ATLANTA — “Cuties,” is one of the recent releases on Netflix that has been met with backlash over its controversial storytelling about the lives of adolescent girls.
The film follows 11-year old Amy, a Senegalese Muslim who goes against her conservative family traditions as her growing curiosity about femininity upsets her mother.
According to Internet Movie Database, the film’s original title Mignonnes, means cute, little, petite in French.
The hashtag, #CancelNetfix began trending Thursday as more viewers learned about the film’s depiction of underage girls learning about their sexuality and femininity.
“#CancelNetflix under other, my reason for cancelling is "promoting and normalizing pedophilia. Not on my dime!!” one user wrote.
“I’m genuinely having trouble getting past how multiple adults approved having essentially child porn on their streaming service #CancelNetflix,” another user said.
Critics are pointing the finger at the popular streaming service and the film’s claiming the movie sexualizes children.
Users also went to YouTube to write their thoughts in the comments of the video.
“The fact that 40k people liked this is horrifying,” Deyna Renae wrote.
“I think every race, country, and religion knows this is wrong,” Michael Laber wrote.
Director Maïmouna Doucouré tells Netflix “Why I Made” that she wanted to do a story about how young girls deal with their self-image in the era of social media.
“Our girls see that the more a woman is overly sexualized on social media, the more she’s successful. And the children just imitate what they see, trying to achieve the same result without understanding the meaning, and yeah, it’s dangerous,” Doucouré said.
Netflix is standing on its decision to feature “Cuties” telling Variety that the film is a social commentary against sexualization of young children.
“It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up — and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie,” Netflix said in a statement to Variety.