There is hardly a film in 2020 that will conjure up as much controversy as Netflix’s acquisition of Cuties. Sure, Mulan and New Mutants tried their hardest to be the talk of the town, but no senators in congress hated those films enough to call for their removal. So, what’s all the hype?
Cuties or Migonnes as it is known in France is a film about a Black 11-year-old girl named Amy who was raised in a religious household. Soon Amy is sucked into the world of social media influencers, provocative music videos, and a friend group trying to win a dance competition. Meanwhile, in the real world, Cuties has been picked up by conservative conspiracy theorists in an attempt to create discord all while under the guise of “ending sex trafficking.” But the people in these groups have been tragically radicalized against a problem that isn’t even real. No, not the human trafficking, that is real and that is an honorable fight these people are fighting. Sadly, they are fighting this fight be spreading misinformation, attacking celebrities who they assume are blood sucking Satanists, and complaining about a movie like Cuties that has an incredibly pointed theme aimed at helping young girls. Guess what guys, the film is not child porn and it's not a sexualized movie for pedophiles. However, when I shared this opinion on social media, that didn’t stop basically a hundred Trump supporters showing up on my status to call me a pedophile. So here we go, here’s THE CASE IN DEFENSE OF MIGONNES: If you watch this film and find yourself thinking, "I can't watch this, these young girls are dressed inappropriately and may make me sexually aroused," well then guess what, YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THE MOVIE. This is a film made for parents of young girls. It’s made to be discussed with young girls, even if the parents decide not to share the film with their daughters. It’s about how difficult it is to become a young woman when your role models make you feel inferior and confused. It teaches girls that the hypersexualized media we consume isn't actually attainable and that everyone's bodies are different. The moral of the story sees the protagonist learning that she can hold onto being a kid a little longer, even though she is growing up at the same time. Once Amy discovers the freedom of her autonomy, she has to stop her friends from stealing it, other men from using her, and the celebrities she looks up to from controlling the way she sees herself. But first, she makes the mistake of giving it all away for likes and popularity. That’s her biggest mistake. In the absence of a trusted adult to talk to, Amy’s teachers instead become social media, and the algorithms. She thinks she has to dance like this to be desirable. To be loved. The film even overlaps this idea with her parent’s marital issues. A review for the movie from the Washington Post says that Cuties doesn’t "use cliched scare tactics, such as the paranoia about child sex trafficking that has infected U.S. politics, to make this point. But Doucouré is blunt about the fact that real harm can be done when a child behaves in ways typically reserved for grown-ups." It's disappointing to see such a great message be buried under the #SaveOurChildren movement just because conservatives can't separate real life from the movies. Yes, the film is disturbing and uncomfortable. Contrary to popular belief, there is no underage nudity in the film. The only nudity comes from an 18-year-old actress in a music video. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch 11-year-olds acting like grown women and dancing in ways that could be seen as gross and unnatural. If I was to change the film, I’d cast older actresses, but I didn’t make the film and I understand that these girls were under the safety of psychiatrists, a director and their parents. If you can't separate that from real life, then you are the problem. The Washington Post review also says this, "I know it’s easier to condemn a movie intended to make you uncomfortable than it is to sit with that discomfort and analyze it. Still, it’s a shame a movie about an 11-year-old’s moral education has made so many adults act stupid." And I can't say it any better. But if you don’t want to watch the film, that’s okay. Here is a synopsis of the 20 times that the film shows how our society forces young black girls to grow up too fast: 1) Early on, the first girl Amy sees is alluring because her hair is straight. Amy tries to straighten her hair but isn't able to. 2) She sees these same girls defy authority by filming a trending social media challenge despite phones being banned on campus. 3) Amy hears about her father taking a new wife and how it hurts her mother. This is directly after her and her mother joke about "taking up too much space" at the bathroom sink. She is starting to connect that men only find women attractive if they are skinny and sensual (unlike her mother.) 4) She sees the same kids having fun together at the grocery store. This happens at the same time she is acting like a mother to her two younger brothers. She's growing up too fast. 5) The cool girls she thinks are cool bully her and hit her in the head with a rock. She wants to be like them, but her religion and her mother makes her cover her entire body in "modest clothing." 