Does Cuties sexualise young girls?

In 2020, a French indie movie called Cuties somehow found itself at the epicentre of the US culture wars. Outraged conservatives accused the filmmakers and Netflix of encouraging paedophilia and stoking the fires of global child sex trafficking trade. But were they right? Rich’s deep dive into the controversy takes Ben on a journey through “sexualisation,” twerking, Tucker Carlson’s gormless face, School of Rock, QAnon, and yes... even paedophilic robots.

Show Notes: Sources and links

Barker, Martin, Jane Arthurs, Jane and Ramaswami Harindranath (2001) The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception. Wallflower Press.

Barker, Martin (2009) “The Challenge of Censorship: ‘Figuring’ Out the Audience,” Velvet Light Trap, 63.

Barker, Martin, with Thomas Austin (2000) From Antz to Titanic: Reinventing Film Analysis. Pluto Press.

Buchanan, Vern (2020) “Buchanan Slams Netflix Film ‘Cuties’ for Exploiting Young Girls,” September 13. [Press Release]

Carlson, Tucker (2020) “From ‘WAP’ to an 11-year-old twerking girl,” Tucker Carlson Tonight, August 21. [Twitter/X video clip, posted by @ColumbiaBugle]

Carlson, Tucker (2020) “Netflix Slammed for Sexualizing Young Girls,” Tucker Carlson Tonight, September 11. [Facebook video]

Cassam, Quassim (2019) Conspiracy Theories. Polity.

Cruz, Ted (2020) “SEN. CRUZ CALLS FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO NETFLIX’S ‘CUTIES’,” September 11. [Press Release]

Dickson, E.J. (2020) “How ‘Cuties’ Is Fueling the Far Right’s Obsession With Pedophilia,” Rolling Stone, September 14.

Dickson, E.J. (2020) “Netflix’s Cuties Was Just Charged With Lewdness. But That’s Not the Full Story,” Rolling Stone, October 8.

Egan, R. Danielle (2013) Becoming Sexual: A Critical Appraisal of the Sexualization of Girls. Polity Press.

Egan, R. Danielle and Gail L. Hawkes (2007) “Producing the Prurient through the Pedagogy of Purity: Childhood Sexuality and the Social Purity Movement,” Journal of Historical Sociology, 20(4).

Egan, R. Danielle and Gail L. Hawkes (2008) “Endangered Girls and Incendiary Objects: Unpacking the Discourse on Sexualization," Sexuality and Culture, 12.

Egan, R. Danielle and Gail L. Hawkes (2008) “Girls, Sexuality and the Strange Carnalities of Advertisements: Deconstructing the Discourse of Corporate Paedophilia,” Australian Feminist Studies, 23(57).

Egan, R. Danielle and Gail L. Hawkes (2009) “The problem with protection: Or, why we need to move towards recognition and the sexual agency of children,” Continuum, 23(3).

Egan, R. Danielle and Gail L. Hawkes (2013) “Disavowal and foundational fantasies: A psychosocial exploration of the class, race and the social construction of the sexual child in the Anglophone West,” Sexualities, 16(5/6).

Gallagher, Danny (2022) “District Attorney Lucas Babin? Where Have We Heard That Name? Oh, Right! School of Rock!” Dallas Observer, April 4.

Givas, Nick (2020) “Rep. Ken Buck calls for investigation into 'exploitation of children' in letter to DOJ regarding Netflix film 'Cuties',” Fox News, September 14.

Grater, Tom (2020) “‘Cuties’ Director Says She Received Death Threats After Netflix Poster Backlash; Ted Sarandos Called Her To Apologize,” Deadline, September 3. [Contains images of the contrasting French and American posters]

Gray, Jonathan (2010) Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts. New York University Press.

McCulloch, Richard, and William Proctor (2023) “The Cuties Controversy: Prefiguration, ‘Sexualisation’ and the New Conspiracism,” Participations, 19(3).

Netflix (2020) “Cuties | Official Trailer | Netflix,” [YouTube]

Paasonen, Susanna, et al. (2020) Objectification: On the Difference between Sex and Sexism. Routledge.

Rosen, Christopher (2020) “Netflix Apologizes for “Inappropriate” Cuties Poster That Sexualized Child Stars,” Vanity Fair, August 20.

Rosenblum, Nancy L., and Russell Muirhead (2019) A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Princeton University Press.

Schiffer, Zoë (2021) “Netflix scrambled internally to suppress a controversial movie from search results,” The Verge, October 27.

Note: Journal articles are often behind paywalls. If you don't have institutional access but would like a copy of these papers please email Illeffectspod@gmail.com and we will happily send you a copy

Credits:

Hosts – Rich McCulloch and Ben Litherland

Music by - Brutalust (Colin Frank and Maria Sappho), recorded and mixed by Joe Christman

Creative producer – Rachel Wood

Technical producer – Caroline Pringle

Technical production – Colin Frank