Cuties and Successful Critique vs. Mere Replication

The French poster for Cuties

The film Cuties is, quite literally, all the rage. It is all over social media. News outlets continue to churn out opinion pieces. Is the film exploitative? Part of some evil pedophile agenda? Or a successful critique of the sexualization of young girls?

Having watched the film, I cannot be left out. My verdict: Cuties ultimately fails as a critique of exploitation by being exploitative itself. In this sense the film imparts an important lesson. Namely, that exposing exploitation and violence through recreation merely replicates the exploitation and violence. A critique should find a way to undermine the exploitation to give back agency to its subjects.

It should be made clear from the outset that Cuties does not seek to exploit girls. Everyone that claims otherwise is likely willfully misinterpreting the film or has not seen it. As director Maïmouna Doucouré describes the film: “The main character in the film is an 11-year-old girl called Amy whose family, like mine, came from Senegal and lives in Paris. Frustrated by her mother’s failure to take control of her own life, Amy decides to seek freedom by joining a clique of girls at school who are preparing to enter a local dance contest and design increasingly risque routines copying what they’ve seen on their phones. The girls don’t have the maturity, however, to realize what…