On Wednesday, Netflix released Cuties. Overnight, #cancelNetflix began trending on Twitter because of the content of the adorably named movie, which the New Yorker described as a film about a young girl’s “defiance” of the “patriarchal order.”
Apparently, 11-year-old children dancing in graphic and extremely sexual ways, including simulating intercourse, writhing around in short shorts, and fondling their genital areas, is somehow illustrative of fighting the patriarchy. How is sexualizing young girls fighting the patriarchy?
What this movie actually does is exploit its young child stars, encourage other young girls to engage in highly sexual behavior, and worst of all, feed the fantasies of those with a sexual interest in children.
Cuties is also not a “coming of age” film, as described by a review on the website of famed critic Roger Ebert, which defends the movie as somehow fighting against the sexualization of young girls. One dance routine in the film shows four girls bumping and grinding against the floor in their short shorts as they suggestively rub their genital areas and put their fingers in and out of their mouths.
In what world has depicting children simulating sex become the chosen method of fighting against children being used as sexual objects? These depictions are surely close to child pornography images found in the collections of pedophiles worldwide, which are the subject of thousands of federal prosecutions in this country every year.
Federal law protects children from being sexually exploited and from appearing in pornographic images. Many people are unaware that this same law defines child pornography to include simulated sex and the lascivious display of the genitals of a child.
The director of Cuties ensured that viewers get plenty of long and focused views of the clothed genital areas of these little girls, as they are a direct focus of the camera over and over. Anyone watching can see the display is suggestive. While the law has exceptions for art, it is hard to see how any rational person can define this trash as art.
What this film might be is child pornography, and as it was to be transmitted through interstate or foreign commerce by the film’s distribution, it could be a federal crime over which the FBI and the Department of Justice have jurisdiction. They should launch an immediate criminal investigation into the making and distribution of this film.
Our society has rightly condemned child sexual abuse in all its forms. There are many groups that claim to be opposed to sex trafficking and sexual abuse of women and girls, and all of them should speak with one voice to condemn this depiction of children as sexual objects.
Empowering women and girls should never mean sexually exploiting them, which will titillate some perverted viewers. Somehow, condemning this film has become a political issue. There is nothing political about protecting children. Or there shouldn’t be.
During my many years prosecuting crimes against children at the state and federal level, my fellow prosecutors, those who identified as Democrats and as Republicans, never hesitated to seek justice for children who were preyed upon by adults. This is not a controversial concept during normal times. Why has it become de rigueur to defend the sexualization of children?
Recently, the New York Times Magazine published a feature decrying online undercover sting operations because there were “no victims.” It is hard not to see an attempt to normalize a sexual interest in children when a major publication can’t see that law enforcement’s preventive targeting of child predators is part of enforcement operations designed to protect children from sexual exploitation.
When you add a robust chorus in defense of a movie such as Cuties, it seems inescapable that a move to normalize the sexualization of children will succeed. Movie critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes makes the point. The film has an 88% score from industry critics.
We are headed down a dangerous path when movie critics celebrate images of children simulating sex. It is hard to understand how Netflix made the decision to display this shocking exploitation of young girls to a worldwide audience. It should be made to explain that decision to the hard-eyed prosecutors at the Department of Justice.
Francey Hakes (@FranceyHakes) is a former state and federal prosecutor who previously worked in the Department of Justice and practiced in front of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. She co-hosts the crime podcast Best Case Worst Case.
