In my new YouTube video, I review Maïmouna Doucouré's "Cuties." I discuss Doucouré's exploration of

+ the ominous, violent male figure—the divine and mortal.

+ Mothering.

+Desirability

& I critique Doucouré's anti-fatness in her depiction of Yasmin.

What framed my review was Doucouré's Washington Post article where she defends the production of "Cuties." After seeing a group of girls dance sexually at an event in Paris, Doucouré spent the next year and a half interviewing 10 and 11 year old girls. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cuties-director-maimouna-doucoure-why-i-made-the-film/2020/09/15/7e0ee406-f78b-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html

"Cuties" has garnered a slew of outrage—most notably a Texan grand jury indicting Netflix for the "lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child." https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2020/10/06/cuties-texas-grand-jury-indicts-netflix-lewd-exhibition/5902831002/

While I agree that we should question Netflix's motivation for marketing a more sexualized cover of "Cuties," I think the overall outrage towards the film is an interesting manifestation of misogynoir.

The sexualization of girls, particularly Black girls, is central to white supremacy. Even when folks were attempting to defend a Black girl from provocation & exploitation, she was quickly sexualized for twerking—an ancestral dance in many Black communities.

Overall, the outrage towards the film is deeply rooted in an intentional ignorance and dismissal of what permeates the lives of young girls. "Cuties" is an accurate portrayal of young girls' curiosity towards sexuality and our almost obsessive desire to convey womanhood.

In grade school, girls my age began to talk about sex and grapple with the male gaze once our breasts started to develop. By middle school, girls were ostracized for sucking dick in the school stairwell and having sex on half-days. We were 11, 12, and 13.

Not to mention that americans' prushishness towards sex is incredibly weird. The united states is the home of a sex obsessed culture, both in its attempts to suppress sexual awakenings and its obsession with sexual "empowerment" messages and images.

In america's sex obsessed culture, what else can we expect kids to be interested in???

Lastly, many of the conversations surrounding "Cuties" were concerned with the ominous, yet non-specific male predator. We have to stop centering predators when discussing the sexual awakenings and expression of young girls and women.

For girls and women, predators are everywhere yet nowhere because we're made to feel like there are boogeymen hiding in dark corners, waiting to snatch us when we misbehave or defy the societal constrictions around girlhood and womanhood.

Predators, though, are everywhere—including our own homes. If we are reluctant to call out the predators at the dinner table or in the white house, we are solely giving lip service to the protection of young girls and women.

Watch my full review of "Cuties" here: