Atta Girl, give em hell Tulsi!

[IDVikingfan]

Excellent tweet by Tulsi!  Can I hear an amen?!  Why are the presidential candidates not condemning this?
      
twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1304587833584226305

[Guest]

Sometimes I wonder if these people have even seen the movies they're criticizing. I heard about the controversy and watched it last night with my 13 year old. It's very much an ANTI-exploitation film.

But I do have to say, what they have those kids do on camera to make their point is disturbing. But not more so than those ridiculous child beauty pageants that have been going on for decades. 

Oh, and it's also not a very good movie. 

[Guest]

Hmmm. I'd say that I respect her viewpoint, but her thoughts are a reach and hyperbolic. The movie, from what I've heard from people who have seen it is its much ado about nothing. I'll wager Tulsi has never watched the movie. But the movie poster is gross for sure. 

[Guest]

I have not seen it but was not impressed with the pictures.  Have read posts by mothers that thought it was way over the top.  I personally don't condone sexualization of young girls and applaud the effort.  YMMV

[Guest]

@IDVikingfan said:
Excellent tweet by Tulsi!  Can I hear an amen?!  Why are the presidential candidates not condemning this?
      
twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1304587833584226305

.... probably because most people have never heard of it. When was the last time there was an uproar, a US twitter uproar at that, over a French film?  I'd guess that even if the candidates had heard of it, the level headed ones aren't carving out time to watch it during this time of chaos. And considering the argument, it would seem best to watch it and issue an educated perspective instead of weighing in without full context.

And yes, I do agree that the marketing is horrible.

This article shares the perspective of the film maker.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/06/909753465/cuties-calls-out-the-hypersexualization-of-young-girls-and-gets-criticized

The French film, Cuties, is being praised for its critique of the hyper sexualization of young girls - and the consequences of that - as they rush to become adults in the age of social media.
It began several years ago when filmmaker Maimouna Doucouré was at a neighborhood gathering and her jaw dropped. A group of young girls in revealing outfits came out on a stage and performed a choreographed routine.
Doucouré says they couldn't have been more than 11 years old.
"And they were dancing very sensually, sexually and I was very disturbed about what I was seeing."
But instead of passing judgment, the self-taught writer and filmmaker says she wanted to understand what she was seeing. She dove into research, interviewing more than one hundred adolescent girls over the course of a year and a half.
"It's a period [that's] very specific," Doucouré says, "where you are not any more totally a child and you are not an adult. You are looking for yourself and everything is changing very fast."
Doucouré combines her findings with elements of her own upbringing in her first feature length film, Cuties.
It's about what it means to be an adolescent girl in the age of TikTok and Instagram, where 'likes' have become the currency of self-esteem and keeping kids away from anything on the Internet is near impossible.
The film is told from the perspective of 11-year-old Amy who, like Doucouré, is the daughter of Muslim Senegalese immigrants growing up in northeast Paris.
Amy is unimpressed by the traditional path for women laid out by the matriarchs in her family.
As her strict Grand-Aunt tries to groom her to become a wife and mother, Amy watches her own mom struggle to hide tears when she gets a call from her husband in Senegal. As is tradition for many men there, he's taken a second wife.
To escape the drama playing out at home, Amy befriends a group of popular girls at school who have formed a dance troop called 'Les Mignonnes' or 'the Cuties.'
Amy spends hours nailing down choreography to provocative music videos so she can impress her new friends.
Filmmaker Doucouré says social media adds a layer of complexity to what it means to be an adolescent in 2020.
"Today you have that exposition of your body on social media," Doucouré says, "and you also have this big competition of finding 'likes' and followers and that is for me a new kind of finding love."
The film provokes many questions, but doesn't provide many answers. And that's the intention, says French film critic Jennifer Padjemi, who says it's also important that Cuties was made by a woman who comes from the same background and culture as her characters.
"It's really important to have more coming of age movies in France in general and not with only white casts," Padjemi says, "because its important to represent children of every background because even if we live the same way we don't have the same cultural path and its really important to see this specific age between childhood and teenage-hood and I hope Maimouna open[s] the door for other movies like this."
That door almost didn't open.
Even though Cuties has received widespread acclaim in France and won a Sundance award, a publicity gaffe from its US distributor, Netflix, almost cost the movie its reputation.
After Netflix published a marketing poster showing the 'Cuties' twerking in revealing cheerleading outfits without any context, an online petition calling for the cancellation of the US release received more than 140 thousand signatures.
Doucouré was accused, on social media, of being a pedophile and even received death threats.
She says she hopes those who signed the petition will watch the film.
"And after that, they will see that we have the same fight and we are all together about that issue of hyper sexualization of our children and protect our children."
In the end, Doucouré says her film is about a choice.
"The choice [of] who we want to become, who we want to really become and as a child, take the time to be a child. Keep that innocence to grow up in our society."

