Defending the Indefensible: With “Cuties,” Yet Another Boundary Falls
Over the last few decades, the sexual revolution in America has pushed the boundaries of what is morally acceptable quicker than what could have been anticipated. One after another, the boundaries fall, the norms are torn down. The latest example comes directly to the homes of the nearly 73 million Americans that subscribe to Netflix in the form of the new movie, “Cuties.” “Cuties,” originally released as “Mignonnes” in France, is a fictional film about the supposed sexual awakening (and dangerous sexualization) of pre-adolescent girls. The main character is brought up in a traditional Muslim home and finds herself struggling between two different modes of womanhood: the traditional values in which she is raised and the hyper-sexualized values of Western culture seen on the internet. The film has seen extreme backlash from the right and the left for inappropriately sexualizing the young actresses in the film. But one very troubling dimension of this controversy is the defence of hyper-