Streaming Black girlhood: biculturality, nostalgia and hypervisibility in Cuties

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe era of streaming services and online distribution of independent films have offered more varied representations of the African Diaspora than were previously available through traditional media. Within this context, Maïmouna Doucouré’s acclaimed 2020 film, Cuties, presents a poignant and nuanced, yet controversial representation of Black immigrant biculturality, girlhood, and puberty. In this essay, we engage with Cuties through the lens of nostalgia as an escape from uncomfortable realities. Set in France, the film centres the immigrant experience. The protagonist Aminata (Amy), a French-Senegalese preteen, witnesses her mother’s sadness at her husband’s impending wedding. Amy embarks on a journey of body agency and rage that demonstrates her navigation between cultures. We critically engage with how Amy disrupts her mother’s and community’s immigrant nostalgia: a longing and idealizing for the culture of their homeland in opposition to the dominant culture of their adopted country. We also examine how the U.S. release of Cuties on Netflix got caught, perhaps unintentionally, in the crosshairs of a U.S. culture war. The marketing for Cuties presented a sexualized, feel-good depiction of the girls in the film which distracted from Doucouré’s true aim of depicting the rage of girlhood and the negative influences of sexualized popular culture, hypervisibility, and imagery on adolescent girls. We consider this backlash from the perspective of nostalgia as well: We unpack how this controversy reflects some Black viewers’ desire for a ‘return’ to polite and tame filmic representations of Black girls. Despite Doucouré’s efforts to explain herself and sympathetic critics’ campaign to defend the film, there was some preoccupation with the young girls’ display of sexuality. We perceive Doucouré as challenging audiences to stay present in the challenges facing young Black girls, particularly as they are increasingly exposed to online models of sexuality and femininity.KEYWORDS: NostalgiaimmigrationAfro-Frenchsocial mediagirlhoodfilm Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The original French title is Atlantique.2 For the African diaspora, those push/pull factors include government overturn, natural disasters, economic opportunity, and receiving countries' immigration and refugee policies. See Dodson (Citation2014).3 The English translation loses some of the meaning in the original French, which literally translates to The Black Girl from or The Black Girl of. As Allison Conner (Citation2017) notes, the original French signifies ‘both roots and possession.’4 Johnson defines ‘flesh dance’ as ‘a choreographic/sonic coupling through which hip hop lyrics direct black women to move in sexually mimetic ways.’ (p. 155). Flesh dance is a type of instructional dance, which is a genre of social dance, performed to songs that specify how to do the dance.5 These racist inventions around the bodies of Black/African women worked to validate France’s colonial violence including the exploitation and violence against the body of Sarah Baartman (referred to as The Hottentot Venus), one of at least two Khoekhoe South African women displayed in freak shows throughout Europe, and whose death in France in the 19th century was followed by a public dissection of her body and its display in the Musée de' L’ Homme for 150 years. (see Magubane Citation2001; Mitchell Citation2018).6 Theresa Braine, ‘Sen. Ted Cruz says “Cuties” sexualizes 11-year-old girls, calls for federal child-porn investigation.’ New York Daily News. September 13, 2020. Accessed November 23, 2021. Gabbard referred to the film as child porn in a Twitter post on September 11, 2020. https://twitter.com/tulsigabbard/status/13045878335842263057 Penny, Nance, ‘Nothing Cute About Cuties.’ Townhall. https://townhall.com/columnists/pennyyoungnance/2020/09/16/nothing-cute-about-cuties-n2576298. Accessed November 23, 2021.8 Stacey Patton, public Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/stacey.patton.9/posts/101578191893210949 This tweet is one example: https://twitter.com/Pheonix_Storm/status/1465810191425814529?s=20.10 Nina Monei, blog post, ‘“Cuties” (and its supporters) failed Black girls.’ October 7, 2020. https://ninamonei.com/author/ninamonei/. Accessed November 30, 2021.Bridget Boakye, blog post, ‘“Cuties” is such an important film for the African Diaspora but, I agree that it is problematic.’ October 4, 2020. https://www.boakyeb.com/allposts/2020/9/27/cuties-is-such-an-important-film-for-the-african-diaspora-but-i-agree-that-it-is-problematic. Accessed November 30, 2021; D’Angelo Wallace, video, ‘Cuties: The film that got Netflix blasted by the government.’ September 13, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGITudIVBE8. Accessed October 15, 2021.11 Doucouré also stated that there was a child psychologist on set throughout the filming of the movie and the actors were constantly spoken with. (Doucouré Citation2020b).12 After Bill Cosby’s subsequent indictment and imprisonment for sexual assault, The Cosby Show was removed from syndication from most television networks, however the show can be found on a few TV channels, streaming services, and YouTube clips. Given Cosby’s history, his character’s comments in the show about the girls’ changed physique (due to their padded bras) have a disquieting effect. Nonetheless, as another adult in the room, Cliff Huxtable’s concern about his daughter and her friends’ display of sexuality supports our thesis that adults would prefer girls to subdue rather than display their sexual agency.13 There are also gender double standards at play in how we think about bodily agency, illustrated by a tendency to be more carefree with boys but less concerned about their exploitation, and hypervigilant and suppressive towards girls. See Hylton (Citation2019).14 The authors previously published a blog on Cuties. See N. Shakes and B. Thelamour, “Girlhood Rage, Puberty, and Biculturality in Cuties.” The Black Scholar. November 24, 2020. https://www.theblackscholar.org/girlhood-rage-puberty-and-biculturality-in-cuties-by-nicosia-shakes-and-barbara-thelamour/