Controversial Netflix film “Cuties,” led to a huge spike in U.S

The firestorm over controversial Netflix film “Cuties,” which led to a huge spike in U.S.  customer cancellations following its debut earlier this month, burned out after a few days, according to new data.
A campaign waged against Netflix over “cuties” and the film’s sexualized portrayal of children produced a surge in U.S. subscription cancellations over the weekend, according to research company YipitData.
Netflix’s cancellation rate in the U.S. jumped to nearly eight times higher than the average daily levels recorded in August 2020 — reaching a multiyear high, the data-analytics provider told Variety. With the #CancelNetflix hashtag continuing to trend on social media, it is possible elevated churn could continue in the coming days, according to the firm.
 “Cuties” tells the story of an 11-year-old Senegalese girl living in Paris who struggles to find her identity, torn between her family’s Muslim traditions and her peer group’s attempts to emulate the sexualized personae of women as portrayed in Western culture and on  social media.  The film includes scenes of the protagonist, Amy, performing highly sexualized dance routines with the Cuties dance crew and shows the underage characters in other adult situations – and, predictably, a backlash ensued.  That caused the hashtag “#CancelNetflix” to trend on Twitter following its Sept.  9 release worldwide on the streaming service.

Netflix defended that cuties is written and directed by French filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, calling it a “powerful story.” The production had a counselor on set and the project had received approval from the French government’s child-protection authoritie.
“‘Cuties’ is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a company rep said in a statement earlier this month. “It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up — and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.”
Doucouré has repeatedly said that the purpose of her film — quite the opposite of promoting a view of children as sexual subjects — is to show the world through the eyes of young girls and shine a spotlight on the problem of social media encouraging children to assume hyper-sexualized identities.