After watching Cuties on Netflix I’m convinced that enough people didn’t watch the movie before deciding to cancel Netflix. It wasn’t as bad as social media made it out to be and it inspired me to write this post. Now, you may or may not agree with me and that’s fine, but I hope some of what I noticed stick with you.
I have an 11-year-old daughter that loves to dance and just started middle school, Bree. If you know us, you know she is a dancer..and I’ve caught hell for the clothes she dances in. When I saw the clips floating around Facebook I was like “What the hell, ohh this is too much!” When everyone started screaming cancel Netflix I decided I’ll watch it first and I’m glad I did. It was way deeper than the over-sexualized clips that are circulating on the internet.
There were so many issues that I cared less about the sexual dancing and more about how can we be more supportive of our middle schoolers. Okay, let’s take it back what happened in middle school? Our bodies started to change, we became curious about things, we gained a little independence, we started to feel ourselves (not literally), we had poor attitudes, our parents couldn’t tell us anything, we wanted to just grow up, and we wanted to fit in with our peers. I don’t know about you, but I was so impressionable in middle school.
Have you met a middle schooler in 2020, they can be some of the cruelest people you ever met. Now, imagine going to a middle school where you are culturally different and probably have less than your peers, how do you feel? Probably shocked and out of place. You see in many movies the clique of girls that everybody wants to be friends with, that was what Amy in the movie wanted, friendships with the “popular girls”. Well, long story short they bullied the hell out of Amy until she conformed into their minion. All the freaky dancing was a very small portion of the movie. It was about 6 minutes out of 2 hours.
Let’s talk about the real issues at hand now. The real issue was:
- Their parents got caught up in their shit and stopped paying attention.
- They were navigating their way through middle school facing all types of issues and nobody noticed.
- One child was bullied, got her head busted, and her mom never noticed. She was also doing most of the housework and taking care of her siblings. All she wanted was to be a child.
- The other girl’s parents worked 24/7 and had no time for her. They constantly told her she was a disappointment so she started seeking attention from elsewhere.
- The other girls were simply followers.
- They had nothing else to do so they entered a competition and learned how to dance from social media (sound familiar, because a lot of our kids are learning how to dance from TikTok).
The struggle to be accepted is real, and like it or not a lot of children go through it. In middle school, children learn and see all of the things you try to shelter them from. They tease children who are different. Most children sneak and do the things their peers are doing. You either play by the rules or you’re an outsider, but either way, you leave out of middle school different than you came. So, either you’re going to raise your children or their peers will in middle school.
Like it or not the movie is very relatable for middle school children. Now, is it a mature movie? Yes, so I don’t recommend you let your child watch it alone, it requires conversations and redirection.
Instead of canceling Netflix, let’s have conversations about the desperate need to be accepted. Let’s be honest with children so they are prepared for the real world. Let’s not abuse our children when we notice them changing and misbehaving, but instead get to the root of the problem. Please pay attention to your children, limit their social media time, be present, teach them how to establish boundaries, respect their No’s so they aren’t afraid to say no, let them be children, be supportive, stop dumping and taking your adult issues out on them, and most of all get therapy if you need it.
All I know is canceling NETFLIX ain’t it because the movie is really powerful.
Opinion written by Desha Jones