When we speak in platitudes about the hardships and the bullying faced by tween-aged kids in school, we might speak about encouraging self-confidence or goal achievement. But, in Maïmouna Doucouré’s sharply observed Cuties, about an eleven-year-old girl steering full bore into a new version of herself—a version apart from the idea of womanhood offered by her family—we are reminded that kids’ goals are often not in their own best interest. The bullies are mean but the bullied would give anything to become them, the most potent example of power and outward confidence they have to look up to. Still, Cuties reminds us, this misguided ambition is difficult—and potentially damaging—to try and discourage.
It’s Amy’s (Fathia Youssouf Abdillahi) first day at her new Parisian elementary school when she encounters the Mignonnes, or Cuties, a quartet of outgoing popular girls who have started their own dance troupe with the aim of taking on an older, Instagram-famous team of dancers. The Cuties’ brand of budding femininity is instantly more appealing to Amy than the life planned for her by her Senegalese family and community where “learning to be a woman” involves preparing the meal for her father’s upcoming wedding to his second wife (polygamy, not divorce), the news of which has made Amy feel even more disconnected from her home life.
Cuties‘ most outrageous but most indispensable element is the highly sexualized behavior of its core cast of children. At first, all the pouts and gyrations and bare midriffs seem like pure comedy. But, even though it continues to be funny, the humor gains a darker edge as we come to understand how this particular brand of precociousness represents a dual-edged freedom. The girls’ move toward more assured self-expression is a positive but one worries about the healthiness of understanding sexiness before understanding sex.
Doucouré is as ambivalent about her character’s maturation as she is about their friendship. When Amy and head Mignonne Angelica (Medina El Aidi) lounge in bed, talking about their families, their bond is so tight that they’re even twirling their hair together. Female friendships of any age tend to be stronger and more intimate than those of boys and men but, at an age when insecurity is at its max, the slightest betrayal or rough patch can tear these girls apart devastatingly.
In its nonjudgmental empathy and its comedy of discomfort, Cuties is a tad reminiscent of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, though with an even younger lead. But Doucouré distinguishes her film with touches of magical realism–a dress that seems to change and swell in anticipation of Amy’s puberty; possibly sentient confetti; an airborne game of jump rope–that make Cuties thrillingly unique.
That is exactly why it is a “thing”. Our so called betters are pushing the sexualization of children as “normal” because of the very large number of pedos among the so called Elite. By the time people who have been asleep to such things wake up to this, these elites & 80% of Hollywood as well hope to have desensitized Americans to pedophilia to such an extent regular folks wont be revolted to much and call for all of their scalps..
I don’t think it has been the elites who watched cable TV shows such as DANCE MOMS, with 10 to 12 year old girls in skimpy outfits performing risque dance routines week after week.
Or the 12 to 14 year old girls paraded on stage by their own mothers on the MURRAY POVICH SHOW on network TV in the morning hours. They would be attired in the scantiest of outfits, and then queried about their sexual activity while Mr. Povich, their moms, and the audience feigned shock and outrage.
Go and watch the Jr. high cheerleaders at many high schools, especially in Texas, Florida, and California, if you want to see tiny outfits and sexualized dance routines. There is a major problem alright, but it is widespread and right in your own backyard.
Is polygamy legal in France?
From what I’ve read, it’s criminalized there, although I don’t know how much enforcement there is.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be off the books.
– David
The only people that will watch this will be pedos and scumbags. How is this even a thing? My godz
That is exactly why it is a “thing”. Our so called betters are pushing the sexualization of children as “normal” because of the very large number of pedos among the so called Elite. By the time people who have been asleep to such things wake up to this, these elites & 80% of Hollywood as well hope to have desensitized Americans to pedophilia to such an extent regular folks wont be revolted to much and call for all of their scalps..
I don’t think it has been the elites who watched cable TV shows such as DANCE MOMS, with 10 to 12 year old girls in skimpy outfits performing risque dance routines week after week.
Or the 12 to 14 year old girls paraded on stage by their own mothers on the MURRAY POVICH SHOW on network TV in the morning hours. They would be attired in the scantiest of outfits, and then queried about their sexual activity while Mr. Povich, their moms, and the audience feigned shock and outrage.
Go and watch the Jr. high cheerleaders at many high schools, especially in Texas, Florida, and California, if you want to see tiny outfits and sexualized dance routines. There is a major problem alright, but it is widespread and right in your own backyard.