WEBVTT - Cuties Movie QAnon Controversy Explains Our Current Moment 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.360 Welcome to another episode of Internet Hey Machine. I am 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.360 so excited to be joined my producer Sophie. Sophie, thank 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:09.000 you for being here. How are you. I'm well, Bridget 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:10.799 I am always happy to be here. How are you? 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.840 I am doing well? And I am super excited to 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:16.720 get into this topic because it's a topic that I 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.080 It's one of those things that I talk at my 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:21.479 friends about and they're like, we get it. You have 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.400 big feelings about this, so I'm excited to actually do 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.600 a podcast about it. It's been a long time coming. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.240 That's my That's honestly my favorite type of things where 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.519 you have like a dinner party or you're with your 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.120 friends and you go on a random tangents about something 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.040 in you and then you make it. You make it 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:43.440 work exactly. I'm very guilty of that. Oh my god, 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.479 so many things. My friends are like, why don't you 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:47.440 don't do have anybody else who could talk to about this? 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.479 We get it? You're like, yeah, all the people that 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.320 subscribe to listen to me talk um ever heard of 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:58.279 a podcast? Cool bro. So if you were on the 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.800 internet at all in a you probably remember the backlash 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:05.600 against the film Cutie's It was all over social media 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.000 and the Internet, in part because it kind of got 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.920 glamed in with the whole save the children thing and 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.400 the whole quan On conspiracy thing that, as you'll probably know, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.880 have really plagued our online discourse and are still with 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.240 us today, like they really haven't gone anywhere, even though 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.800 they might be out of the headlines. Yeah, the whole 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.039 other a whole couple of shows about that. Yeah, you 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.560 know all about it, the way that the ways that 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.959 it can be so insidious, and the ways that things 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.080 can really be taken out of context to become evidence 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:45.240 of this grand conspiracy around Quanan and child predators. So 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.880 I really think the situation around the movie Cutis is 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.040 kind of a case study of all the different ways 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.680 that online rhetoric can become weaponized because it has so 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.760 many of the textbook hallmarks of bad actors hijacking a conversation, 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:00.960 and I think it reveals a lot about how messed 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.080 up our online discourse has gotten and the ways that 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.320 it can be weaponized against marginalized people, specifically to undermine 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:11.080 and exploit the very thing that it is supposedly championing, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.400 in this case, protecting children. Something to keep in mind 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.760 is that a common tactic of bad actors is to 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.760 hijack a sensitive conversation, you know, one that takes a 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.200 little bit of nuance or thoughtfulness to discuss properly, and 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.320 create an uproar around it that conveniently aligns with some 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.160 kind of preconceived political grievance. And that is exactly what 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.200 happened with the movie Cuties. I also think it's one 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.040 of those things where, you know, I guess I would 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.079 be willing to bet that the majority of people raising 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.800 an issue about the film have not actually even sat 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.440 down and watched it to know exactly what they're raising 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.960 an objection over. Well, yeah, I mean, bad actors never 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.959 do their research, oh never, And I think they rely 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.720 on other people like not doing their research or like 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.959 being a cat like low information folks. Where's like, I 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.200 don't I've not seen the movie, but you're telling me 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.040 that this movie is, you know, the work of a 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.120 child predator. So I guess I'll believe that. You know, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.160 I think that they're counting on people doing that. Do 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.280 you remember do you remember that phase of Twitter when 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.840 they were like do you want to read the article 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.440 before you share it? I will say I remember when 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.639 Twitter rolled that out and it did get me a 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.480 few times where I'm like, damn, I probably should read 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.360 it right, Like I'm even as somebody who makes content 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:35.840 about missing disinformation, I am not immune to sharing something 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.200 quickly before I've really given it a read through. And 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.280 so it's a good reminder that we could we could 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.200 all be a little bit better about the source material 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.160 before commenting on the source material that we're that we're 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:50.920 responding to. Absolutely, that's exactly what our own I'm like, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:52.680 did you did you? Did you read that? Do you 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.520 want to read that before your shirt? And it's like, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.800 you know, like fair enough, robot. Um, I'll get right 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.960 on that, thank you, fair enough robot. So the movie 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.680 Cutie's is, I should say, very much in line with 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.760 my own personal interests. I am a movie person. I 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.280 love movies. I love French cinema specifically and specifically French 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:17.960 Senegalese cinema. I have a thing for I am a 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.520 sucker for any kind of coming of age film about girlhood. 