|
Post by sgev1977 on Sept 15, 2020 15:19:23 GMT
Have someone read about the Netflix's Cuties controversy? It's clear that QAnon types are leading the charge but the worrying part is that it goes beyond them. I have seen feminists, progressives (most of whom are actually very conservative IMHO) and youngsters unironically calling the film child porn!
My main shock was that I watched the trailer before the initial poster controversy and thought it looked good then one or two days later I discovered people saying that if someone enjoyed the trailer was because their were pedos! A lot of people blamed exclusively Netflix for the awful poster (not very different to posters from a few mainstream American ugly dance shows with kids) but it was clear to me it was something beyond that and it was: the hypocritical mob was thirsty for blood!
Anyway, every film critic or random innocent who dares to say anything positive about the film is immediately accused of pedophilia by people who haven't actually watched the film! It's very creepy!
|
|
|
Post by queenzod on Sept 15, 2020 15:51:49 GMT
That’s the qanon influence, sgev. They’re seeing pedophiles everywhere, especially where they don’t exist. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that these people think Tom Hanks is a pedophile. Tom Hanks! Mr. clean cut, all American wholesome actor.
I don’t know what the world is coming to anymore. My country is going down in literal flames with a plague and our president is blaming exploding trees.
This is the problem with having lousy mental health care. People don’t even recognize mental illness anymore. It’s all just alternative facts.
Sorry, but I’ve been kind of upset recently. It’s all so mystifying and weird. My own mental health is failing and I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if trump wins another term. My brother wants me to move to England (he lives in London) and while I’d love to, it’s not any better over there. The UK is also rapidly falling into fascism & idiocy. And not that I could afford it, anyway. Things feel grim. 😔
|
|
|
Post by roverpup on Sept 15, 2020 15:57:23 GMT
I have just started looking into this controversy about "Cuties". And it does look like a LOT of opposition to it is from people with their own particular axe to grind - be it outraged SJW, Qanon types, or anti-feminist posing as feminists. And all sorts of "bandwagon" types, like the article in the DM that screamed about how the Obamas and Meaghan Markle and Harry haven't come out against "Cuties" so they should be castigated for their lack of vocal opposition to the project!
I haven't seen "Cuties" myself, so I can't speak to the film in particular terms, but philosophically I don't have any objection to the subject matter made by someone with a unique POV that could potentially add to an intelligent discussion of the issue ot is examining. The marketing campaign by Netflix was unfortunately poorly done (especially in this age of shallow examination burdened by an ever-expanding phenomenon of judging things simply by a glance or headline). They have apologized to the creator for it.
But cancel culture has taken hold of this and the damage is probably already done. Everything seems in hyperdrive nowadays. I hope Netflix holds its ground and keeps supporting this film.
|
|
|
Post by mllemass on Sept 15, 2020 15:57:24 GMT
I got such a headache reading comments by people outraged over the Cuties movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but it sounds like an important movie. I am amazed that so many people think that real-life girls don’t behave the way the girls behave in the movie. They need to spend some time with tweens to see just how impressionable they are and how easily they are influenced by what they see in the media. And if there isn’t much parental supervision, the girls don’t learn that the behaviour is inappropriate.
I remember when my cousin’s daughter was little, she was always drawn to outlandish behaviour. She herself was quiet and pensive, but you could see the wheels turning. She was watching older girls and memorizing what to do to shock people and get negative attention - when she was only 4 or 5 years old! Once, when she was around 12, they were watching some dumb reality show on tv, and I remember saying to her “You know that in real life, girls don’t hang around the house in skimpy underwear with their friends?” - but on that show, it was perfectly normal. Luckily, she was always surrounded by family to keep her safe.
