Just watched it and trying to process. Thoroughly engrossing. Powerful depiction of early adolescents trying to make sense of sex, plus immigration and culture clash. Didn't see any of the ads - there are certainly shots of kids dancing in hyper sexualized fashion.

For this film, context is everything. It's a powerful argument for the importance of parents who are present and able to help kids navigate their burgeoning sexuality.

My concern is for the girls acting in the film. Apparently they are 13/14. How are they affected by the roles they're enacting, and by the sexual interest they're inevitably evoking? Who's helping them make sense of this use of their own sexuality?

In a way it makes me think of a production of Madama Butterfly in which the role of Cio Cio San's 4 yo son is played by a marionette. Very powerful, in part because there's no way you can use a real child to act out their mother's suicide. Whatever the cause of "art," you just don't put kids in that situation. Likewise with these girls.

Agree with PP, watch it before it gets pulled. And please don't prattle on about it if you haven't seen it.

Looks interesting, I’ll watch it before it gets pulled!

I just watched the dance scene clip and had to turn it off. It’s SO sad that these are 11 year old girls - and that their parents are encouraging them. Wow.

Anonymous wrote:I watched a number of scenes but when I saw the dance scene I was done. Unless the film plays it as being aware how inappropriate it was akin to Little Miss Sunshine's dance scene I can't understand how this made it this far.

Then again, Netflix is running The Kissing Booth, which to me reads as inappropriate between the two leads.

Methinks Netflix execs are calling it edgy and realistic when it looks a whole lot like a reason to put small young girls in sexual situations.

I can’t take any poster who would use the word “methinks” remotely seriously. A lot of the posts here seem like ‘80s Tipper Gore v Frank Zappa. How about you actually watch it before judging?

Not interested.
I would never even have known this show existed if not for my evangelical friends being appalled on fact.

I watched a number of scenes but when I saw the dance scene I was done. Unless the film plays it as being aware how inappropriate it was akin to Little Miss Sunshine's dance scene I can't understand how this made it this far.

Then again, Netflix is running The Kissing Booth, which to me reads as inappropriate between the two leads.

Methinks Netflix execs are calling it edgy and realistic when it looks a whole lot like a reason to put small young girls in sexual situations.

Anonymous wrote:Just finished watching the movie. As someone who has family in France and who goes there often, it was very relatable. The sexualized dance routine was just a small part of the movie. The main theme was how family dysfunction negatively affects young children, causing them to rebel against their family’s traditions, religion, etc. In this case, it was a young Muslim girl and the director was obviously going for the shock factor (and obviously it worked judging by the comments on this thread). Those saying it’s CP have obviously not watched the movie in its entirety.

+1. I don't even think you need a connection to France either to find it relatable. I thought it was a really well done movie about the lives of girls and adolescence shot from an obviously female perspective. The dance routine was really pretty minimal and again,. reflective of the culture girls are being raised in. I thought it was almost endearing how they were trying to sexualize themselves, but were actually pretty goofy and awkward. That's reflective of a lot of women's experiences as they are going through puberty and learning how to shape themselves for the world's view and particularly, the male gaze. As a woman, it was almost cute. Like you'd have to already be a gross pedophile who walks around in the summer looking for pre-teens in short shorts to find it really sexual and anything approaching "child porn." The pearl clutching seems entirely unwarranted to me. It sort of reminds me of when the movie 13 came out in 2003 and people FREAKED OUT.

Anonymous wrote:Just finished watching the movie. As someone who has family in France and who goes there often, it was very relatable. The sexualized dance routine was just a small part of the movie. The main theme was how family dysfunction negatively affects young children, causing them to rebel against their family’s traditions, religion, etc. In this case, it was a young Muslim girl and the director was obviously going for the shock factor (and obviously it worked judging by the comments on this thread). Those saying it’s CP have obviously not watched the movie in its entirety.

The few scenes I saw were very, very uncomfortable. No amount of context, narrative or morality jibberish can justify this.

Just finished watching the movie. As someone who has family in France and who goes there often, it was very relatable. The sexualized dance routine was just a small part of the movie. The main theme was how family dysfunction negatively affects young children, causing them to rebel against their family’s traditions, religion, etc. In this case, it was a young Muslim girl and the director was obviously going for the shock factor (and obviously it worked judging by the comments on this thread). Those saying it’s CP have obviously not watched the movie in its entirety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so totally disgusting. I saw some clips of it on twitter and yeah- it's basically CP. Gratuitous close up crotch shots of 11 year olds. I cannot for the life of me believe Netflix signed off on this. It boggles the mind.

