The film "Cuties" on Netflix is getting a ton of attention lately. I made the mistake (maybe?) of engaging in discussion about it on social media.
The main issue that I have with those that are riled up about the show is that people are equating what the creator of the film did with what pedophiles do. Pedophiles normally take advantage of children that are what most would probably consider vulnerable. That might mean that the child is too young to know better or might be developmentally delayed. I don't know for sure, but I hope that the creator of the film fully informed these young ladies and got parental consent.
I have appreciated Netflix for taking on social issues head on. This one certainly seems to be the hottest of them all. What I find very interesting is that people are complaining about this one because they were "too young to consent" all while the American Circumcision documentary included an infant that definitely did NOT consent to having a large portion of his genitalia removed in full view!
How old should someone be before they should be allowed to consent to dancing provocatively? I'm not going to try to draw a specific line, that's not what I'm interested in here.
The film, like so many others that have graced Netflix, was designed to get people riled up about a social issue. I imagine the hopes was that doing so would get people to do things to address it. For instance, I hope more parents pay more attention to their children and all adults responsible for adolescents (teachers too) do more to properly educate those children so they are less vulnerable.
There are also the claims that it provided more material for pedophiles to take advantage of. With that logic, we should remove all murder shows that give people ideas about how they might commit the perfect murder.
Just like I believe that it is not ethical for a doctor/butcher to only provide information to parents that lead them to believe that there are only benefits to cutting off part of their child's genitalia, I also believe that what pedophiles do is unethical.