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.320 You know your Crooklands, your fish tanks, your thirteen love 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.080 them all. If that's a if it's a movie about 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.159 a young girl becoming like figuring out girlhood or like 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.480 young adulthood. I am in and I also grew up 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.000 doing dance squads and like dance teams, which I have 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.880 to say, like growing up in the South, sometimes those 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.200 dance squads were a little bit questionable, I can I 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.440 can admit that. And so when Cutie's premiered, which is 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.039 a movie about a young French Senegalese girl coming of 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.159 age who was involved in dance, I was super super 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.520 excited to see it. I saw it immediately, like before 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.600 it was on Netflix. I had already seen it um 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.680 And so this is not men to be like a 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.200 review of the movie. There are some spoilers. I will 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.480 try to warn folks beforehand if you're planning on watching Cutie's, 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:08.840 which I think that you should because I do think 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.520 it's a worth bold movie. But I want to get 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.040 into the conversation about what exactly happened with the uproar 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.640 and backlash around this film. Cutie's is a French film 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.279 by director Mimona do Say. It tells the story of 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.280 a coming of age story of Amy, a Muslim Senegalese 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.800 eleven year old in France. It opened at the Sundance 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.640 Festival to rave reviews, accolades, and awards before being acquired 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.800 by Netflix. The plot revolves around an eleven year old 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.760 girl named Amy. Amy's mom and aunt want her to 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.080 be sort of chased and modest and girlish, but she 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.880 ends up meeting this group of cool girls who are 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.720 all on a dance team together. So Amy finds herself 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.279 kind of caught between these two worlds, the traditional chaste 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.159 world represented by her mother and aunt and Islam, and 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:00.279 this cool, secular, grown up world represented by these cool 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.200 girls on the dance team at her new school. So 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.039 Cute's Explorers. These common themes that most coming of age 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.479 films deal with, you know, family and drama, feeling alienated 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.760 from your family, wanting to fit in and be cool 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.920 and grown up your first period, vying for likes on 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:21.400 social media, and sexuality. This was the director Deuceray's first film, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.279 and she said that she saw a bunch of young 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.520 girls dancing on stage in Paris, scantily clad and revealing clothing, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.280 who were dancing in front of a crowd, and it 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.000 got her curious about the way that society confronts and 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.480 deals with the budding sexuality of girls. So she spent 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.039 a year researching and interviewing preteen girls about their experiences 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.880 and how they felt in society, and that became the 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.040 movie Cuties. She wrote a version of herself as an 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.880 eleven year old um to be the kind of stand 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.800 in for the main character Amy. The film premiered at 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:57.839 Sundance with zero controversy until it was acquired by Netflix. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.919 Before A Cutie's was even least for American streaming audiences 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.720 on Netflix, Cutie's first generated controversy when Netflix put out 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.200 a poster for the film. So I'm going to keep 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.040 in mind is that it is a textbook staple of 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:16.840 things like conspiracy theories or mal information, where it will 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.640 be based on an actual nugget of truth. And so 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.120 what it's absolutely true here is that Netflix made a 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:28.960 very very bad decision about the poster for the film Cutis. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.120 The poster that they released shows the girls who were 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.720 all like eleven or twelve, posing provocatively in their very 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.560 skimpy dance team outfits, and honestly, like that image is 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.840 not even really representative of the entirety of like what 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.160 the film is about. And it needs to be said 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.080 that the poster that Netflix used is very different from 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.200 the one that was used when it first premiered at 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.240 Sundance before being bought by Netflix. Um So Bridget has 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.640 a screenshot of the two different film post. I thought 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.200 you were showing me two different movies, Like I thought 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.800 there were two different films. Um they look you, they're 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:12.600 not even there's no correlation exactly right. And so the 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.880 French version that that they used when the movie first 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.360 came out on Sundance has these girls they're shopping. They're 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.480 like wearing age appropriate regular clothes and they're like they 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.280 look like little girls right, Like it's like it's like 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.520 an age appropriate cover. One one reads like fun coming 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:37.839 of age, and one reads like dance moms toddlers in trs. Yes, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.920 and I think like the Netflix poster, the girls who 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.600 are quite young are in these provocative poses. It's very 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:51.440 dance moms. Like as I said, I mean for better, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.880 for for whatever it's worth. Growing up doing dance team 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.120 and dance groups. These are outfits that we would have 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.120 worn like like I'm I'm not going to act like 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:03.920 this is like beyond the pale for what little girls 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.800 will will sometimes where in dance teams or pageants, whether 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.120 or not, it's like good or bad or right or 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.400 wrong like that. It's it's fairly common. It's not something 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.480 that is totally beyond the pale in our culture. No, 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.800 absolutely not. But the freeze frame of the dance moves 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.200 that I think they're doing there, like like their mid 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.559 move the poses are are are very matures, what I'll say, yeah, 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.960 very mature. And so right away people had the exact 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.880 same response that you just had, and they seized on 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.440 this film that wasn't even out yet because of this 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.880 pretty gross poster that was not really representative of the film. 