How much sexual exploitation of children is tolerable? To the average person, the obvious answer to that question is, “None. None at all.”
Apparently, though, Netflix is struggling to reach that simple and obvious conclusion. At least, that’s the only inference that can be drawn from the fact that, despite widespread backlash and protest, the platform is continuing to air the disgusting film Cuties.
The French production, described as a “coming-of-age is actually a raunchy display of 11-year-old girls being exploited in a thinly disguised exhibition of pedophilia. These scantily clad young girls – many years from what any reasonable person would describe as “coming of age” – are displayed engaging in aggressive sexualized movements, such as spreading their legs and out-thrusting their crotches, “twerking,” bearing their breasts, and mimicking heterosexual and lesbian sex acts. One early parental warning written online, as reported by the Blaze, warned of the following elements:
Female breast nudity of a minor during an erotic dance scene and lengthy & excessive closeup shots of breasts, bums, and spread crotches of scantily clad 11 year old [sic] girls during numerous sexualized dance routines.
Some have claimed that outcry about the film is exaggerated. If that is so, what to make of the description from a sympathetic reviewer from USA Today who views the film favorably? The director, says the reviewer, “takes on the hypersexualization of little girls by uncomfortably putting it right in your face.” It is Quixotic, to say the least, to imagine that an effective effort can be made to “take… on the hypersexualization of little girls” by, well, hypersexualizing little girls.
Yet, about the fact that the film does do precisely that, there can be no question. This week, several clips from the film circulated around the web, along with the trending hashtag #CancelNetflix. In one scene, the children use a display of sexual dancing and “twerking” to charm a couple bouncers at a club they’ve sneaked into. In another, the lead character is shown seductively trying to undress in front of an adult male to avoid an argument over having taken his cell phone. WARNING: The following content is VERY disturbing:
Presenting visuals of a little girl “twerking” before the leering gaze of two adult males is not merely offensive and inappropriate: we need to come right out and say it, it’s child abuse, and absolutely and utterly intolerable. Indeed, one Texas lawmaker has asked the state Attorney General to investigate the company on precisely these grounds!
iFamNews has launched a petition urging Netflix to remove the film immediately and urging signers to #CancelNetflix until this restitution and reparation is made. [You can cancel by visiting https://netflix.com/cancelplan – and be sure to tell them why!]
We urge our readers to sign the letter to Netflix, and to cancel their subscriptions to the streaming service so that Netflix realizes that this is no joking matter. The company’s executives and stakeholders (which notably include former First Lady Michelle Obama) need to realize what everyone else, on both the right and left, have seemed to ascertain without difficulty: that the only tolerable amount of child sexual exploitation is NONE AT ALL.