A few days late to this, but the #Cuties controversy really is BANANAS. I fell down the rabbit hole of complaints and got so annoyed by People Being Wrong On The Internet that I felt compelled to write this thread explaining just how bloody wrong they are. 👇👇

(SPOILERS AHOY)
As far as I can tell, the complaints are mostly coming from people who haven't even seen it. I'd rather they were upfront about that, but at least there's a logic there, because the marketing really did undermine it. I get why people were on edge before it even came out.
But the complaints that confuse me most are from those who DID watch it. Because in order to be convinced that the film is sexualising young girls, you would need to have missed/ignored ALL the context it offers, which is, well, the entire movie.
I mean, for such an allegedly perverted movie, it sure does spend a LOT of time helping us to understand Amy's cultural background, how it conflicts with the other girls in her school, her desire to fit in, and carefully showing us WHY she is making so many bad choices.
When thinking about issues of representation and meaning, that context is vital. We need to ask: what journey is the protagonist going on, and why? What do they learn over the course of the movie? And how do we think the film is asking us to feel towards them and their actions?
So, Amy's journey: She begins the film a quiet Muslim girl who loves her mother. Right at the beginning, in the mosque, she is explicitly told that women should be "pious", "modest" (especially "in the face of scantily clad women"), and they should always "obey their husbands".
Want to know how Amy feels about that spiel? Check out the shift in focus as she's being told: she's massively bored and wishes she could escape and do something else, like the younger kids playing happily on the other side of the room.
Want to know how Amy feels about that spiel? Check out the shift in focus as she's being told: she's massively bored and wishes she could escape and do something else, like the younger kids playing happily on the other side of the room.
Want to know how Amy feels about that spiel? Check out the shift in focus as she's being told: she's massively bored and wishes she could escape and do something else, like the younger kids playing happily on the other side of the room.
The next time we see Amy in that environment, she hides under her chador and surreptitiously watches sexualised music videos while the women around her all pray. By this point in the film, dancing is established as her route out of a culture that she finds stifling and depressing
The next time we see Amy in that environment, she hides under her chador and surreptitiously watches sexualised music videos while the women around her all pray. By this point in the film, dancing is established as her route out of a culture that she finds stifling and depressing
The next time we see Amy in that environment, she hides under her chador and surreptitiously watches sexualised music videos while the women around her all pray. By this point in the film, dancing is established as her route out of a culture that she finds stifling and depressing
The next time we see Amy in that environment, she hides under her chador and surreptitiously watches sexualised music videos while the women around her all pray. By this point in the film, dancing is established as her route out of a culture that she finds stifling and depressing
The next time we see Amy in that environment, she hides under her chador and surreptitiously watches sexualised music videos while the women around her all pray. By this point in the film, dancing is established as her route out of a culture that she finds stifling and depressing
Her mother's narrative is important too, because it is through her that Amy catches glimpses of her own possible future: raising kids alone, and told that her "duty" to be a "real woman" means pretending to be fine when her husband takes a second wife. She is desperately unhappy.
Her mother's narrative is important too, because it is through her that Amy catches glimpses of her own possible future: raising kids alone, and told that her "duty" to be a "real woman" means pretending to be fine when her husband takes a second wife. She is desperately unhappy.
Her mother's narrative is important too, because it is through her that Amy catches glimpses of her own possible future: raising kids alone, and told that her "duty" to be a "real woman" means pretending to be fine when her husband takes a second wife. She is desperately unhappy.
Her mother's narrative is important too, because it is through her that Amy catches glimpses of her own possible future: raising kids alone, and told that her "duty" to be a "real woman" means pretending to be fine when her husband takes a second wife. She is desperately unhappy.
Her mother's narrative is important too, because it is through her that Amy catches glimpses of her own possible future: raising kids alone, and told that her "duty" to be a "real woman" means pretending to be fine when her husband takes a second wife. She is desperately unhappy.
In short: Amy sees the world she has been raised in as not just restrictive, but one that devalues and/or hides women away from the rest of the world. In that context, it's not hard to see why expressive, scantily-clad women blowing up on social media would seem appealing to her.
