'Les Mignonnes', ‘Cuties’ in English, is a 2020 ‘coming-of-age’ film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré follows the story of an 11 year old girl and her fascination with the popular girls dance group. So far, it sounds like a typical coming-of-age meets tween drama film. 'Cuties', which had the potential to be an avant-garde film about social pressure, body image and the fantasy of sexual liberation in young girls turned into a film generally sexualising and commodifying young girls- children. While ‘Cuties’ has faced backlash, the writer and director stands by her intentions with the film and a screen critic supported Doucouré, claiming that the film was ‘explicitly designed to shock mature audiences into a contemplation of today’s destruction of innocence’. Whether this intention was fulfilled, is a question yet to be answered.
'Cuties' premiered and won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, but despite this prestigious award it has received more than 20,000 signatures in one day on Change.org (in August, 2020) to not be released the following month, arguing that it is ‘unsuitable for children’ (spoiler- the film was released). To me this is ironic, as the purpose of the film is to sexualise these 11-year-old school girls and to show them as ‘mature’ and ‘grown’. Yet, the actions of the child actresses in the film are themselves ‘unsuitable’ for viewing by children of the same age.
The movie itself is about Amy, an 11-year-old French girl of Senegalese origin who, as Netflix prefaced, is ‘fascinated with a twerking dance crew’ and in an attempt to join the ‘cuties’, the popular girls in school, she explored her own femininity and defies her Muslim families' ‘conservative’ traditions...at age 11. It’s strange to me, even if the film’s intentions are to critique the way society sexualises girls, to centre the story line on an 11 year old. Better yet, have her twerk and dance provocative in front of adult judges, a form of ‘sexual liberation’ in the eyes of the director. This entire film is surrounded by the false idea of liberation, attesting that girls as young as 11 (that’s before secondary school for those in Britain) are old enough to understand female sexuality and use it to their advantage. This makes me question, why are we obsessed with the idea that girls need to grow up finding their sense of femininity and why do we force girls to be exposed to the world where they are continuously sexualised? Surely, we would want to shelter girls, especially as young as 11, as long as possible from reality. I know, of course, this is not always possible in the age of social media, where we are constantly fed these images of women selling their sexuality for the purpose of entertaining men.
There’s nothing wrong with women being empowered and liberated, if anything that is the goal that women are trying to reach. But when social media reduces women, more importantly girls, to feel like their female sexuality is a commodity, and the price to pay to be acknowledged is their own body, this is when we cross the line from being sexually liberated to sexually repressed.
In the film, there’s a scene where the girls (5 girls, aged 11) sneak into laser tag and once caught by security, who threaten to call the police, their idea to get out of the situation is to dance. In an attempt to convince the two middle aged and, already perverted, security guards that calling the police could jeopardize their dance prospects, Amy twerks and is hyped up by her friends. The guards watch, and merely watching this myself on a screen makes me feel uncomfortable. Following this there are close up shots of the girls waists while they dance. This, in combination with the outfit choices and the fact that these girls are 11 gives the film an entirely different vibe to what it's, supposedly, trying to do. Later, Amy’s cousin is shocked to find that Amy stole his phone and, again, she tries to deescalate the situation by using her ‘sexuality’ on her own cousin. While her plan is quickly intercepted by the cousin who is generally disgusted by her behaviour (for context, the 11 year old begins to undress), the scene itself shows the opposite of what’s intended. This adds to the sexualisation of girls, broadcasting on a screen that girls feel their only escape route is through their body; a body that is yet to hit puberty.
‘Cuties’ tries to use faith, religion and Amy’s African culture as a reason for why girls feel they are hindered the chance to be sexually liberated. There’s constant hinting to Islam as condemning against women who are promiscuous and outwardly sexual and undertones that women from African (here, Senegalese) cultures reach ‘womanhood’ once they begin to cook, clean, child rear and do household labour.
While the film uses these tropes to speak truths about ways women are repressed for their femininity, merely rebelling against those who enforce these cultural norms through twerking in public and wearing inappropriate and little-to-no clothes is not the way forward for women’s liberation. Especially if those at the face of this movement are pre-teens.
To fully understand the disturbing nature of this film, you just have to watch it. There’s so much this film misses and nuances that aren’t addressed. If, as Doucouré argues, the purpose of this film is to critique the way society sexualises girls, creating a story where this exactly happens gives the opposite impression.
Comentários