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Got a ton of thoughts about #netflix _Cuties_ fiasco but mostly remembering that my mom wouldn't let me join dance b/c "little girls shouldn't wear makeup."
HEAR ME OUT: I'm not saying that little girls' wearing makeup is wrong or inherently sexual. I just remember my mom having very distinct notions about the difference btwn girls & women.
There's a thread in this conversation that has to do w/ our culture not loving children & letting them be children. Yes, the conversation is absolutely about predation & sexual explotation of young girls. But I think there's something else in play, too.
Part of the reason our culture is okay w/ sexualizing young girls is b/c we're rushing them into the next phase of their lives across the board. And b/c our culture views *women* primarily as sex objects, we end up pushing *girls* in this direction, too.
Beyond this, tho, we just don't like children to stay children in our culture. Children are messy & don't contribute to capital gains. They distrupt our carefully efficiencies & slow down our pursuit of "the objective."
So children are forced earlier & earlier into adolescence. (The extended nature of adolescence bridging in both directions.)
We set them on college & career paths in 5th grade. We schedule their play to be productive. We hire private coaches to train them in athletics--not for present enjoyment--but for their "future."
So it seems to me that part of the sexualization of young girls can be understood as part of a larger push to skip childhood enitirely.
And this push to skip childhood can't itself be understood apart from larger cultural neglect of childcare & child development. It just doesn't pay.
All that to say, please be righteously enraged by "Cuties." But then go make choices that support the flourishing of children & the families & homes that nuture them.
Understand that our culture is massively toxic for children b/c those who are most dependent on others for survival are the most likely to be harmed in a culture that prioritizes radical individualism.
Understand that our culture is massively toxic for children b/c those who can't pay their own way are most likely to suffer in a culture that worships money.
The sexual explotation of children is a symptom of a larger disease. B/c we will protect what we value as a society. We will provide for what we value as a society. And in ways both great & small, we simply do not value children as children.
