A grand jury in Texas has indicted Netflix for promoting the French film “Cuties,” an explicit movie featuring little girls gyrating suggestively as they “twerk” their way through a dance competition.
The court in Tyler County, Texas, has charged Netflix with “knowingly” promoting a film that includes “the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, one of a host of lawmakers who had called for Netflix to be investigated over the film, tweeted out the news along with a screenshot of the indictment.
Netflix, Inc. indicted by grand jury in Tyler Co., Tx for promoting material in Cuties film which depicts lewd exhibition of pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 yrs of age which appeals to the prurient interest in sex #Cuties #txlege pic.twitter.com/UJ1hY8XJ2l
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) October 6, 2020
The IMBd description of the French film, originally titled "Mignonnes" and which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, explains that the lead character “Amy” – an 11-year-old girl played by a likewise 11-year-old actress – bucks her strict Muslim family’s values when she “joins a group of dancers named ‘the cuties' at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity.” The film includes scenes in which the children gyrate and touch themselves on stage in front of a crowd of adults, one scene in which a little girl takes photos of her own genitalia and posts them online, and multiple close-up shots of the girls chests, rears and crotches.
The original promo picture, for which Netflix has since apologized while still airing the movie itself, features the little girls striking highly sexualized poses in crop-tops and boy shorts.
Multiple lawmakers, backed by hundreds of thousands of disgusted social media users, have called for Netflix to be investigated for promoting child pornography.