Are you also fighting for the cancellation of child beauty pageants? As in, young children dressed and made up like adult women, dancing on stage for old men judges?

How is that relevant to this thread in any way?

You really should validate that those are undoctored shots from the movie; the close up could have been cropped videos themselves.

As for the movie, I’m not planning to watch, but I believe judging from the director and story around it that it attempts to be a critique, but I will let those who actually watch it speak to it.

Beauty pageants are exactly the kind of sexualization of even YOUNGER children that should be stopped. How dense can you be not to see that?

Make your own thread about it. No one is stopping you.

But that's not ACTUALLY what you care about, is it? You're just mad people are pushing back hard and disgusted by this CP. And you're trying to derail

But durr. the New Yorker said only dumb right wingers were offended. Its (insert overly academic word salad) art. Stream the CP, bigot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's so totally disgusting. I saw some clips of it on twitter and yeah- it's basically CP. Gratuitous close up crotch shots of 11 year olds. I cannot for the life of me believe Netflix signed off on this. It boggles the mind.

Are you also fighting for the cancellation of child beauty pageants? As in, young children dressed and made up like adult women, dancing on stage for old men judges?

How is that relevant to this thread in any way?

You really should validate that those are undoctored shots from the movie; the close up could have been cropped videos themselves.

As for the movie, I’m not planning to watch, but I believe judging from the director and story around it that it attempts to be a critique, but I will let those who actually watch it speak to it.

Beauty pageants are exactly the kind of sexualization of even YOUNGER children that should be stopped. How dense can you be not to see that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's clearly about the challenges of growing up as an adolescent girl in a culture that aggressively sexualizes young women while also depriving young women of any agency around their own bodies. I thought it was interesting to see this idea through the eyes of a Senegalese immigrant girl in a Western country that is not the US, and I also found the way the story explores Amy's relationship to her Muslim culture versus how she relates to the broader mainstream culture to be very thoughtfully done.

It's so dumb that this movie has received tons of negative attention just because Netflix messed up the way it advertised the film. It does not exploit young women. The opposite -- it is a story told from the point of view of a young woman that honestly addresses issues young girls everywhere have to deal with. It made me think a lot about how I responded to sexualized imagery and pressure as an adolescent in the 90s. Plus it's a critically claimed movie that won an award at Sundance, directed by a black woman. The "controversy" around it is dumb. Watch it.

This.

I remember being around that age. We were naughty, bawdy girls. All talk, but what talk it was! And dirty lyrics and crazy dancing. This seemed very realistic to me.

I will say the hyper sexual dances were gross but that is the culture we are feeding to our kids. This is more about how that affects girls. A critique of porn, not an attempt to make it.

LOL. You must have missed the zoom ins on the girls bottoms and crotches and chests. All while gyrating sexually. It's disgusting. This is not a critique in any way, shape or form- and you know that.

Anonymous wrote:It's clearly about the challenges of growing up as an adolescent girl in a culture that aggressively sexualizes young women while also depriving young women of any agency around their own bodies. I thought it was interesting to see this idea through the eyes of a Senegalese immigrant girl in a Western country that is not the US, and I also found the way the story explores Amy's relationship to her Muslim culture versus how she relates to the broader mainstream culture to be very thoughtfully done.

It's so dumb that this movie has received tons of negative attention just because Netflix messed up the way it advertised the film. It does not exploit young women. The opposite -- it is a story told from the point of view of a young woman that honestly addresses issues young girls everywhere have to deal with. It made me think a lot about how I responded to sexualized imagery and pressure as an adolescent in the 90s. Plus it's a critically claimed movie that won an award at Sundance, directed by a black woman. The "controversy" around it is dumb. Watch it.

This.

I remember being around that age. We were naughty, bawdy girls. All talk, but what talk it was! And dirty lyrics and crazy dancing. This seemed very realistic to me.

I will say the hyper sexual dances were gross but that is the culture we are feeding to our kids. This is more about how that affects girls. A critique of porn, not an attempt to make it.

It is disgusting, as are the depraved degenerates defending this crap.