The panel of ABC News’ “The View” found a rare topic they could all agree on Thursday when addressing Netflix’s controversial “Cuties” movie, saying they feel the film sexualizes young girls but arguing the streaming service should not be boycotted as a result.
“Cuties,” written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, focuses on a group of 11-year-old girls who form a twerking dance group, much to the chagrin of one character’s very conservative Senegalese family. The film has been widely criticized for sexualizing young girls, resulting in calls to boycott Netflix and the hashtag #CancelNetflix trending on social media.
“My first problem with this is the cancel culture of this… the boycott. ‘Boycott Netflix, cancel Netflix,’ I don’t know how we went from not just disagreeing about a film, or talking about a film and having different opinions to ‘cancel the whole streaming service,’” co-host Sara Haines said.
“I appreciate [Doucouré’s] intent and her attempt at doing what she did, which is to showcase how we sexualize young girls,” Haines continued. “As a mom and a viewer, I think she missed the mark and ended up sexualizing the girls, but I don’t think was her intention.”
Meghan McCain agreed that she isn’t a fan of cancel culture and admitted she hadn’t seen the film.
Netflix is catching backlash for its film “Cuties.” (Netflix)
“I’m a big fan of arts and I hate censorship, and I agree that we’re down a slippery slope culturally in this way, but I have been listening to experts, and one expert is actually Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, who used to work in the San Francisco child abuse sexual assault unit, and she tweeted, ‘This hypersexualizes girls to the delight of pedophiles that I once prosecuted. Please take this down, Netflix.’”
McCain then said “filthy old men” who reviewed the film have admitted they found some of the young cast members attractive.
“I don’t think we need to give the world a reason for disgusting pedophiles and perverts to sexualize young girls,” McCain added. “I just found the trailer gross.”
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Sunny Hostin started watching “Cuties” but couldn’t make it through.
“I didn’t enjoy the movie, and I don’t agree with the term ‘cancel culture,’ as all of you know, I think it’s more about consequence culture, and there are consequences when you have a film like this. You can just not watch it, which is what I decided to do. I just turned it off,” Hostin said. “I certainly have a problem with sexualizing young girls and that is a problem in our culture.”
Hostin agreed with Haines that “Cuties” missed the mark but said the film is “art” even if you disagree with it.
“I don’t think anyone needs to see a young girl twerking to get across this message, but I also don’t think that you need to, sort of, cancel Netflix,” Hostin said. “I also don’t think that it is child pornography.”
‘CUTIES’ MOVIE SPAWNS TRENDING HASHTAG #CANCELNETFLIX
McCain then pointed out the same type of people who called for “Baby It’s Cold Outside” to be taken off the radio because of its sexual lyrics are defending “Cuties.”
“The messaging across the board about… what’s OK in America is very confusing,” McCain said.
Whoopi Goldberg feels that “Cuties” is hardly the only thing that sexualizes children in America.
“Maybe the conversation is that we have to change how our dolls look, we have to change the kind of costumes we buy for kids, change what a bathing suit looks like and start the conversation from there,” Goldberg said.
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Hostin then read a statement about Netflix previously apologizing for the film’s original poster, which showed four young girls in dance poses and sparked social media backlash.
In a statement to Fox News last week, a Netflix spokesperson said: “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children. It’s an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up – and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.”
Fox News’ Tyler McCarthy and FOX Business’ Evie Fordham contributed to this report.
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