Y'all still mad about Cuties? 😏| Khadija Mbowe

Time Stamps:
Shouts to Squarespace 0:00
Marigold Music Program 1:07
Baldwin Quote 2:47
Intro 4:20
The Director 6:57
The Film 10:16
The Backlash 20:17
Let's be honest...24:10
Khadija, explain the quote 37:10
Final thoughts 40:27
Credits 51:02

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*******Land Acknowledgement******
My videos are recorded on Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) which is the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst many First Nations including the Kanien’kehá:ka of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg.

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this one is just fun @hotmessbian

[fiffa]

thank you for your perspective. i don't agree with everything that u said but you definitely have made me think...

[steppenfuchs]

The US: Cuties is horrible. Think about the children.
Also the US: We love our 7 seasons of dance moms and toddlers and tiaras.

[mxar]

The way Netflix "advertised" the movie reminds me of the whole debate about "Jennifer's Body". Jennifer's Body is a film made by women, for teenage girls in highschool about the struggles of teenage girls seen through the lense of a "demon possession". But the way Jennifer's Body was advertised made it seem like a "Megan Fox is hot and kissing a girl in this one" movie. Subsequently, straight white men went to see it and were disappointed while women didn't even think about seeing it.
When Netflix changed the poster for "Cuties" it came off to me like a promo for a pageant event or something. The message definitely didn't come across correctly the way the directors intended.

[emy]

As a french (white women), when I watched the movie and proceeded to read all of the discourse it brought, I also saw how our culture was so influential in Cuties. French (non-comedic) movies often have that very "real", bitter sweet and often not comfortable to watch feeling, where you kinda expect to finish the movie needing to sort out your emotions. So I can't speak for the other culturals influences but if we leave out the way the cameras were filming their bodies or the "nude" event, it didn't left me out because it's also very french.
I'd add that even those directing choices that were most criticized were hard to watch but they were also very good at making us so uncomfortable. I feel like she did a great job at showing and talking about pre-teens hyper-sexualization while always reminding us of their age. So for that she deserve lots of respect.
So thanks for this piece, it gave me another point of view on things that I did not thought of.

[CatEyeGem]

A real conversation was missed due to careless promotion of Netflix. This is a reality for young girls in every colour and culture to varying degrees. It presents the truth and I find many in society hate the truth. Good video

[littlebunny]

I'm not Black much less West African but I did relate to some of the experiences being a Venezuelan woman. I wanted to be grown at 10 so bad, our culture sexualizes us as soon as we hit puberty. I had friends that had boyfriends, were drinking and smoking and i wanted all of that. I made mistakes, i kissed too many boys and I felt used... it wasn't until I hit 12 that I realised that all of that was wrong. The feeling is universal and it made me mad how people were demonizing the movie without watching it.

[trilobite-knight]

As a child who never felt "innocent" & was addicted to porn at 11 during a horrible point of bullying, alienation & depression, this resonated with me. We're so quick to heap sexuality on tweens/teens symbolically (like your example of teen movies being played be adults doing -adult- things) but condemn them the moment they try to try it on for themselves, because it makes us uncomfortable. There's a lot in there I'm still trying to untangle at 24 but I still remember how tangibly my sexuality was a part of me and being told to swallow or erase that while also seeing the embrace of it fetishized, glorified & rewarded really fucking sucked and was wildly confusing. Yes, it's uncomfortable facing that this is not an uncommon experience for young kids, especially girls. Not facing it at all perpetuates the toxic shit that let's that burgeoning sexuality be exploited. It's a really hard and awkward conversation but kids have sexuality too and ignoring it just leaves them open to a world of manipulation and exploitation.

[ElectroSocketBlues]

It's so frustrating that people get angry when they're asked to look at and understand how young girls are pushed to navigate sex and sexuality before they fully understand it, and these same people frothing over Netflix not being "family friendly" will look the other way when they see abuse in their own families and communities. In order to prevent abuse and emotionally develop in a healthy way, children need protection, but they also need respect. Treat them like human beings: offer knowledge, context, honesty, and agency. Young people face so many complex, contradictory messages in society, I really feel like the best thing to do is to acknowledge that and be a place of support and safety for when they're trying to ask questions, express themselves, or set boundaries.