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.320 I believe that had Netflix not made such a big 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.199 error in how they promoted and marketed this movie, we 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.360 wouldn't even be making this episode. I don't think, like 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.720 I don't think that if they had used the original 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.400 French movie that's like Girls Coming of Age, like totally normal, 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.240 that we would even have seen the kind of controversy 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.960 that accompanied the film. So Netflix apologized for the poster 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.720 and importantly to the filmmaker, and I actually have to 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.080 give Netflix the tiniest bit of credit here. Amidst the 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.400 backlash around the poster, Netflix made it clear that that 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.960 poster was entirely They're bad, you know, they could have 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.559 made a big show of cutting ties with the filmmaker 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.640 publicly and like blaming her. We've seen we've certainly seen 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.599 brands do that before where they're just like, oh, controversy, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:32.760 better blame this black woman. But they didn't do that. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.800 I will. I will give them that Netflix bare minimum, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.680 bare minimum like way to like do a little Netflix 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:48.440 co ceo Ted Sara donuts. I'm probably saying that wrong, Ted, okay, Uh. 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.920 Netflix co CEO Ted Saradonus was said to personally called 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.640 Docerae to apologize and to talk to her about, you know, 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.439 potential new projects on Netflix that she could do um 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.200 and the filmmaker said that she felt like that was 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.120 genuine like she she responded very gracefully, and she was like, 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.600 I think that they genuinely felt bad and that they 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.240 were giving me like a genuine apology, but the damage 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:16.600 was already done. Yeah, too little, too late. So Cuti's 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.720 is a film that I believe is trying to present 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.480 like a complex portrait of the pressures that young girls 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:29.120 feel around facing their own kind of budding sexuality. But 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.839 because of that poster, the internet hate machine, fueled by 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.880 a combination of right wing grifters, shitty elected officials, and 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.440 Instagram quan on influencers that target women. That whole thing 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.480 that do say was trying to do was completely lost, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.720 and instead the film was branded as a Netflix's attempt 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:52.560 to groom children, normalized pedophilia, and in some cases said 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.600 that the film was actually child sexual abuse material or 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.000 like child pornography, and people were just saying that Netflix 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.719 was harming children. They blamed the filmmaker personally, like if 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.560 you google the filmmaker's name, some of the first things 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.679 that like auto complete are like did she go to jail? 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.440 Was she arrested? And I think that gives you a 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:18.679 sense of how personalized this particular smear that she harmed 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.520 children with this movie became. What's really said is that 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.720 this director had nothing to do with that poster. She 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.000 told Deadline. I discovered the poster at the same time 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.959 as the American public. I didn't understand what was going on. 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.559 That was when I went and saw what the poster 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.800 looked like. I received numerous attacks on my character from 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:40.920 people who had not seen the film, who thought I 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.720 was actually making a film that was apologetic about hyper 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.360 sexualization of children. I received numerous death threats, and so 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.600 you know, I've seen this film. I actually like enjoyed it. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.000 But whether or not you like this film, or whether 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.920 or not you think it accomplishes its goals of exploring 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.200 the dangers of the hyper sexualization of children and girl else, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.600 I think it's pretty clear what she was trying to 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.120 do with this film. Maybe you think she didn't accomplish that, 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.560 maybe you think it didn't meet his schools. Fine, but 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.760 like to say that she was making this film to 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.839 exploit and harm girls, it's just not correct. No, it's 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:21.400 just another example of like the worst people on the 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.880 internet pulling the finger and putting blame on a black 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.439 woman exactly, Like I don't I guess we'll never know, 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.800 But I don't think had she been a white woman 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.080 from Ohio that there would have been the same level 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.079 of scrutiny and controversy from this movie. Like, I think 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.720 that something about her was inherently other and made it 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.640 really easy for folks to jump on the bandwagon of, 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.679 you know, attacking her for being somebody who puts children 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.600 at risks. So she published a piece in The Washington 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.360 Post about the film, and she writes the stories that 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.320 the girls that I spoke to that they shared with 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.680 me were remarkably similar. They saw that the sexier woman 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.160 is on Instagram or TikTok, the more like she gets. 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.120 They try to imitate that sexuality in the beliefs that 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.560 it would make them more popular. Spend an hour on 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.920 social media and you'll see preteens, often in makeup, pouting 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.480 their lips, shrutting their stuff as if they were grown women. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:17.960 The problem, of course, is they are not grown women, 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.000 and they don't realize what they're doing. They construct their 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.560 self esteem based on social media likes and the number 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.720 of followers they have. Some people have found certain scenes 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.680 in my film uncomfortable to watch, but if one really 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.560 listens to eleven year old girls, their lives are uncomfortable. 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.320 Here's the director of talking about it for a segment 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.240 called Why I Made Cuties from Netflix. Our girls see 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.920 that the more a woman is overly sexualized on social media, 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.520 the more she's successful. And the children't just imitate what 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.360 the c trying to achieve the same result without on 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:58.640 this term the meaning and yeah, it's zangerus. Can I 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:03.160 just say this woman is it? She's gorgeous. She's gorgeous, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.480 and like the she just oh, such a cool person. 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.080 I'll get into this in the end. But luckily this 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.760 did not like her career is going to be fine, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:15.200 Like this is not. We we have not heard the 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:19.160 last of her. She's fantastic. So I think there is 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.960 definitely a conversation to be had about whether or not 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.840 the film accomplishes the goal of really showing the pitfalls 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.160 and dangers of sexualizing young girls. I love the film. 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:30.480 I think it does a great job and think it 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.680 hits close to home. However, we didn't really get to 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.480 have the conversation about the film it's merits whether or 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.160 not in it, she's its goals. What actually happened instead 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.040 is where it was like a voltron of bad actors 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.360 from various backgrounds coming together for one goal. You know. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.200 It was your typical right wing drifters, save the children, 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.840 influencers and elected officials all coming together to say that 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:58.960 this film was evidence of the elite in quotes, grooming 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.240 kids and support ing pedophilia. This then turned into the 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.400 claim that the film itself was child pornography made by 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.840 a French black pervert, lifestyle influencer and Q and on 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.440 conspiracy theorist Rebecca Peiper or better known as love Beck, 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.160 who at the time had a hundred and sixty Instagram 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.640 followers before her account was deleted, posted don't believe pedophilia 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.000 is a rampant problem and don't believe the elite support it. 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.040 How the hell does a show like this and make 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.840 it to a major streaming network. Formerly one of the 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.280 biggest q and on accounts on Instagram, a little miss 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:38.560 Patriot posted that cuties proves that Netflix promotes pedophilia, and 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:43.640 she posted this in like that kind of pretty pastel 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.160 instagrammy kind of carousel grid post, and I have to say, 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.960 as a side note, it really calls into question those 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.920 Instagram accounts that will use like a pretty carousel grid 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.160 posts on Instagram to educate you, because let's keep it real, 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.680 like anybody can get a canvas subscription and say whatever 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:06.160 they want just because it's a pastel, pretty Instagram carousel 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.520 post doesn't mean they're actually saying something that is correct 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.240 and true. So conspiracy theory started pushing the hashtag cancel 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.399 quti's campaign, telling their followers to boycott Netflix by pulling 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.800 their subscriptions, and it seems like it actually had an impact. Antenna, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.840 which is a data analytics firm that tracks Netflix subscribers 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.120 reported a quote meaningful spike in the rate of people 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.840 cutting subscriptions shortly after the hashtag cancel Netflix went viral, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.440 and another analytics firm, yipp it Data, also reported that 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.600 in mid September, the churn rate, which is this the 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.159 rate of people who cancel subscriptions in the United States, 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.320 rose materially as the result of the Cuties backlash. Days 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.760 after the hashtag went viral. Yippit Data said that unsubscribes 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.640 are running at nearly eight times the daily levels observed 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.919 in August and reached a multi year high. And I 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.240 had to say, like, even though Netflix publicly did stick 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.639 by Doucerae when this was all happening, there are reports 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.320 that they suppressed the film on their own platform as 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.560 a result of this controversy. According to an interesting report 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.760 by The Verge, Netflix removed Cuties from its Coming Soon 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.199 and popular searches categories, and that it was excluded from 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.400 searches that include the words cute. This is actually probably 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.960 a responsible tweak that they made to their algorithm. The 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.800 Verge report also says that Netflix adjusted its algorithm so 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.040 that search queries such as steamy or sexual movies did 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.440 not surface any children's films, and that Netflix also made 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.960 sure that problematic search terms such as petto did not 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:43.600 surface Cuti's because their algorithm actually takes into account behavioral data. