“I wanted to make a film in the hope of starting a conversation about the sexualization of children. The movie has certainly started a debate, though not the one that I intended,” says Maïmouna Doucouré, the French director of the controversial film “Cuties,” now streaming on Netflix.
Doucouré has responded to the film’s backlash in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
The hashtag #CancelNetflix began trending on social media last week after folks who had not watched the film accused Doucouré and Netflix of sexualizing young girls.
Doucouré has received death threats over the film. In a recent interview, she noted that she intended to make a provocative social commentary about the impact of sexualized imagery on young girls.
The coming-of-age story follows Amy (Fathia Youssouf), an 11-year-old girl from Senegal who joins a dance team as an escape from her and conservative Muslim family.
READ MORE: ‘Cuties’ Director Maïmouna Doucouré on Receiving Death Threats Over Netflix Poster Backlash
Last month, Netflix issued a public apology to Doucouré following backlash over the U.S. marketing poster for the film, which shows the young stars scantily dressed and striking suggestive dance poses.
The company also issued a statement defending the movie.
In her piece for The Washington Post, the filmmaker explains how she was inspired to make the movie after interviewing young girls about the their relationship with social media.
“The stories that the girls I spoke to shared with me were remarkably similar. They saw that the sexier a woman is on Instagram or TikTok, the more likes she gets,” she continues. “They tried to imitate that sexuality in the belief that it would make them more popular. Spend an hour on social media and you’ll see preteens — often in makeup — pouting their lips and strutting their stuff as if they were grown women. The problem, of course, is that they are not women, and they don’t realize what they are doing. They construct their self-esteem based on social media likes and the number of followers they have. To see these youngsters put so much pressure on themselves so early was heartbreaking. Their insights and experiences with social media informed Cuties.”
Doucouré explains how she “wanted to open people’s eyes to what’s truly happening in schools and on social media, forcing them to confront images of young girls made up, dressed up and dancing suggestively to imitate their favorite pop icon. I wanted adults to spend 96 minutes seeing the world through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl, as she lives 24 hours a day. These scenes can be hard to watch but are no less true as a result,” she writes.
The manufactured outrage over the film, stirred up by Right-wing news sites, has even rattled GOP politicans. Four state attorneys general are calling on Netflix to remove “Cuties” from the streaming service, claiming it sexualizes young girls, USA Today reports.
In a recent virtual panel with uniFrance, Doucouré said “Cuties” aims to “sound an alarm” on the “hyper-sexualization of our children” thanks to social media.
“It’s feminist, but it’s so important and necessary to create debate and try to find solutions all together,” she said. “Watch the film and understand that we have the same fight.”
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
