I do NOT support the sexualization of children in anyway shape or form. If there's one important thing you need to take away from this, it's that sentence. I never want to hear that this type of behavior is okay. Cuties, a film on Netflix that attempts to tackle this issues, falters heavily on its message. Yes, I saw the film. No, I don't recommend you watch it. I will encourage you to strap in because we got alot to talk about.
Director Maimouna Doucoure attempted to tell the story about the sexualization of children in today's culture. I say attempt because the actual execution DOES infact sexualize the characters in the movie (all of whom are 11). If the movie wanted to tell this story, it went about it the wrong way. These kids should not have been filmed doing any of the provocative dances and the religious aspect of the feature isn't prominent enough in the feature. It's all kinds of uncomfortable and I was wrong to think the controversy was overblown. This movie is not worth watching for these scenes alone, but that's not the worst part.
No, the worst part is that Cuties' mere existence is a byproduct of a bigger problem. You wanna know why this film was made in the first place? To be blunt, it's because we as a society let this happen. Not just the movie, but the subject matter this movie tried to tackle. We let the sexualization of children go on for too long and we didn't notice until it was brought to our attention. Had we not normalize open sexuality in the first place, Cuties would've never existed in the first place.
Let's not beat around the bush: this world has become more perverted with each passing decade. Sure, humanity has always been pervertrd but things really took off in the 20th century. With the rising popularity of pornography and putting sex into mainstream movies, sex and nudity was slowly but surely being normalized until it became common place in the 21st century. Ever hear of the term "sex sells?" Unfortunately that's become the unofficial law of the land. Whether it's in commercials, music videos, movie posters, billboards, games shows or what have you, you will always find a suggestive looking woman or man posing with few clothes on. We're like flies being attracted to the bright bug electricutor. Even if we know it's bad for us, we can't help but go towards it. It's even gotten to the point where children are being attracted to it.
Kids have always imitated whatever they see, that's how they learn. In today's perverted world, if a kid sees Iggy Azalea or Miley Cyrus twerking, they're going to think that looks like fun and imitate it. 👏This👏is👏bad. Any form of provocative dance or gesture should not be imitated by children, and yet they do it anyway. Why? Because we don't monitor our children closely enough to make sure they don't imitate this stuff. I'm not just talking about having a filter on your browser. I'm talking about demanding the big media corporations discourage such vulgar and provocative behavior in their marketing. In order to proctect the children of the world from this kind of seduction, we need to actively say no to ALL forms of sexualization in media. Sex itself isn't bad, but it should strictly be between a husband and his wife: no exceptions.
I'm willing to be called a prude for the rest of my life if it means standing by my opinion that this world is perverted. Cuties was made to bring the issue of sexualizing kids to light, but in doing so it became part of the problem. I'd much rather this film be about something else than to try (and fail) to tackle a problem in our society. In closing, don't watch Cuties, don't let your kids watch Cuties and don't let the big media corporations get away with sexualizing them.
