Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has defended his company’s stubborn refusal to remove the movie “Cuties” from its streaming service by sharing an article from left leaning website The Verge which defends the movie.
The opinion piece labelled “independent” by Hastings claims the criticisms of the movie are little more than a “conspiracy theory”, despite the contents not being theoretical but plainly documented. The author quotes a Rolling Stone critic who claims the context of the hyper-sexualisation of little girls make it totally understandable.
The context is one of the film’s themes is the hypersexualisation of girls. Director Maïmouna Doucouré told one outlet:
“There were these girls on stage dressed in a really sexy fashion in short, transparent clothes. They danced in a very sexually suggestive manner … I was transfixed, watching with a mixture of shock and admiration. I asked myself if these young girls understood what they were doing.”
The film is said to explore the difficulties being a little girl who are now growing up in a world obsessed with appearances and connectivity. The director claimed “Cuties” is a social commentary against the sexualisation of young children.
Joining the calls to cancel Netflix subscriptions over the highly inappropriate visual content, Lila Rose commented:
You don’t fight child exploitation by exploiting children. You don’t stop child pornography by creating, selling and distributing child pornography.#CancelNetflix
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) September 11, 2020
The hashtag “#CancelNetflix” has gone viral and so has the consumer activism. While corporations are private property and entitled to make really bad commercial decisions which only make sense in the woke alternate realities of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, consumers are also entitled to vote with their feet and shop with other brands which do not pour hot contempt on their social convictions.
Reed Hastings would be wise to seriously consider why he believes “Cuties” is worth losing $9 billion of shareholder money.
Netflix has lost over $9 billion in market value since the #CancelNetflix hashtag went viral.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) September 12, 2020
Good.
Any network that promotes pedophelia should fall.
“Cuties” received multiple awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. One of the festival’s co-founders, Sterling Van Wagenen, 71, was charged last year with the sexual abuse of a little girl between the ages of 7 and 9. He left the festival advisory board in 1993.
I reserve the right to criticise cultures which are backward or barbaric without being labelled a racist because I can admit when mine is too. Everyone should be capable of ‘cultural embarrassment’; an important key to cultural maturation.
Someone needs to go to jail for this shit! pic.twitter.com/Ln0CnZSyok
— ????? ??? (@GhostJim4) September 9, 2020
Western culture will defend and celebrate this, and that’s something we should admit is humiliating. Let that then drive us to change and maturity as a culture.
The Telegraph says this is “an age terrified of child sexuality” as if that’s a bad thing. Uh… yep! But obviously we’re not terrified enough given their awful article promoting it.
Forget the moral panic – Netflix’s controversial French import is disturbing and risqué because that’s exactly what it aims to be. https://t.co/Z3dJFoo1af
— Telegraph Film (@TelegraphFilm) September 10, 2020
Personally, I’m slow to cancel things, change brands – but I have done and will do when I think the issue is serious enough. I get that there is quite probably no corporation which completely shares my values. But the evidence that “Cuties” is well beyond anything society should tolerate is overwhelming, and likewise the evidence is Netflix simply doesn’t care about anything as much as profits.
So I’m also cancelling my Netflix subscription. I’m taking my money elsewhere, and you should too, but not without telling them why.
Its horrifying to see a show in the mainstream blatantly sexualising 11 yr old kids. If this show is still there by next month..i am canceling my Netflix subscription and so should you.
— Hamza Ali Abbasi (@iamhamzaabbasi) August 31, 2020
Netflix: Cancel CUTIES on Netflix! - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/sk5eYbYRCX via @Change
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Dave Pellowe is a Christian writer & commentator, founder of The Good Sauce, convener of the annual Australian Church And State Summit and host of Good Sauce's weekly The Church And State Show, also syndicated on ADH TV. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to influence culture from Perth to Auckland through Christian political events, videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand. [more]