Netflix Cuties controversy explained: Why conservatives are obsessed with the movie.

Sparked by a promotional image featuring the movie s tween stars in revealing clothing and suggestive poses, the controversy around Netflix s Cuties has only grown as the film has finally arrived on the streaming service. Maïmouna Doucouré s first feature is, according to an interview with the French Senegalese filmmaker posted by Netflix this week, a deeply feminist film with an activist message. * It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the award for direction in the World Cinema section. But weeks after a petition charging it with being produced for the viewing pleasure of pedophiles garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures, the movie finds itself at the toxic intersection of QAnon delusion and right-wing moral panic, with a smattering of leftist outrage on the side. Brietbart has posted about the movie a half-dozen times in the past two days, singling out critics who praised the film, several of whom have received death threats and been harassed off social media. And Thursday night, Tucker Carlson made it a centerpiece of his show, accusing a nonspecific they behind the movie of wanting to destroy young girls.

Considering how few of Cuties attackers have actually seen the film, countering their criticisms with facts feels a little like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Those labeling it child pornography seem to have adopted a modified version of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart s adage: They know it when they don t see it. By definition, pornography requires intent, and whether or not Doucouré succeeded (and the reviews are divided on this point), her intent is clear. The movie s protagonist, Amy, is an 11-year-old bouncing between the repressive culture of her conservative Islamic upbringing, where she is warned that evil shows itself in the scantily clad women, and the hypersexualized env

via slate.com

It reminds me of a book that came out in the late ’60s I think, an illustrated version of the President’s Commission on Pornography. One could not help but harbor a bit of skepticism about its intended audience.