the very things it was accused of propagating!! via @Forbes by @ScottMendelson https://t.co/AAjc7EEnVA

— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) September 9, 2020

Ms Doucouré reported she’d received death threats after Netflix released the promotional poster, which she said she was not consulted on and which the co-CEO of the streaming video platform reportedly called her to apologise for.

The botched Netflix poster (left) and the film's French theatrical poster appear to send different messages.

“I received numerous attacks on my character from people who had not seen the film, who thought I was actually making a film that was apologetic about hypersexualisation of children,” Ms Doucouré told Deadline.

There also appears to be a political undercurrent to the cancellation campaign, blurring whether the outrage is over the actual film or just good old fashioned culture warring.

A viral clip showing a sexualised dance scene went viral after being posted by a reporter at right-wing news site the Daily Caller.

Netflix is comfortable with this. Plenty of people will defend it. This is where our culture is at. pic.twitter.com/UlqEmXALmd

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 10, 2020

A piece in internet culture publication Daily Dot argued the clip was taken out of context, and that in the film the point of the scene is to show how uncomfortable it makes the onlooking audience.

The New Yorker made a similar argument that some critics, which it theorised probably haven’t seen the movie, are missing the point.

The New York Times also reported the backlash being pushed among followers of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy, who believe (among many other things) that the US President is going to save the world from a cabal of elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles.

A number of people, including multiple black Republican candidates contesting the 2020 US election, have also used the controversy to attack former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle, whose entertainment production company have a deal with Netflix (they had nothing to do with the making of Cuties).

THIS is what Netflix supports.

Susan Rice, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama are all associated with Netflix in very significant ways.

Why aren’t they rushing out to denounce this?#CancelNetflix pic.twitter.com/w1d6W7v1j2

— Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37) (@ErrolWebber) September 10, 2020

I have asked Texas Attorney General Paxton’s office to investigate the @netflix film “Cuties” for possible violations of child exploitation and child pornography laws. #CUTIES #txlege

— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) September 10, 2020

Another politician, Texas state representative Matt Shaefer, said he’d asked the attorney general to investigate Netflix.

Others have argued the issue is too important to be turned into a partisan political debate (though one of them mistakenly thought the movie was a documentary).

I'm going to assume anyone trying to turn anti-pedophilia into a partisan issue IS a pedophile.

Cuties is disgusting, exploitation of kids is disgusting, and we should all be united in this.#CancelNetfix

— Blaire White (@MsBlaireWhite) September 10, 2020

The opposition to “Cuties” & @Netflix should be embraced by everyone.

Combatting child exploitation and sex trafficking is not a partisan issue.

— Mike Yoder (@Yoder_Esqq) September 10, 2020

The Cuties documentary on Netflix is one of the most sick and demented things that I’ve been made aware of in my life.

We have a problem in this country when that is available on a major streaming platform.

This is not partisan. #CancelNetflix

— David Dudenhoefer #ReplaceRashida Tlaib (@Dude4Liberty) September 10, 2020