The craziest thing about those people wanting Netflix to get rid of the movie is that they want everyone to cancel their Netflix subscriptions. They’re proudly posting screenshots of their own cancelled subscriptions. As many people have said, if they really want to punish Netflix, how about not watching the movie? If there isn’t an audience, Netflix won’t show it.
|
|
|
Post by roverpup on Sept 15, 2020 16:12:34 GMT
You're not alone QZ in your grim feelings. I fear for the same things and I just live next door! Thank god for the hockey playoffs - they're the only true distraction I have from the endless bullshit from the Trumpeteers! Dan's taken to listening to old speeches of Churchill and Kennedy to remind himself that politicians CAN be eloquent, inspiring and appeal to the better angels in us all.
|
|
|
Post by onebluestocking on Sept 15, 2020 18:53:30 GMT
I haven't seen Cuties, but did see the controversial poster, which looked just like tons of little girls at my son's dance school recital last year. After they got through all of the teens and tweens, I whispered to my husband during the kindergarten group, "it's nice to finally see some that don't look like they're twirling around a stripper pole." There was an auditorium full of parents that seemed to have no objection to it then.
If it's the guy I remember, someone posted a video of the incident, in which you can hear the autograph hound asking others to "stop pushing." Then BC refused to sign, because he was actually the one pushing. BC has a sharp eye and not much escapes him, I think.
Hadn't she written an unflattering and untruthful article about him, then acted like it was so surprising that he wasn't overly friendly. Was she the one who wrote the early bad review of the preview Hamlet performance?
The other person like that I remember, was the woman whose husband worked at a hotel in California. Alice Eve and BC were both staying there, and the husband wouldn't let AE in late at night without a room key or something, and she called BC to come downstairs and vouch for her. The woman said that BC was rude because AE hadn't been recognized, when he was probably just annoyed that they didn't have a better policy to confirm a guest's identity, than waking other guests in the middle of the night.
|
|
|
Post by sgev1977 on Sept 15, 2020 19:56:45 GMT
No, the one who wrote the review is another one! I understand she wasn't a BC's fan which it's not a sin (although it should be! 😉) but she was also not a fan of young women and even when she identity herself as a (Tory) feminist she posted on Twitter that she hated the idea of watching the play in company of female young fans. Some fans didn't like it and weren't very nice with her. They shouldn't had reaction like that. I don't remember death threats or anything extreme but it offended her enough to have someone else who also worked for the paper to ask for a ticket for the preview in exchange of a lot of money(I can't confirm both women were working together for the same "conspiracy" but I saw both tweets by co-workers and then well... she obtained her ticket). Then she saw the preview and against the protocol wrote a negative review of what it's considered a work in progress. Interesting enough the review centered on how they dumbed the play for dumb young female fans! Her main problem seemed to be the fans! Something I found bizarre! It was basically a fandom war (I think she preferred Harry Potter and I'm not even kidding! She apparently was a big Potter fan!)
Anyway, she caused a huge fuss because the review offended not just the Hamlet workers but the whole theater world. They found it very offensive so she kind of got in trouble. She first justified herself saying she knew the play's producers had some kind of deal with the press so in exchange of good reviews they could have access to the production (the director is very private and there were 0 interviews with her or the cast, including the main star. That's why the press mainly centered on fans and on attacking female fans during that period). That seemed to me a huge exclusive and I couldn't understand why a journalist, even if she was just a critic, would sacrify that big scandal and decided to just post a negative review that mostly affected her own career! That sounded pretty stupid! After writing another positive review of the actual run, she used other justifications. The one that worked better was that she was against to charge the same for previews as for normal functions. They did that as a part of a scheme to have cheap tickets during the whole run that they used to sell during the day of the show (BC said he wanted working class people and, especially, young people had access to the theater). Sonia Friedman admitted her guilt about it and kind of saved the reputation of the ridiculous lady! But she gave another interview about the issue when the fuss ended and she then claimed that she obtained a ticked at the last minute and went to watch the play with the idea of writing a negative review because she just hated that fans were acclaimed it on Internet! I think the interview was on The Stage and TBH they bothered me more than her (she was just pathetic!) because they didn't challenged her at all! They wrote the dumb thing she was saying as if that was ethical. But around that time, they also posted an interview with a mental ill man who compared BC fans to Syrian refugees and disable kids. Ridiculing all of them in a racist and ableist way, of course! He was accused by someone to his employers, a big London theater, apparently because he also used to harass random women on the street, take photos of them and post them on Internet with nasty comments about their physical. His employer questioned him about his social media behavior because well, he had the name of the theater on his bio; he quit his job and then went to the press saying that he, a poor man with mental health issues, lost his job because nasty Cumberbatch's fans! And of course, the press believed him without research his social media history because well, women are always the bad guys, doesn't?
