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Cuties (LO6)

Cuties

Release: 2020 (9th September on Netflix)

Rating: BBFC 15


Controversy: The hyper-sexualisation of young girls.


Concern: Netflix released a promotional poster that seemed to glorify the hyper-sexualisation of young girls.  This led to an online outcry to ‘cancel Netflix’ because the assumption was this was what the film was about.


Alternative: The film is actually condemning this.  The poster was a poor choice on Netflix’s part and people shouldn’t make assumptions about a movie based on one sign.


Without ever actually presenting sexual content, Cuties presents sexuality and adulthood as looming, largely inescapable threats for its female characters. So while we do see young girls twerking, the film frames dance as an insidious corrupting tool that could rob the dancers of their innocence.


The movie went under fire before it was even released on Netflix after the streamer released a highly controversial poster featuring young girls performing as a part of their twerking dance troupe. Although Netflix eventually changed the poster in light of the backlash online, the new report states that the original poster was the one that the streamer eventually switched back to it was simply a photo of young girls running up a hill with shopping bags, not a shot of these tweens posing in skintight leotards and dance apparel.


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