We see exactly where Amy learns her sexualised dance moves: the media and her peers. She's repeating what she sees because, to her, dancing like that represents freedom from the conservative lifestyle that inhibits her. The two versions of girlhood are REALLY BLATANTLY juxtaposed
This brings us to one especially controversial scene, in which Amy locks herself in the bathroom, pulls down her pants, and uploads a picture of her genitalia to the Internet. There's no nudity shown here, but I appreciate the very presence of a scene like this may seem shocking
This brings us to one especially controversial scene, in which Amy locks herself in the bathroom, pulls down her pants, and uploads a picture of her genitalia to the Internet. There's no nudity shown here, but I appreciate the very presence of a scene like this may seem shocking
This brings us to one especially controversial scene, in which Amy locks herself in the bathroom, pulls down her pants, and uploads a picture of her genitalia to the Internet. There's no nudity shown here, but I appreciate the very presence of a scene like this may seem shocking
BUT! That scene comes right after a moment in which an overconfident Amy (buoyed by her burgeoning social media presence) gets into a fight with a member of a rival dance group. Her trousers are pulled down, exposing her large, "raggedy" underwear, publicly humiliating her.
BUT! That scene comes right after a moment in which an overconfident Amy (buoyed by her burgeoning social media presence) gets into a fight with a member of a rival dance group. Her trousers are pulled down, exposing her large, "raggedy" underwear, publicly humiliating her.
BUT! That scene comes right after a moment in which an overconfident Amy (buoyed by her burgeoning social media presence) gets into a fight with a member of a rival dance group. Her trousers are pulled down, exposing her large, "raggedy" underwear, publicly humiliating her.
BUT! That scene comes right after a moment in which an overconfident Amy (buoyed by her burgeoning social media presence) gets into a fight with a member of a rival dance group. Her trousers are pulled down, exposing her large, "raggedy" underwear, publicly humiliating her.
This causes problems for Amy and her friends, who throughout the film are trying to act older than they really are. Angelica moans, "Everyone's talking about [...] your undies. They're saying we're kids. We need to do something". The bathroom scene comes IMMEDIATELY after this.
This causes problems for Amy and her friends, who throughout the film are trying to act older than they really are. Angelica moans, "Everyone's talking about [...] your undies. They're saying we're kids. We need to do something". The bathroom scene comes IMMEDIATELY after this.
This causes problems for Amy and her friends, who throughout the film are trying to act older than they really are. Angelica moans, "Everyone's talking about [...] your undies. They're saying we're kids. We need to do something". The bathroom scene comes IMMEDIATELY after this.
This causes problems for Amy and her friends, who throughout the film are trying to act older than they really are. Angelica moans, "Everyone's talking about [...] your undies. They're saying we're kids. We need to do something". The bathroom scene comes IMMEDIATELY after this.
Uploading that photo is therefore Amy's attempt to prove to other people (and herself) that she is "grown up". Does it work? Does #Cuties normalise/celebrate this? Well, she gets berated even more at school, castigated by her mum, and ostracised by her friends. So I'd say no.
Uploading that photo is therefore Amy's attempt to prove to other people (and herself) that she is "grown up". Does it work? Does #Cuties normalise/celebrate this? Well, she gets berated even more at school, castigated by her mum, and ostracised by her friends. So I'd say no.
Uploading that photo is therefore Amy's attempt to prove to other people (and herself) that she is "grown up". Does it work? Does #Cuties normalise/celebrate this? Well, she gets berated even more at school, castigated by her mum, and ostracised by her friends. So I'd say no.
Uploading that photo is therefore Amy's attempt to prove to other people (and herself) that she is "grown up". Does it work? Does #Cuties normalise/celebrate this? Well, she gets berated even more at school, castigated by her mum, and ostracised by her friends. So I'd say no.
Uploading that photo is therefore Amy's attempt to prove to other people (and herself) that she is "grown up". Does it work? Does #Cuties normalise/celebrate this? Well, she gets berated even more at school, castigated by her mum, and ostracised by her friends. So I'd say no.
Importantly, it's also clear that Amy has no sense of any of the sexual associations/implications of anything she is doing. Again, she's just clumsily mimicking what she sees around her. Her friends, who initially seem so confident and worldly, are doing the exact same thing.
