Netflix's Cuties oversexualizes young girls

Posted October 2020

By Daryna Bosyuk

Staff Editor

Hollywood has gone too far in oversexualizing young girls, in the new, Netflix-released, movie ‘Cuties.’

The controversy over ‘Cuties’ began when they first released the American version poster for the movie, which depicted the 11-12 year old girls provocatively, as opposed to the original poster that simply portrayed them in a more neutral way. Hollywood is known for changing posters for different countries in controversial ways. For example, back in 2015, it became known that Hollywood shrinked John Boyega’s lead character in the ‘Star Wars’ Chinese version of the poster because the Chinese communist party doesn’t tolerate minority groups, like people of color. This brings us to the question of where has the American society failed in terms of culture.

Why is it that our country is viewed as a country that supports oversexualized posters? We, as Americans, must have more moral integrity in society. We have become too progressive against our own beliefs and morals as Americans. When the movie came out, people were divided against whether or not the movie was a great coming-of-age story, or the over sexualized piece of work it was portrayed to be. The director of the film, Maïmouna Doucouré, stands behind her film and says she’s waiting for people to see that they’re on the same side. Her intention may have been to release a nice coming-of-age story, but the scenes in the movie portrayed something else entirely. The inappropriate dances the girls partook in were made even more controversial due to the camera angles they were shown in. The camera took close-up shots of the girls twerking and similar dance moves.

Our society rewards people for taking liberties in their art, but oversexualizing 11 and 12 year olds is going too far. Hundreds of girls had to audition for the movie. Hollywood no longer cares about propriety or morals, but then again, did they ever care? Money is more important to Hollywood. Despite the increased cancellation of Netflix, the #CancelNetflix trending on Twitter, and with over 600,000 people petitioning to cancel (Forbes), the movie was still one of the most viewed, in the top four category. Netflix will not take down the movie, and therefore, it is your duty as an American, as an upstanding citizen, to choose whether or not you support the oversexualization of young girls in Hollywood and our society. Hollywood cared more about the profits the movie ‘Star Wars’ would have made in China than to be able to portray people of color in the same size as the other lead characters.