Netflix is still dealing with the fallout of the film Cuties getting targeted backlash, with the court case between the streaming service and Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin. Back in 2020, when Netflix released a vulgar and tasteless poster for Cuties, which they acquired from debut French director Maïmouna Doucouré, they unleashed an unwarranted firestorm upon her doorstep.
The film—which deals with the reality of young girls, and specifically the lens of a Black Muslim girl, growing up in a Western hyper-sexualized culture—was seen as promoting that kind of culture by people who never saw the film. Politicians like Ted Cruz used it as an example of child pornography.
People who defended the film, including BIPOC critics who actually saw the film, were called horrible names and accused of normalizing pedophilia. The internet did not allow Cuties to be what it is, and all sides, instead, used it as a punching bag for their other causes.
And that is still ongoing.
Babin charged Netflix for promoting child erotica, which, according to Yahoo, is “content that depicts children in a lewd manner, not to be mistaken for child pornography.” Netflix has asked for federal courts to intervene to stop the prosecution, arguing that Babin is knowingly pursing a case he will lose, in order to harass Netflix.
“It’s insane prosecutorial overreach,” says Duncan Levin, a former federal and state prosecutor. “He’s misusing the power of his office to chill free speech.”
The “child erotica” statute in Texas came about in 2017 as an attempt to cover things that are not included in the scope of child pornography laws. However, the statute was found unconstitutional under the First Amendment in another, unrelated case, which made the indictment no longer viable.
The Texas First District Court of Appeals concluded that the law is too broad. A teenager who takes a lewd photo of themself, for example, could hypothetically be found in violation of the statute. So could anyone who even watched Cuties. The court pointed to Babin’s indictment against Netflix as one of the bases for its holding. “As currently written, the statute could apply not only to Netflix, but to those persons who viewed the offending visual material,” reads the court’s order.
–Yahoo
Despite this, Babin has refused to voluntarily dismiss the indictment and is continuing to battle with Netflix over something that is very much not child erotica, even if it makes people uncomfortable. Babin added four new indictments suddenly on Thursday, and is not apparently taking issue with a scene that includes an adult woman briefly flashing her breast.
Netflix’s court filing says, “Despite previously telling Netflix that the First Indictment was not issued as a result of that scene, and despite refusing Netflix’s offer on October 9 to show that the actress in that scene was, in fact, an adult at the time, one of Babin’s New Indictments is based on facts that Babin knew or should have known were manifestly untrue.”
The case with Cuties has always been complicated for me. While we agree that “cancel culture” in the way the Right has framed it doesn’t really exist, the rush to judgement with righteous fury, regardless of facts, that can lead to the mental and emotional harassment of marginalized folks is real. Maïmouna Doucouré got death threats for this film, and audiences refused to engage with the film in good faith because they didn’t want to get called a name.
That’s a problem, and using state resources to pursue a dead case for clout, in the middle of all we are going through as a nation, is gross.
(via Yahoo, image: Netflix)
