#CancelNetflix Trends Over ‘Cuties’ Controversy

UPDATED 9/11/2020 AT 9:00 AM ET to include a statement from Netflix.   

Netflix is under fire again for its controversial French film, Cuties. The coming-of-age drama from director Maïmouna Doucouré following a young Senegalese girl who joins a dance group has stirred up plenty of attention from Netflix viewers accusing the film of promoting pedophilia and sexualizing children.

After the film’s official Netflix debut Sept. 9, Cuties backlash has reached a new high, with the hashtag #CancelNetflix trending at No. 1 on Twitter today, and a petition calling for subscribers to end their Netflix subscriptions because of the film gathering nearly 600,000 signatures. “Pedophilia is a crime. Child pornography is a crime. Stop sexualizing minors and normalizing pedophilia. This is fucking disgusting,” one user wrote. Other tweets accused Netflix and its supporters of “enabling abuse,” and called the creators behind Cuties “sick perverts.”

In a statement shared with Decider, a Netflix spokesperson encouraged viewers to watch the film in response to the spread of the hashtag on social media. “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” the spokesperson said. “It’s an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up – and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.”

While the hashtag is dominating Twitter today, it’s only the latest in a string of efforts by detractors trying to cancel the film and its distributor. The outrage over Cuties began back in August, when Netflix began promoting the film with a disastrous marketing campaign. The film’s first promotional poster showed the young leads dressed in crop tops and tight clothing, posing on stage. Netflix also released an official description of the film, reading “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.”

The backlash from QAnon followers and conservative commenters accusing Netflix used of creating “child porn” was so swift and severe that the streaming platform issued an apology and changed their log line for Cuties, which now reads “Amy, 11 years old, tries to escape family dysfunction by joining a free-spirited dance clique named ‘Cuties,’ as they build their self confidence through dance.”

Before her film was even officially released in the U.S., Doucouré revealed that she received death threats from angry commenters accusing her of sexualizing the young girls in her film. “I actually hope that those who haven’t seen it, will see it, and I can’t wait to see their reaction,” she told Deadline earlier this month. “Hopefully they will understand that we’re actually on the same side of this battle. If we join forces, we could make a big change in this world that hypersexualizes children.”

After Netflix’s viral marketing campaign, Decider’s Anna Menta — who saw and reviewed the film at Sundance before it premiered this month — defended Cuties from critics who had only seen the trailer and Netflix’s poster, and urged people to watch the film before judging. “Doucouré illustrates, very clearly, that the four girls who enter a dance contest together are far too young to be wearing skimpy outfits and performing suggestive dance moves,” she wrote. “That’s kind of the whole thesis of the movie—that girls who barely understand the concept of sex are pressured by society to present themselves as ‘sexy,’ and that’s very much a bad thing.”

Cuties is now streaming on Netflix.

Stream Cuties on Netflix