In fact, for all the girls' "salacious" dance moves, it's made VERY clear they actually know next to nothing about sex. One doesn't know a condom when she sees it, waving it around like a balloon. Her friends scream at her to not touch it because she "might catch cancer or AIDS"
In fact, for all the girls' "salacious" dance moves, it's made VERY clear they actually know next to nothing about sex. One doesn't know a condom when she sees it, waving it around like a balloon. Her friends scream at her to not touch it because she "might catch cancer or AIDS"
In fact, for all the girls' "salacious" dance moves, it's made VERY clear they actually know next to nothing about sex. One doesn't know a condom when she sees it, waving it around like a balloon. Her friends scream at her to not touch it because she "might catch cancer or AIDS"
In fact, for all the girls' "salacious" dance moves, it's made VERY clear they actually know next to nothing about sex. One doesn't know a condom when she sees it, waving it around like a balloon. Her friends scream at her to not touch it because she "might catch cancer or AIDS"
In fact, for all the girls' "salacious" dance moves, it's made VERY clear they actually know next to nothing about sex. One doesn't know a condom when she sees it, waving it around like a balloon. Her friends scream at her to not touch it because she "might catch cancer or AIDS"
In another scene, the girls gather round a phone to watch porn, commenting as they do so. One of them confidently claims that a dick "can go through your whole body [and] come out of your mouth." The others aren't sure whether she's right or not, but think it sounds gross.
In other words, the film goes out of its way to show just how naive and immature the girls are, and that they in turn have little sense of how or why their dancing might be inappropriate.
Amy hides her dancing from her family, while Angelica (the other girl we learn most about) never sees her parents. So they're all teaching each other how to twerk and dance provocatively without any adult oversight. The film is showing what can happen WITHOUT PROPER SEX EDUCATION
I find it especially nuts that the final dance has proven so controversial, because bloody hell, did y'all even watch the scene?! Two key points, both all but impossible to miss: (1) We see loads of reaction shots of women in the audience clearly horrified by what they are seeing
I find it especially nuts that the final dance has proven so controversial, because bloody hell, did y'all even watch the scene?! Two key points, both all but impossible to miss: (1) We see loads of reaction shots of women in the audience clearly horrified by what they are seeing
I find it especially nuts that the final dance has proven so controversial, because bloody hell, did y'all even watch the scene?! Two key points, both all but impossible to miss: (1) We see loads of reaction shots of women in the audience clearly horrified by what they are seeing
I find it especially nuts that the final dance has proven so controversial, because bloody hell, did y'all even watch the scene?! Two key points, both all but impossible to miss: (1) We see loads of reaction shots of women in the audience clearly horrified by what they are seeing
(2) The scene ends with Amy BURSTING INTO TEARS MID-PERFORMANCE, after some confetti from home falls out of her hair. The dance music is replaced with an African song, she ditches her shallow "friends" & legs it home to her mum. And that's meant to be ENDORSING the dance? Jog on.
(2) The scene ends with Amy BURSTING INTO TEARS MID-PERFORMANCE, after some confetti from home falls out of her hair. The dance music is replaced with an African song, she ditches her shallow "friends" & legs it home to her mum. And that's meant to be ENDORSING the dance? Jog on.
(2) The scene ends with Amy BURSTING INTO TEARS MID-PERFORMANCE, after some confetti from home falls out of her hair. The dance music is replaced with an African song, she ditches her shallow "friends" & legs it home to her mum. And that's meant to be ENDORSING the dance? Jog on.
So ultimately it's a film about a girl who is torn between conflicting versions of girlhood: one that devalues and restricts women, the other, hyper-sexualised. Amy rejects both, choosing instead to go outside and play jump rope. It's the happiest she's been in the entire movie.
So ultimately it's a film about a girl who is torn between conflicting versions of girlhood: one that devalues and restricts women, the other, hyper-sexualised. Amy rejects both, choosing instead to go outside and play jump rope. It's the happiest she's been in the entire movie.
So ultimately it's a film about a girl who is torn between conflicting versions of girlhood: one that devalues and restricts women, the other, hyper-sexualised. Amy rejects both, choosing instead to go outside and play jump rope. It's the happiest she's been in the entire movie.
/End of thread

TLDR: #Cuties says: "Girls already live in a hyper-sexualised world. To pretend otherwise - or to expect them to navigate that world on their own, without proper sex ed & emotional support from adults - will only make things worse. We need to help them through it"
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