6) She steals her cousin's cell phone because she saw the cool kids with their phones. This is the inciting action for the character. She now has access to social media. She tries to make herself look like the girls on Instagram, complete with duck lips and photo editing apps. 7) The cool girls dare Amy to take a picture of a guy in the bathroom they have a crush on. Meanwhile her brother is dealing with the toxic masculinity of idolizing his father. 8) But we also see that Amy isn't completely grown up. She just wants to have fun and sometimes that includes gummy bear eating contests with her new friend, the same friend who introduces her to twerking videos. 9) Now she's watching music videos during church services. This represents how she is idolizing these videos. Pop culture is a "new" religion. She's also noticing how her body doesn't look like the older mature women. She's starting puberty and doesn't know about the changes she's going through because of how religious her family is. 10) They see cute boys and pretend to be in high school. One girl even touches a condom and the girls tease her and say she's going to die. The girl cries because her friends are teasing her, and she didn’t know what a condom was. (This is something in basically EVERY coming of age movie. It's a trope.) 11) Then the girls are catfishing a boy from school. But when he finds out that she's 11 and not 14 like him, he calls her a little girl and she feels devastated. She even gets in a fight with her friend for turning on the Webcam and exposing her age. This is 100 percent relatable, especially for today's kids. After their fight, Amy joins the dance team. 12) At this point the movie is half-way through and there hasn’t been a single scene that's "inappropriate." Now the film starts to get increasingly more uncomfortable because all the girls are twerking and grinding the floor. It's the turning point for the film. By now the viewer should recognize that the girls are taking this too far and need an adult to teach them, but they don't have any adults to talk to. They only have social media influences and celebrities. 13) Throughout the movie the religious "auntie) figure is teaching her how to cook for a man and "be a woman." This is a conflicting message, that she should be a servant for a man's needs, how should she know that she doesn't need to be sexual and alluring when she's only 11. Men like "sexy" women. 14) in the middle of the film there is a dress that bleeds symbolizing Amy's period. Another confusing thing for her without a parent's guidance. Her auntie tells her that now that she has had her period, she is ready to be married. (Because that's what happened to her at Amy's age.) Her mom tells her "you're a woman now." But that’s all she says. She doesn’t explain anything else. So, Amy is forced to be a woman by looking to celebrities for guidance. 15) The girls sneak into a laser tag arena where they get in trouble but the pervert man who runs the laser tag arena let's them go because they dance for him, proving to these girls that disgusting men will pay attention to them if they look like the girls in the videos. Boys at school notice her when she has cleavage and tight pants. But the "older and cooler" girls treat her worse. She gets into a fight. 16) Later Amy steals money from her mom but is confronted by her dress again. This time the dress appears to breath in and out rapidly symbolizing how Amy knows she's making the wrong choice, but she's come too far to turn back. Things start to unravel. Her mom can't trust her. Her cousin discovers she stole his phone. She doesn’t know how to live without the phone. 17) Then she does the worst thing she can do. She publishes a nude picture of herself online. She gets slut-shamed by her friends and by other boys and the school finds out about the picture. Her mom literally says she should kill her for her actions. Her mom and "auntie" try to cleanse her with holy water. 18) The other girls stop being friends with her and she is quickly replaced. But she shows up to the dance competition anyways. This is where the most disturbing part of the film lies. It's the last 10 minutes and Amy has now fully personified the celebrity twerking videos. One of the girls says "let's give it everything we've got" but Amy already has. She's given all of herself and she no longer feels like herself. She sees the audience is disgusted with their dancing. 19) She hears the prayer her mother sings to her in her mind. She's crying on the stage and she runs away back to her home. Her auntie says she wears "the clothes of a whore" and this is the first time her mother stands up for Amy and sees how much pain she is in. 20) The final scene of the movie sees Amy playing jump rope with the other girls her age. She isn't ready to give up her childhood yet. She can be happy being the woman she wants to be when she's ready. For now, she's happy to be a child a little longer. And no matter what side of the controversy you are on, this is an important message for young girls to understand.
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Erick L. Graham Wood
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