As you’ve likely heard, Netflix recently announced that they would begin showcasing the film Cuties, a French film released earlier this year about an 11-year-old girl who falls in love with “twerking” against the wishes of her conservative (read sane) family. The film’s poster was so over the top in sexualizing young girls that Netflix had to actually drop the poster, although they will still show the film (at least as of this writing).
One of the first things that strikes me is that the girl in question is not from a French Catholic family (which surprises me, as France still has a lot of SSPX activity to demonize) but rather from a Senegalese Muslim family. Now, had the movie been about that same young girl falling in love with Mozart, Dante, or DaVinci, let alone converting to Christianity, it would be quickly denounced as “imperialistic” by the usual suspects. But, those same people think that it’s just stupid, prudish Americans who don’t understand “art” and this is from France (never mind that France is where Roman Polanski has found a safe home) – they could have just as easily made a movie about her learning how to play chess. Instead, they went with this because the normalization of pedophilia is next on the horizon.
It should also be noted that contrary to what many on the Right think, particularly those with a more libertarian bent, the reason this is being done isn’t because of money, but to further along the cultural revolution. If it was just about money, we would actually be better off. In that case, the film industry would actually change course when something bombed or received a great deal of negative feedback. Take Star Wars for example. When Disney acquired the franchise from George Lucas, they had an easy way to make money right in front of them – all they had to do was adapt the extremely popular expanded universe. Instead, they made Woke Wars and centered it on one of the most poorly written Mary Sue characters in film history, and that somehow manages to be worse than the prequel trilogy.
Yes, I said it. The prequels were bad, but at least they came from someone making a genuine misfire. The sequel trilogy ranges from desperate attempts at fan service and “girl power” talking points from a feminism class. The end results were cold and yet still preachy. At least the prequels came from someone wanting to do something different, but it didn’t work out. Conversely, Disney didn’t care whatsoever (from a creative perspective) – as it was never about making a good movie, it was always about injecting SWJ nonsense into Star Wars.
Before the 1960s, I do think Hollywood operated on a “profit first” mindset, and that’s why it was better for us. I’ve written before about the role the National Legion of Decency had in keeping Hollywood under wraps during those days, but another factor was Hollywood’s own model. During the Golden Age of Hollywood (late 1930s to early 1950s), most movies were actually aimed at women. Part of this is because a large chunk of the male population wasn’t watching many movies from 1941-1945, but even before and after World War II this same model existed. The film industry found out quick that if you made a movie aimed at men, they might bring a friend or they also may go alone. Women, by contrast, wouldn’t go alone. They would, at least, bring a friend or they might also bring a date, and if they brought a date then they would also bring a friend who would also bring a date. It was a matter of selling 1-2 or selling 2-4 tickets and because women at the time were largely trained that it would be unladylike to view something vulgar, this, along with the power of the local censorship boards and the threat of a Legion of Decency boycott, kept Hollywood in check because the industry was more concerned with their bottom line.
That world is gone now, and the industry has gone from being concerned with profit to now being used as a vehicle for endless cultural revolution. Netflix has received a lot of backlash for Cuties, but all they did was remove the poster. The film itself will still be streamed. By basically holding their ground, they’ve pushed “the line you don’t cross” further toward decadence and depravity. You and I both know that within a few years even something like Cuties will seem quaint and innocent by comparison to whatever is coming out in the future. And, it is not like this is part of some general expansion of free speech either – Gone with the Wind now comes with a disclaimer and will likely be completely purged in a few years. Even liberal Southern women like that book and film and it has plenty of fans, far more than Cuties, at least. So, while a classic film that portrays Dixie in a positive light recedes, disturbing trash like Cuties becomes more prominent.
It would be wrong to suggest that the film industry as a whole was ever rightwing, though at one time there was an effective counterweight (i.e. Walt Disney and John Wayne), but at least good old-fashioned greed could be used to restrain them. They knew that if they made something overly vulgar it would drive away the female audience they courted, possibly risk a boycott from the Legion of Decency, or even be blocked from playing by a local censorship board. Today, they don’t care. They know by promoting something like Cuties, even if the movie is a flop due to backlash, when they come back with something similar next time the push-back will be drastically less.
If greed was the issue, we’d be better off. Disney was willing to kill the biggest film franchise to ever exist in order to turn it into cheap feminist propaganda with horrific plots; bad Star Wars movies now outnumber the good ones. Greed makes sense to most people. However, the current agenda goes beyond that, and they’re just getting started.
-By Harmonica
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
Outstanding essay! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I don’t think it’s a lack of greed per se, or that the scum who make up Hollywood and the film industry don’t care as much about the bottom line as they once did; I tend rather to think that with essentially a worldwide audience (which didn’t exist during the good ol’ days of the Legion of Decency and its influence), they no longer have to worry s’much about bottom lines; that if they lose an audience here or there by creating this sort of trash, they’re able to just pick it up elsewhere and then some. This is also the situation with services and service providers in other areas as well. E.g., cell phone companies, cable and satellite t.v. providers, internet providers.
We no longer live in a world where we have any sort of influence over these things. “Voting with our money” or “voting with our feet” doesn’t work the way it used to to keep the worst scum imaginable from floating to the top. Which is not to say we shouldn’t do those things, just that by doing them – even en masse – we shouldn’t expect impossible results.
Too bad Ron Maxwell couldn’t finish his trilogy.