[Guest]

Judging a book by the covers, makes it a lot quicker for a group burn them.  When my daughters were young they did these weekend long dance recitals, like 5 shows, they were painful to watch, but they had a great time.  The costumes and the makeup were absurd, we used to joke about dressing them up like little fishing lures.  But they sure got into it, giving roses and gifts and acting all grown up, yeah it was uncomfortable to see them dressed that way, glad they never pursued it.  We were just looking at the pic's and laughing about the one's of when my youngest was going through her tomboy phase and insisted on having the same haircut as her brother, she used the term drag queen to describe it.  Haven't watched it, but am sure that's not what it's about, so I guess I won't watch it. I am sure there is a way to make it perverse, kinda what my wife and I think about beauty pageants for kid's or the Miss America pageant.  Wasn't there some controversy about one of the promoters walking in to the dressing rooms of underage contestants unannounced or something, no one got to put out about that.

[Guest]

Hmmm, guess I'm just an old fashioned relic of a different day.  Glad I don't have any granddaughters

[Guest]

@Nichelle said:

@IDVikingfan said:
Excellent tweet by Tulsi!  Can I hear an amen?!  Why are the presidential candidates not condemning this?
      
twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1304587833584226305

.... probably because most people have never heard of it. When was the last time there was an uproar, a US twitter uproar at that, over a French film?  I'd guess that even if the candidates had heard of it, the level headed ones aren't carving out time to watch it during this time of chaos. And considering the argument, it would seem best to watch it and issue an educated perspective instead of weighing in without full context.

And yes, I do agree that the marketing is horrible.

This article shares the perspective of the film maker.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/06/909753465/cuties-calls-out-the-hypersexualization-of-young-girls-and-gets-criticized

The French film, Cuties, is being praised for its critique of the hyper sexualization of young girls - and the consequences of that - as they rush to become adults in the age of social media.
It began several years ago when filmmaker Maimouna Doucouré was at a neighborhood gathering and her jaw dropped. A group of young girls in revealing outfits came out on a stage and performed a choreographed routine.
Doucouré says they couldn't have been more than 11 years old.
"And they were dancing very sensually, sexually and I was very disturbed about what I was seeing."
But instead of passing judgment, the self-taught writer and filmmaker says she wanted to understand what she was seeing. She dove into research, interviewing more than one hundred adolescent girls over the course of a year and a half.
"It's a period [that's] very specific," Doucouré says, "where you are not any more totally a child and you are not an adult. You are looking for yourself and everything is changing very fast."
Doucouré combines her findings with elements of her own upbringing in her first feature length film, Cuties.
It's about what it means to be an adolescent girl in the age of TikTok and Instagram, where 'likes' have become the currency of self-esteem and keeping kids away from anything on the Internet is near impossible.
The film is told from the perspective of 11-year-old Amy who, like Doucouré, is the daughter of Muslim Senegalese immigrants growing up in northeast Paris.
Amy is unimpressed by the traditional path for women laid out by the matriarchs in her family.
As her strict Grand-Aunt tries to groom her to become a wife and mother, Amy watches her own mom struggle to hide tears when she gets a call from her husband in Senegal. As is tradition for many men there, he's taken a second wife.
To escape the drama playing out at home, Amy befriends a group of popular girls at school who have formed a dance troop called 'Les Mignonnes' or 'the Cuties.'
Amy spends hours nailing down choreography to provocative music videos so she can impress her new friends.
Filmmaker Doucouré says social media adds a layer of complexity to what it means to be an adolescent in 2020.
"Today you have that exposition of your body on social media," Doucouré says, "and you also have this big competition of finding 'likes' and followers and that is for me a new kind of finding love."
The film provokes many questions, but doesn't provide many answers. And that's the intention, says French film critic Jennifer Padjemi, who says it's also important that Cuties was made by a woman who comes from the same background and culture as her characters.
"It's really important to have more coming of age movies in France in general and not with only white casts," Padjemi says, "because its important to represent children of every background because even if we live the same way we don't have the same cultural path and its really important to see this specific age between childhood and teenage-hood and I hope Maimouna open[s] the door for other movies like this."
That door almost didn't open.
Even though Cuties has received widespread acclaim in France and won a Sundance award, a publicity gaffe from its US distributor, Netflix, almost cost the movie its reputation.
After Netflix published a marketing poster showing the 'Cuties' twerking in revealing cheerleading outfits without any context, an online petition calling for the cancellation of the US release received more than 140 thousand signatures.
Doucouré was accused, on social media, of being a pedophile and even received death threats.
She says she hopes those who signed the petition will watch the film.
"And after that, they will see that we have the same fight and we are all together about that issue of hyper sexualization of our children and protect our children."
In the end, Doucouré says her film is about a choice.
"The choice [of] who we want to become, who we want to really become and as a child, take the time to be a child. Keep that innocence to grow up in our society."

The key to this is in the first sentence. Consequences. In order for art and literature that portrays bad behavior to work as didacticism, there must be consequences. Otherwise it's just glamorization. And there are consequences in this movie. 



 

[Guest]

The posters give different messages. One gives a different message of what the film is actually about and the other one is not about grabbing attention in a negative way. The American poster is very damaging to the message. It distracts and takes away from the issue at hand. It has a different connotation. The French poster is more in line with the actual movie. It is not trying to be overt or inappropriate. If you look at the two posters, you would think they are representing two different movies.

[Guest]

I'll just leave this here.
To say this is terrible is an understatement...


https://twitter.com/SummerMauney/status/...66631?s=20