[princessjellyfish]

one of my favorite nuances from the movie was seeing amy's pathological behavior ramp up further and further in a desperate attempt to hang on to her popularity, but she's surprised to find out that she's socially punished for that choice. she's doing all of these dances, and one minute she's "cool, " but when she takes it further, she's called a "slut" and she's ostracized. little girls are given so many conflicting messages: be desirable, but not TOO desirable, don't try too hard. and she comes to find out that its a trick, that the social capital is limited on purpose, it's not actually her choice. it comes to a point where she's wrapped up trying to find herself with trying to please and impress others. and by the end, she's forced to ask herself what SHE really wants, and then you get that beautiful cathartic release of her mother allowing her to go outside and play

we also see that two-faced, misogynistic and predatory ideology in how society reacted to cuties, but turns a blind eye to 8 seasons of dance moms

[DrgoFx]

I worked at Netflix as a phone csr when Cuties was released on the platform. Majority of the calls we got were cancelations due to the film. Some people were straight forward and didn't want to discuss it, others were hostile to the reps. I had one woman lecture me about sexual assault and young girls being harassed and abused and expressing how I, a 20 something masc sounding individual, would know nothing about this. She then caught her bias, but only to the extent to ask if I had daughters. When I said no, she felt fully justified in her lecture and continued to berate me on how I could still work for this company, and finally she asked how I could understand what victims of sexual assault were going through, and I said "Because I am a victim, ma'am." At that point, she simply asked to cancel and said bye, no further exchange. Not even an apology. And that just kind of showcases how despite the understandable discomfort with the film, the backlash it received was clearly by the masses that didn't want to acknowledge the issue and felt that canceling their service to the platform promoting the film was a form protest against the sexualization of today's youth, instead of the reality of their actions simply ignoring the issue all together because it made them uncomfy to think about.

[mateod]

I do have to say I love how Khadija talks about things like how young women are socialized. As a trans man I've constantly noticed the difference in how being raised and socialized as a woman affects your perception of the world. I'm pretty bad with words right now but it's a doozy for sure

[lelekoko]

whoever wrote Netflix’s synopsis knew what they were doing, pure sabotage.

[nhlaxxx]

Can we normalise black girls expressing things in their home languages and then saying "I don't know how to translate this without losing its essence..." 😍 I love that for us

[kia]

As a Malian girl raised in a conservative Muslim family in the US, Cuties was oddly the most relatable movie I ever watched.

I felt uncomfortable watching the movie but that’s the entire point of it. You’re supposed to feel disturbed and uncomfortable because that’s the same feeling so much parents give to their young girls by forcing their beliefs on them. That’s the same feeling we feel getting sexualized just for being young women. The point just went over a lot of people’s heads.

Poor Maïmouna

[EldenaDoublecat]

"Is Cuties Problematic" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12, 239 pages of heated debate,

[cervidae]

as a survivor of CSA who started getting catcalled by grown men (sometimes men who were going grey) at age 11, when i VERY much still looked like a child, this video is so incredibly important to me. its irreplaceable to me. because yes, my assaulters and groomers are the first and foremost major reasons of my trauma, but the way i was raised and socialized as a little girl surrounded by other little girls who were bragging about making out and doing, erm, Very Adult Things with their 13-14y/o boyfriends, it left me vulnerable to further abuse by *everyone*. being raised/socialized as a little girl can be so ugly and scary and that darkness shouldnt be ignored or swept under the rug anymore, because that just leaves more room for predators to get away with their shit. it leaves more room for girls to feel pressured to grow up into a fabricated adult sexuality younger and younger. it has to stop. i think Cuties put a big spotlight on this whole issue, and because its such an uncomfortable pill to swallow, the general public dont want to look at it

[mariadiazgilligan]

“you can like something and still be critical of it” YES.

[zedskidoodle]

I wonder if people who were outraged at Cuties have just never seen the kind of dances that win national titles in the US. Just look up any Molly Long choreography and you'll see (undeniably talented) children dancing in provocative and "sassy" ways and being rewarded for it. Cuties didn't even show the children being rewarded for imitating music videos and the older girls, they got booed for it. Real life makes me far more uncomfortable.

[imaninamakhtar]

I wish Cuties emphasize more on adultification of children instead of the sexualized part, where the camera focus on crotch, because personally, when I watched Cuties and they talked about child marriage, I felt hurt by it. Living in a country where people still condone child marriage, I was a bit forgiving towards Cuties because they acknowledge that problem, but the execution dilutes the message.

Great video, auntie. Instant subscribe 😄

[etorresrodz]

Our kids are not only being raised by us but the whole society... oooff ON POINT! (as always)