What People Are Missing About Cuties

Netflix picked a Toddlers and Tiaras meets top-charting music video as the original America movie cover of Cuties. Young girls, scantly clad, posing with pursed lips and open legs. Before most people had seen the movie there were already a lot of opinions, think pieces, and critiques circulating. No one had a lot to say when Maïmouna Doucouré won the directing award back in January of 2020. Skip past the original controversy the film was just widely released on September 9, 2020, and can be found on Netflix. I woke up this morning to Twitter exploding about how Netflix should be “canceled”, that the movie promotes pedophilia, and many more accusations.

So what did I do? I watched it. And I was left speechless, moved, heartbroken, and so many other emotions during this movie.

Cuties holds a mirror up to the pressures many young children, in this case, young girls, face in today’s globalizing, media-obsessed world. It is not about the romanticized sexualization of children and does not turn it into a joke like most Hollywood movies. Instead, it takes a hard look at how young children are trying to navigate puberty, sexuality, agency, liberation, and belonging. Movies like Good Boys (where young boys go on “misadventures” of spying on their neighbors, playing with sex toys, and drinking) or That’s My Boy (the movie starts with a child having a baby with his teacher) have never faced the same scrutiny that this movie seems to be facing. I mean even shows like Riverdale which is supposed to be portraying high schoolers, but has a cast of 20+-year-olds often involved in sexual activity and murder investigations, is seen as almost funny and ridiculous but nothing sinister. Cuties, on the other hand, is causing a huge reaction.

Amy, a young Black Senegalese girl growing up in France, not only faces the burden of growing up in a world where everyone, every ad, and every show tells you you are not good enough, she also faces the challenges of practicing her Senegalese and familial cultural traditions while trying to fit in with the omnipresent westernized idea of femininity and youth. Many critics are taking the small dance scene from the very end of the movie and using it to exploit and deny the true message of the film. Amy deals with everything from conservative traditions to getting her first period but she also lives with the hardships of poverty and parental disputes. One of the most telling scenes is when the “Cuties” (name of their group) are in the woods dancing, runway walking, and having fun as kids should; then, one of the girls finds a pink condom and just thinks it is a balloon. Scenes like that expose the fine line of young girls in the movie and real-life mimicking what they see in videos and on Instagram, but not even understanding the sexual innuendos of some of that imagery.

Throughout this movie, we see hints of eating disorders, actual sexualization of the 11 year-olds by older men in the movie (security guards, a few audience members of the dance), bullying, normalization of harassment and so much more. Just a few days ago at work, I walked past the mirror aisle and “caught” (I just walked past the row) two white suburban girls practicing the newest Tiktok dance. Let us talk about Tiktok, many people do not realize some of the biggest names from this app have been children and minors. We are taught to look up to almost 30-year-olds for what our idea of beauty should be. Of course, this is going to lead to children mimicking dances, photos, and actions that they do not understand. For example, see almost every popularized Tiktok dance. On the other hand, I also do not want to minimize the knowledge that many kids are gaining. With each generation, conversations about sex, gender, and sexuality are happening with younger kids, which is necessary and important. But with all of that access, many young people are left with the weight of the world on their shoulders. whether it be fitting-in, dealing with global crises, or just trying to grow-up. Instead of belittling, attacking, and demonizing such a beautiful film, we instead should focus on what steps we can take to support the babies and children of this world and create a space where kids can learn about these topics without being put in danger, exploited, or shamed for their curiosity.

Cuties shows us that feminity and sexuality are not binary. They are rather an ever-changing composition of how a person might be feeling in a particular situation. The singers they watched in the music video to learn the infamous dance are just as important as Amy’s family who remains more sexually conservative. If any of you watch this movie it will force you to look at our current status quo and the most popular versions of femininity, while also revealing the burden younger people and children are faced with growing up today.