This article includes clips of young children dressing and dancing sexually.
At a time the left has declared that “silence is violence,” Michelle Obama’s silence on Netflix’s controversial movie “Cuties” has not gone unnoticed. It is also undermining her brand as “America’s mom” and chief defender of female empowerment across the globe.
No one should doubt the considerable power former first lady Michelle Obama wields within Netflix or the unrivaled cultural influence she has to speak out in defense of preserving girlhood and innocence. Sadly, however, Michelle has a troubling history of celebrating, rather than denouncing, the sexualization of popular culture and of elevating artists who contribute to the pernicious cultural trend of equating stripper culture with female empowerment.
In 2018, Barack and Michelle Obama penned an eye-watering $50 million deal with Netflix to produce content for the popular subscription streaming service that would “promote greater empathy and understanding.” Michelle Obama is also the founder of the Global Girls Alliance, an “Obama Foundation” initiative to “empower girls.”
With close friends like Ambassador Susan Rice on the Netflix board of directors, it is not unreasonable to assume that Michelle could have stopped “Cuties” from airing, scolding executives for duping her when she joined the Netflix family and proudly declared it “a natural fit for the kinds of stories we want to share.” At the very least, she could have expressed public outrage over the film’s hyper-sexualized depictions of 11-year-old girls or even Netflix’s original promotional art for the film, for which they eventually apologized.
But she didn’t. Nor did her Hollywood friends. When “#cancelNetflix” started trending on Twitter, the corporate media and Hollywood celebrities jumped to the film’s defense, insisting that the disturbing images of prepubescent twerking and simulating sex were justified or even necessary to convey the film’s message about the dangers of sexualizing youth culture.
Unfortunately, this message was undermined by Netflix’s provocative advertising campaign, as well as the director’s inexcusably inappropriate camera shots, which were rightfully deemed fodder for pedophiles. Lila Rose, a pro-life advocate and campaigner for children’s rights, excoriated Netflix, “You don’t fight child exploitation by exploiting children.”
You don’t fight child exploitation by exploiting children. You don’t stop child pornography by creating, selling and distributing child pornography.#CancelNetflix
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) September 11, 2020
Matt Walsh, a writer and influential conservative cultural observer, said, “My guess is that this is a ‘commentary’ on child exploitation in the same way that a movie like “The Purge” is a commentary on violence. That is, it really just exhibits what it wants to comment on, and most of the audience is there for the exhibition, not the alleged commentary.”
My guess is that this is a “commentary” on child exploitation in the same way that a movie like The Purge is a commentary on violence. That is, it really just exhibits what it wants to comment on, and most of the audience is there for the exhibition not the alleged commentary.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 20, 2020
Of course, Netflix is just a small part of a much bigger sickness plaguing American culture: the sexualization of popular culture. In the age of social media, pop culture inevitably infects youth culture, robbing children of their innocence and childhood at earlier and earlier ages.
Pornographers and tech companies escape the watch of parents and prey on our children through their devices. Today, the average age of first exposure to pornography is 11 years old and getting younger.
Since “#cancelNetflix” started trending, Netflix has lost a whopping $9 billion in market share. Meanwhile, reality television shows like “Dance Moms” slip through cancel culture unscathed, despite depicting similarly provocative dance moves and outfits by even younger girls. The show, a real-life “Cuties,” has been running for an impressive eight seasons, embedding itself comfortably into our cultural ecosystem.
TLC’s former hit TV show “Toddlers and Tiaras,” which followed the lives of child beauty pageant contestants and their families, is another disturbing example of the normalization of sexualizing kids. Children even younger than the ones depicted in “Dance Moms” dress in highly provocative outfits and perform in ways that are unnatural for a child.
In one episode, three-year-old Paisley catwalks to the theme of the movie, “Pretty Woman,” wearing a mini replica of the thigh-high boots, crop top, short shorts, and wig that Julia Roberts wore as a prostitute in the film. Every child has a natural instinct to imitate, and it should never be exploited for the entertainment and enjoyment of adults.
