Whoops! Netflix has apologised for accidentally sexualising young girls.
More than 90,000 people have signed a petition demanding Netflix bin the release of Cuties, a French film about a rebellious 11-year-old girl who joins a twerking dance crew.
The film’s synopsis – preserved via screengrab on the petition – says it follows Amy, a young girl who becomes “fascinated with a twerking dance crew”, and in the hopes of joining them, starts to “explore her femininity”.
The poster features four young girls in crop tops and booty shoots, some of them in sexually provocative poses. TBH, it’s pretty confronting, so we won’t be publishing it here.
In response to the backlash, Netflix apologised for the film’s poster and description, saying it was “inappropriate” and not representative of the film itself.
“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties,” Netflix said.
“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.”
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
The description now reads:
“Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.”
That, uh, doesn’t seem to have appeased the petition signers, who insist the film is for “the viewing pleasure of pedophiles” and “negatively influences our children”.
“The problem isn’t the artwork it’s the fact it’s about twerking eleven-year-olds for adult viewing pleasure,” an all-caps update from the petition starter reads.
Without the provocative poster, the film appears to be much more about what it means to rebel against your family and grow up in a world that commercialises female sexuality.
One review from Sundance said the sight of pre-teen twerking bodies is “explicitly designed to shock mature audiences into a contemplation of today’s destruction of innocence”, while another wrote that the members of the Cuties dance group don’t understand “there’s something deeply wrong with a teenager taking her top off in the middle of dance video”.
Yikes. You can watch the trailer below and decide if it’s something worth watching.
