It's funny how Cuties focuses most of it's attention on dancing and how it influences girls
You know what? All this discourse has reminded me of something.
About nine years ago a video went viral of two little girls who were probably no older than six singing “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. It blew up so much that the girls actually got onto Ellen where they did it again.
And weirdly enough... nobody saw issue with that. Not once during this year-long stretch of viral fame did anybody stop and go “Hang on... WHY THE FUCK ARE TWO SIX YEAR OLDS BEING ALLOWED TO LISTEN TO NICKI FUCKING MINAJ SONGS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”
They weren’t singing a tame song. It’s a very sexual song, and it even has the N-Word in it. We can argue Minaj’s merits as an artist until the cows come home, but it’s pretty obvious that children should not be listening to her work.
And yet they are. In fact when I was a kid, the artists everyone was listening to were the most horny, aggressively mysogynistic scumbags I’ve ever fucking seen. The music industry has been hornier than a busload of weebs for years and it’s only getting worse.
And we never question that. Sometimes we fucking celebrate it, all the while just letting that material fester in the minds of children. If this were any other medium, it wouldn’t get away with this kind of crap. We filter this kind of material from the view of children in most other mediums, but I’ve rarely ever seen parents crack down on what music their kinds are listening to, especially as music videos gradually become more and more of a recorded table-dance.
When cartoons get aggressively horny, it’s criticized. When video games get aggressively horny, it’s mocked and belittled. When a film is as horny as a music video, you have to verify your age to buy it and deal with the same if you’re ever seen by another human being.
Music? We never see a serious, sustained criticism of just how obsessed with sex the music industry has gotten. Sometimes its obsession with sex is celebrated. And we have no measures in place to actually make it harder for kids to see this stuff.
We wonder why preteen girls are under so much pressure to sexualize themselves and then turn around and applaud the people responsible for it.
There’s a smaller bubble like this among reality television. You guys remember Alana Thompson? Honey Boo Boo? That kid who got her own show after going viral on Toddlers and Tiaras?
You guys know why that show went off the air? Because Alana’s mother was in a relationship with two pedophiles. And admitted to it. And that surprised people, as if the kind of person who would put her child in a fucking toddler pageant would end up being an accessory to pedophilia was a surprise?!
No, everyone was too busy mocking a seven year old for the crime of being a victim of clear and obvious abuse.
Toddler Pageants still go on all over the US and nobody bats a fucking eye at it. Toddlers and Tiaras itself ran for seven years, with only minor controversy when a mother stuffed her daughter’s shirt. People only got mad because someone revealed the whole shitshow for what it truly was.
This is an actual fucking problem. And for all the furor people are giving this one film... nobody’s talking about how we got to this point in the first place. Nobody’s talking about the actual problem. They don’t want to have the uncomfortable discussion about a cultural poison that they’re complicit in.
I call this “Performative Bloodlust.” People will foam at the mouth over how much they think pedophiles should die, but they’re very selective in what they consider “pedophile” to actually mean. When a Youtuber preys on kids they make excuses for them. When a convention deals with child pornography, talking about that is “drama.” When a TV show exists that is really just a socially acceptable way for people to prey on kids... nobody says a fucking word.
A black woman makes a film to talk about these things and Netflix releases a squicky poster... well NOW y’all are chomping at the bit.
Well hey, I just gave you a whole bunch of things to be mad about. Ya gonna take it?
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
areudirty