Recently, superstar rap mogul, Cardi B, a former stripper who admitted to drugging and robbing her clients, released the No. 1 hit song “WAP,” meaning “Wet A-s P—y,” with Meghan Thee Stallion. The heinously lewd song and the even more revolting and graphic music video inspired countless TikTok videos by young girls singing “WAP” and emulating the provocative dance moves of the music video.
@ody__so i tried doing the wap dance👹i didn’t even know she knew it♬ WAP（feat. Megan Thee Stallion） – Cardi B
While the song and video garnered intense criticism from conservatives, it was fiercely defended and glorified by the left, and even affirmed as “a prime example of progressive womanhood and modern femininity.” One black writer even blasted criticism of WAP as racist, pronouncing, “Critiquing ‘WAP’ as degrading, dehumanizing art is a camouflage for critiquing Black womanhood as a problematic expression.”
Even Joe Biden’s campaign elevated the barely literate Cardi B, granting her a coveted Zoom interview with the reclusive former vice president.
Candace Owens, a prominent black conservative, was the lone voice in the black community questioning the wisdom of giving someone like Cardi B such a prominent platform. Michelle Obama, on the other hand, was silent.
It’s not entirely surprising since Michelle Obama tweeted this after watching Beyoncé’s 2013 halftime performance — you know, the one where she emulated a stripper and moms across the country were forced to field uncomfortable questions from their kids.
The Obamas have consistently lent the prestige of the president’s office to Beyoncé, showcasing her prominently at numerous high-profile White House events as an American treasure, including singing at the 2008 inaugural ball and at their second inauguration ceremony.
Beyoncé has long eschewed her once wholesome image for a soft porn one, complete with pole dancing and the annoying gyrations that pass for dancing in this artless age. They’re the same kind of gyrations and lascivious moves that the little 11-year-old girls in “Cuties” copy and practice, fruitlessly attempting to achieve the “empowerment” superstars like Beyoncé promise will come from publicly displaying their body and sexuality.
Beyoncé’s influence and impact on her littlest fans was best captured in 2010, when a group of seven-year-old girls danced to Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies.” The video, which garnered more than 10 million views on YouTube, is a perfect illustration of how formative hyper-sexual pop stars are on impressionable young minds and how normalized it has become in our raunch mainstream culture.
Beyoncé and Cardi B are part of a puzzling and pernicious third-wave feminist cultural trend that equates stripper culture with female empowerment. Elevating celebrities who traffic in this cultural sewer to the status of role models, as the Obamas and Biden campaign have, to win votes and cultural cred, explains so much of the child sexualization the film “Cuties” so misguidedly tried to portray. Sex sells — in music and in politics.
The truth is that despite her failure to do so in the past, Michelle Obama has the cultural influence, platform, and power to make real progress in the fight to reclaim girlhood and childhood innocence for America’s children. And not just at Netflix. She has powerful friends in Hollywood, the music industry, big tech, and fashion. Not one of these culture-makers would refuse her call or spurn her efforts to make artists and companies more accountable for what they do to sexualize children.
And they could affect real change. After all, Michelle and her Hollywood buddies are the same social justice warriors who convinced HBO to slap disclaimers on Academy Award-winning classic films like “Gone with the Wind” and successfully browbeat corporate America into sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter and other groups who are funding the protests and riots breaking out across the country.
Four years ago, first lady Michelle Obama joined a social media campaign called “#BringBackOurGirls” to raise awareness of the kidnapping of Nigerian Christian girls by Muslim terrorists. Maybe it’s time for Michelle Obama to lend her fame, massive fortune, and cultural influence to bringing back our American girls from a dangerous, hyper-sexualized culture that preys on their innocence and exploits them — a culture that lies and sells sex as empowerment robbing girls (and boys) of their God-given right to just be kids.