1. https://www.latimes.

com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-08-20/netflix-cuties-petition-
french-film written by CHRISTI CARRAS staff writer

2. Netflix apologized yesterday after a petition on change.org was created demanding the
immediate removal of the French film “Cuties/Mignonnes” from the streaming platform. The
movie was originally pitching an 11-year-old Amy, “who becomes fascinated with a twerking
dance crew” and “starts to explore her femininity.” That was added with a poster that depicted
the preteen stars posing in costumes baring their leg and midriffs— “disgusting,” “upsetting”
and “sick.” Were some of the words used to talk about the movie’s synopsis and poster, it is for
this reason the movie is being accused of sexualizing young girls or “for the viewing pleasure of
pedophiles.“ Despite the fact Netflix apologized for the situation, they have no intention in
removing the movie from their platform. Instead Netflix decided to change the movies poster
and synopsis into an 11-year-old who rebels against her family and joins a “free-spirited dance
crew,” The statement of Netflix regarding the movie was this “We’re deeply sorry for the
inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties,” and “It was not OK, nor was it
representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the
pictures and description.”
Among the 49,000 campaign backers that rooted for the removal of the movie, some believe
changing the poster and synopsis is not enough. In a recent interview with the director of the
movie, Maïmouna Doucouré, she stated that the movie was based on her own childhood
experiences, and regarding the Netflix scandals she stated “This isn’t a health & safety ad, this is
most of all an uncompromising portrait of an 11-year-old girl plunged in a world that imposes a
series of dictates on her. It was very important not to judge these girls, but most of all to
understand them, to listen to them, to give them a voice, to take into account the complexity of
what they’re living through in society, and all of that in parallel with their childhood which is
always there, their imaginary, their innocence.”

3. I believe the problems stems from the marketing team that advertised the movie cuties, and I
do think Netflix should act with those employees who decided to represent the preteens in an
inappropriate way and fire them. However, I believe that people who are complaining about the
movie, haven’t watched the movie so they are judging it based of an assumption the ad
campaign provided ( yet again it is the fault of the advertising of the movie), going to see the
movie reviews right now will show a variety of comments that are unrelated to what the movie
represents, and rather criticizes the movie for what the controversy brought. For me this twitter
drama shed light into two major issues, the lack of revision the Netflix department provides for
their PR moves, and once again the toxicity of the cancel culture that won’t seize to disappoint
men, because at the end of the day those one star reviews are talking about something the
director Maïmouna Doucouré has no control over.
 Netflix should be more rigorous checking what is going to be posted on their own platform, if
they wish to maintain an image
People need to understand what the movie is about, before jumping in the hate train and give
the movie one-star reviews (similar issue with the last of us 2)
Netflix should start showing trailers of the movie that correctly represent the idea the director
Maïmouna Doucouré had when making this movie, this to counter the negative light in which
the movie currently finds itself in