By Royce Whelan
The Netflix original Cuties is a french film where an 11-year-old character named Amy rebels against her parents and joins a dance crew. Many argue that the trailer and description sexualizes children and believe that it should be removed from Netflix altogether. The original poster that Netflix released showed the film’s actresses posing in sexually suggestive positions wearing revealing clothing. The film’s Netflix description also explained that “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.”
On Thursday, August 20, Netflix apologized on Twitter for “inappropriate artwork” that they used. They claimed that the description and trailer did not properly represent the movie and they have since changed it. Netflix does not plan to cancel the movie and it will still be released on September 9.
Netflix was prompted to apologize after a petition on change.org that collected more than 49,000 signatures as of Thursday, August 20. Although Netflix apologized and changed the description, many are still outraged and believe that the movie should not be released.
Historically, it’s been culturally acceptable for 11-14-year-olds to start getting married and having children but throughout time, that has changed. There are still places in the world where children are getting married at 10 and 11, but generally that age is around 25-30
After watching the trailer and reading Netflix’s apology on Twitter, it seems that they may have misrepresented the movie but viewers and critics cannot be sure as the full movie has not yet been released. While Netflix admitting to their mistake and apologizing on Twitter is laudable, there is still more to be done. A simple apology and change of description is enough. There is a lot of money that goes into making a movie and simply letting that movie go would be a huge financial loss but releasing a movie that offends this many people won’t be good for their reputation.
Because this film portrayed such sexual imagery in the poster, it actually conflicted with research. The UUSD Chromebooks block any content they view sexual so finding information for this article was difficult and had to be done on either my phone or personal computer.
