Streaming giant Netflix has faced accusations of "sexualising" 11-year-old girls in its promotion for Cuties, a French film.
Titled Mignonnes in France, the film follows the story of a young girl from a traditional Senegalese Muslim household who joins a dance group.
Written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, it premiered at the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival this year and went on to win the festival's directing jury award.
Doucouré has said she came up with the concept for the film after seeing "a group of young girls aged around 11 years old going up on stage and dancing in a very sensual way while wearing very revealing clothes."
In an interview with Cineuropa about the film, the 35-year-old film-maker told the website she was "shocked" and wondered if they were "aware of the image of sexual availability that they were projecting."
"Today, the sexier and the more objectified a woman is, the more value she has in the eyes of social media. And when you’re 11, you don’t really understand all these mechanisms, but you tend to mimic, to do the same thing as others in order to get a similar result," she said.
“I think it is urgent that we talk about it, that a debate be had on the subject.”
In Netflix's own promotional poster for the film, which is due to premiere on the platform on September 9, children can be seen wearing shorts and crop tops and striking various dance poses, including kneeling on the floor and squatting.
A poster designed for French audiences, by contrast, shows the group wearing less revealing clothes and throwing shopping bags into the air.
The difference in approach prompted fury from some social media users, some of whom accused the streaming service of "blatantly sexualising" young girls.
"I just found a trailer for the movie Cuties on Netflix and the blatant sexualisation of young girls is DISGUSTING. No one wants to see their child dressed and posed like this. WHY IS NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS?" one Twitter user commented.
Another added: "It’s interesting to compare the French version of the Cuties poster to the American version... like the French version has more ‘kids having fun!’ vibes, while the American version is just ... gross. I feel like the #Netflix marketing team has a lot to answer for.”
Netflix’s synopsis of the film also drew criticism. Before the backlash, the streaming giant’s summary said: “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.”
In a statement issued to the Evening Standard, Netflix said: “This was not an accurate representation of the film so the image and description has been updated.”
But the streaming service's revision appears to have done little to quell critics of its approach and the broader themes touched on by the film itself, with an online petition calling for the movie to be removed because it “promotes child pornography” having now attracted more than 40,000 signatures.
The film has however received a number of positive reviews from industry critics, with The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney noting the film has a "critical view of a culture that steers impressionable young girls toward the hypersexualisation of their bodies".
Screen Daily’s Fionnuala Halligan meanwhile said Cuties is “explicitly designed to shock mature audiences into a contemplation of today’s destruction of innocence”.