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:45.800 So if you're somebody who was like, I want to 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.359 watch this movie that everyone is saying is like a 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.720 pedophile movie, if you type in petto, ordinarily it would 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:54.800 have brought up the movie that everyone is typing in 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.840 petal then clicking cutis for. But that they tweaked their 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:59.720 algorithms so that wasn't the case, so and that in 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.199 that instance, I actually feel like that might have been 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.679 a responsible choice. But it does seem clear from this 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:09.639 report though, that Netflix did seek to suppress promotion and 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.199 related search queries for Cuties, And I just feel like 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.040 it's pretty shitty for this first time filmmaker that her 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.719 debut film was suppressed on the platform that acquired it 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.800 for reasons that were entirely not her fault, like a 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.800 whole campaign around her film that she had nothing to 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.679 do with. And I think that this that her and 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.320 this project seemed like they both personally took the fall 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.359 for Netflix as bad marketing with that poster and this 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:42.119 completely disingenuous campaign built on a lot of lies and 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:51.760 half truth was about her and her film. So I 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.840 actually have a really hard time believing that anybody who 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.080 was making claims about the film being you know, exploitative 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.119 to children actually watched it all the way through because 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.080 much of what is floating around the Internet about the 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:10.920 film or either outright just lies or completely out of context. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.760 So I want to talk about what actually does go 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.800 down in this movie versus how that was represented online. 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.480 So there's gonna be a spoiler here. So if you 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:22.880 are planning on watching this movie and you don't want 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:28.440 it spoiled, there's a spoiler here. So social media accounts 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.240 is pretty big, followings posted like parents warnings and parents 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.919 guides that got a lot of traction online that contain 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.360 lies or that takes some of the scenes out of context. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.040 For instance, one viral parents guide that I think denis 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.159 to sues every posted says the film contains nudity of 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.919 a minor, and that is just not correct. The only 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.639 nudity in this film is a very brief scene of 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.359 a bare breast, and it's the bare breast of someone 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.000 who is meant to be an opposing dance team member 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:02.080 as she's getting changed. Um within the universe of the film, 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.480 my senses that the audience is like meant to understand 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.679 this particular woman whose bare breast is shown as a 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.000 bit older, Like it's not it's not like she is 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.520 meant to be a very young like an obviously very 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.679 young character. There's a scene where like there someone is 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:20.639 changing and they see part of her bare breast, and 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.000 it's meant to be like a cool older girl, not 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:27.600 a child. And the actor herself was eighteen at the 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.240 time the movie was filmed, and so it's just a lie. 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.280 The actor whose bare breast is shown for a second 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.800 in that movie, not only is she in the film 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:41.439 meant to be older, she herself the actor is also 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.480 of age. And so there is no child nudity in 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.000 this film of any kind. I saw so many viral 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:54.080 posts online suggesting otherwise. Another pretty obvious misrepresentation in the 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.920 film is that in a parents guide they say, there's 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.640 this salacious scene in the film that an eleven year 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.399 old girl all and tight leather pants has her pants 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.359 are pulled down and the camera zooms in on her butt. 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.240 And so this is a this this is a really 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.560 interesting one because it really shows how bad actors will 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:16.359 take this nugget of truth and completely explode it and 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:20.320 take it out of context. What actually happened is my question, 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.920 because I just know they're they're out here full cap. Well, 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.080 I can tell you bull cap Okay. So again spoiler. So, 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.800 in the movie, Amy is shown as being less financially 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:32.760 well off than the rest of her friends, and so 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:34.840 there's a scene where she's trying to look older than 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:39.639 she is by borrowing her friends like very cool leather pants. 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:42.800 While she's wearing these pants, trying to say, like it's 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:46.520 so unbelievably normal, totally like didn't you do that ship 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:51.840 when you were kid? Yeah, I mean everyone everyone. It's 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:56.119 like so infuriating that that's what they're Okay. So, in 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:58.880 the movie, she gets into a fight at school and 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.840 her her leather pants are accidentally yanked off of her, 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.439