It was about a month ago when I noticed people kept talking about “Cuties”, I thought to myself, “Man those tiny Oranges must taste really good to have people talking about them on Social Media”.
This was not Oranges of any kind, but a Movie on Netflix. Before I go any further I must let you know I in no way support this type of Movie but thought it necessary to give my personal commentary. Read below to learn about the background of this movie and my thoughts.
About Cuties
Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.
The Cuties Controversy | Netflix, We Need Answers
The Film is centered around 11-year-old Amy who is from a traditional and religious African home with her mother and younger brother. We soon learn that the father is away from the household and has somehow “taken” a second wife which leaves Amy’s mother distraught. The scene is set that the family is poor and Amy is an outsider wanting to get in with the popular girls at school who are part of a dance group they named “Cuties” who also happen to be 11. These girls are bold, scantily dressed, don’t have the best vocabulary or manners, and let’s state it again, they are 11. It was hard watching the film and I must admit I immediately lost interest because I could not at all relate and was not at the target age for the film, or was I?
The controversy of the Film comes from the show being marketed towards Pedophiles and this is somehow a way to sensitize this deviance and somehow integrate this type of behavior into homes and minds to make it normal. I am from a culture where we have a style of music called “Dancehall” that incites dancing provocatively. This is the norm for most adults in a party setting and the outfits that go along with this are just as provocative.
The thing is, these are adults who dance this way, and as soon as a child starts doing these dances, they are immediately told to “stop, they are not ready for that yet” and to think of it, as bad as things are in my country, no child at 11 would dare dress like 25 or have the vocabulary or attitude towards adults and parents alike in the film. Yes, I know this sort of behavior differs and is even tolerated by certain cultures, but I was overall annoyed! Annoyed by the behavior of the girls, how they dressed and spoke! Just annoyed about everything!
While I did not watch the film in its entirety, I cannot give an honest review, the little I watched rubbed me the wrong way, and the adult in me wanted to send those kids to their rooms immediately and put them in clothes that cover their body so they look like children and not 25 years old.
Can you imagine there were adults who probably saw 100s if not 1000s of little girls who had to watch them dancing and then deciding who gets to stay, based on her level of proactiveness? Netflix, we need answers!
Here are a few Online Reviews
Senegalese-French director Maïmouna Doucouré has created an evocative, compassionate portrait of young girls finding their identity and values in this controversial film.
Cuties is a thematically bold yet nuanced study of displacement and duty that deserves to be seen as an auspicious and astute debut, not the source of scandal.
Cuties gratuitously, excessively indulge in the very images and ideas it’s supposedly criticizing.
