Netflix viewers cancel subscriptions over 'sexualised' film Cuties

11 September 2020, 11:46

The French film has been heavily criticised amid accusations it sexualises young girls.

Netflix users are boycotting the social media platform over the controversial French movie Cuties, which has been accused of sexualising young girls.

Netflix accused of 'sexualising young girls' with promotion for Cuties film

The film, titled Mignonnes in France, tells the story of an 11-year-old girl from a traditional Senegalese Muslim family who finds her escape in joining a dance group.

Cuties | Official Trailer | Netflix

Last month, Netflix faced backlash for their original synopsis of the film, which read: "Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions."

Despite receiving positive reviews from critics and winning an award at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Cuties has been intensely dragged on social media.

The original Netflix poster for the movie sees Amy posing inappropriately alongside the other three girls in her dance group, all wearing skin-tight booty shorts and crop tops.

Shocked viewers have slammed the movie over scenes showing the young girls twerking and suggestively dancing on stage, resulting in the hashtag #CancelNetflix trending on Twitter this week.

"#Cuties is trash and so is @netflix, any critic on Rotten Tomatoes or elsewhere who gave it a positive review, and anyone else who implicitly or explicitly supports its sexualization of underage girls as “art” with a message. There’s no excuse for its production and distribution," wrote one user.

"‘Making a movie that actually exposes and criticizes the sexual exploitation of children is a great idea. But there is obviously no reason why that movie must include crotch shots of barely clothes 11-year-olds. This should not need to be explained," said another.

Last month, Netflix told Metro: "This was not an accurate representation of the film so the image and description has been updated."

Speaking Cineuropa, Cuties writer and director Doucouré said: "Today, the sexier and the more objectified a woman is, the more value she has in the eyes of social media. And when you’re 11, you don’t really understand all these mechanisms, but you tend to mimic, to do the same thing as others in order to get a similar result.

“I think it is urgent that we talk about it, that a debate be had on the subject.”

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