|
|
|
Post by sgev1977 on Sept 15, 2020 20:28:16 GMT
I watched Cuties and well, it's not for kids but it's very obviously against sexualization of kids. I could understand if someone criticize some shots of the dances but as someone said, if Cuties have to go because that then also all those American mainstream shows about kids dancing should go with it. The difference is that Cuties is critical about that culture and the others are just reinforcing it.
Apart of the dancing, there are a few of scenes of the girls awkwardly and stupidly talking about sex. Clearly, they don't understand anything about it and they are just reproducing what they watch on Internet. And there is a scene that it would be a spoiler if I told you about it but it shows the extreme behavior the main character is capable to do just to be part of something different to her claustrophobic family life. The thing is I can name a lot of old American movies with much more extreme and disturbing scenes involving kids than those: Taxi Driver, Pretty Baby, Kids, Happiness, Mysterious Skin, Velvet Goldmine and Paul Dano's breakthrough film when he was just a teen, L.I.E. And that's just the arty films that in some case want to denounce but others just want to shock. Then you have the nice popular movies with questionable scenes that kind of indeed normalize sexualized child behavior in different degrees: Little Miss Sunshine (if we are worried just for sexy dances), Blue Lagoon (both versions!), The Professional or Leon, the Luc Besson movie (EDITED because I falsely said Besson married to two teen actresses. I was wrong. Milla Jovovich was a 20 something when they married so it was just Maiwenn who was 16 and pregnant when they married. According to her, Leon was inspired in their relationship. I was so innocent when I first watched it thinking it was just a cute as father and as daughter story! Years later it become obvious it was darker than that!) and Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.
The question is if Cuties is porn send to poor innocent Americans by evil Europeans via local pedophiles then what about all those much more disturbing movies?
|
|
|
Post by roverpup on Sept 15, 2020 20:56:40 GMT
Sgev, was this fellow you speak of ...
" But around that time, they also posted an interview with a mental ill man who compared BC fans to Syrian refugees and disable kids. Ridiculing all of them in a racist and ableist way, of course! He was accused by someone to his employers, a big London theater, apparently because he also used to harass random women on the street, take photos of them and post them on Internet with nasty comments about their physical. His employer questioned him about his social media behavior because well, he had the name of the theater on his bio; he quit his job and then went to the press saying that he, a poor man with mental health issues, lost his job because nasty Cumberbatch's fans!" ... the one that Amanda Abbington defended on her twitter?
I sort of remember something the "anti-Mary" Sherlock fans went absolutely nuts about on Twitter and it had to do with AA popping off about this guy and being angry he was canned. The fans were saying her support of this guy proved that AA hated BC!
|
|
|
Post by sgev1977 on Sept 15, 2020 21:27:55 GMT
Yes, the guy worked at a theater and he knows a few theatre people. He claimed she was a friend.
I think she was being harrassed by a few Sherlok fans at the time and for whatever reason she kind of identified them as just BC's fans, not Sherlock fans. There was also an article about her and her problems with BC's fans on The Stage! There were a lot of negative press against BC's fans at the time but I'm sure the ones that send her creepy messages and images were Sherlockers or whatever they are called and it was clear a few of them were also clinically ill. Anyway it's very clear nowadays that those who are still attacking her are all about Sherlock and Watson and that BC's fans are much kinder to her.
|
|