What ‘Cuties’ and #CancelNetflix Say About Society

The #cancelnetflix hashtag has been trending on Twitter this week, because of Cuties, a French movie directed by Maïmouna Doucouré that critiques society’s sexualization of girls.

Cuties takes a look inside the life of an 11-year-old Senegalese girl from Paris, with dreams of pursuing a career in dance. Against her parents protestations, she joins a local dance clique.

It has been the target of conservative and QAnon groups because of its apparent sexualisation of young girls — prompting some to call it a pedophile film. The film explores the impact of social media on children, the policing of child sexuality, double standards in society and the learning of sexualised behaviours. Doucouré’s is attempting to show that children should have the time to be children.

Cuties won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance this year, and Netflix secured the rights to the film.

Like many fits of outrage today — both on the left and the right — the criticisms the film has drawn took place before its attackers even saw it, based on nothing more than a film poster and without any context. This was primarily the result of the film poster that Netflix designed, which painted the girls in a sexualised light — reminiscent of much older girls in many a hip hop video nowadays.