Since the discussion in this is ongoing between multiple people & idk who to quote, I’ll just make this a general post not directed at any one specific participant of the discussion:
I haven’t watched
Cuties yet. I read some bits of the plot & thought, didn’t
Little Miss Sunshine try to depict the creepy hypersexualization of children in a somewhat similar fashion? The pageant scene made me cringe a lot, but the stark contrast between the pageant kids & Olive really drives home how creepy that whole ‘industry’ is, & how early on girls are encouraged to act in a sexual manner.
As a survivor of sexual abuse [from age 9 to 11] (&
only speaking for
myself, not other survivors) —around the same ages the girls in
Cuties are— the *portrayal* of the exploitation of kids doesn’t offend me, particularly when it’s making a point. Is it uncomfortable? Sure. It makes my skin fucking crawl. Will it upset people? I hope so. It
should upset people. It should make them recoil & feel something.
There is a difference between portrayal &
approval/support of something terrible like this, I think.
We ardently consume media where adults are violently raped on shows like
Law & Order: SVU (one of the longest running series on TV, mind you), sometimes even sexual situations with minors are described in unpleasant detail— by child actors. We gorge ourselves on all manner of violence in the arts— domestic/foreign terrorists, gangs, & assholes all sorts batter, shoot, & blow themselves & bystanders to bits in movies. We relish in superhero vigilante justice. We’ve got Family Size Buckets of torture porn like
Hostel &
Saw you can feast your eyes upon for days at a time. We devour scene after scene of mindless violence for sheer entertainment— not always even remotely for any educational or social value, or for the betterment of society. Just for fun. Hell, I love horror novels & films. I’m not knocking it.
...But a potentially accurate depiction of sexualizing children is hard to swallow?
Think about that.
Again, I haven’t seen
Cuties yet (I will try to tomorrow), & if there is toplessness of minors involved, yeah, that crosses into demonstrating vs portraying, & I’m not comfortable with that, since it does inherently expose minors in a way they aren’t old enough to consent to being exposed (however, some cultures don’t consider breasts sexual— wasn’t that what the Free The Nipple Movement was about, in part, at least?). But then again— don’t we have prepubescent topless female babies in diaper commercials? No one bats an eye. If you think pedophiles don’t pleasure themselves & fuel their sexual fantasies with those, you’re in serious denial.
Ultimately, I guess I’ll need to see this sort of thing in context first. But this is my general opinion when the masses are offended by such things ( another example:
The Professional sparked some outrage when a young Natalie Portman played a guessing game with an adult— At one point, after doing several celeb impressions, she donned a giant set of panties & bra [over her clothes] to imitate Madonna. A lot of folks freaking lost it). Little girls
do this stuff & don’t always see things the way adults do. I think it’s important to be aware of this stuff, & not pretend they don’t exist.
I’m no authority on any of this by any means— just sharing my own perspective on the topic as a whole. If my wording sounds absolute, it’s just the shade of my own subjective emotional experience & not necessarily an assertion of fact or judgment on others who may not agree. Take it or leave it.