Normalising objectification?

Cuties (Mignonnes, French; 2020)

Back in secondary school, my friend AK, and I were engaged in an in-depth discussion on the topic of American situational comedies which later became to be abbreviated as sitcoms. AK was adamant that the depictions of teenagers, then in family dramas, were detrimental to the behaviours of people. The fighting back, the rudeness, the promiscuity of teenagers, the docile nature of parents were bound to have change on the local society. This would happen even though the storyline would indicate poetic justice at the end. Even though good virtues would prevail over bad, viewers tend to remember the bank heist rather than how the robbers suffered for their feat - their unsettling life whilst being on the run and the incarceration later on.

The same thing happened in this film. Even though the movie's storyline is genuine in highlighting the current societal obsession in adultification of preteens, the cinematography and wardrobe department just conveyed the opposite message. Viewers from the world over are up in arms objecting to the portrayal of 11 years pre-pubertal girls in age-inappropriate attires, twerking and engaging in dance moves that leave nothing to the imagination but are overt sexual postures ala-WAP.

After irritating Hindu audiences in India, now American viewers have joined the chorus of people who have started supporting #CancelNetflix. They accuse Netflix of promoting child pornography and have requested the FBI to initiate investigations along that line.

Depiction does not equate to an endorsement, they say, but as mentioned earlier, viewers only remember the awe factor. Five years down the line, people would only remember this movie as one which showed tween twerking, not the fact that it brought to the surface the constant peer pressure, the desire to fit in and the stress of coming of age. 

No one would remember that this film also showed how children of immigrants find it so difficult to be accepted by the natives of their newfound homes. Nobody can understand why the immigrant parents are hellbent on keeping alive their age-old traditions as their traditions failed to make a utopia in their homeland. It is the pull factors in the new countries that drew them like bees to the pollen. Indeed it is idiotic to consider that people in the new country are practising some kind of inferior way of life. It would not have made them so open-hearted to accept immigrants and bear with all the baggage that comes with them.

The film also shows the hypocrisy of societies that expects women to play second fiddle to all the antics of man whilst still appearing happy about it as if it the will of God to be subservient to men and live without a brain. On the one hand, it expects women to be pure but at the same time, objectifies women to fill the lust of men. This way of thinking is not limited to societies perceived as 'backwards'. Even progressive communities are guilty of this.

This presentation is a cautionary tale to remind us of our constant craving to push the limit of what is accepted as the norm. There was a time when there was no such thing as childhood. Little people feel grateful to be born and fed. They watch and learn and fit into societies as contributing individuals. Then the community decreed that little people need to be educated and have to have a proper childhood that develops character. Their biological requirements took a backburner. They had much more to achieve in life. Then the bar was progressively lowered. Social interactions and mingling of sexes were the standards. With affluence and reduction of responsibilities on the young shoulders, their interests peaked elsewhere. 

We should not forget that it is not easy for teenagers to grow up in the digital era. With so much scrutiny by peers and imaginary 'friends' in the social media sphere as well as pervasive cancel culture that is out to crucify anyone who does not conform to the general flavour of the month, emotional health can never be serene. At an age when they themselves are unsure of many things around them, the last persons they would listen to are adults. All the life experiences that adults preach will only fall on deaf ears. No matter how self-defeating their peers' action may be, it is nevertheless, more appealing to their age-group.

There is a difference in reading about young girls engaging in precocious activities than viewing them on screen. What is more unpalatable is when it is performed by underaged actors. In the name of art and wanting to pass a public message, is this justified?

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Sex sells

The Erotic Engine: How Pornography Has Powered Mass Communication from Gutenberg to Google (2011)
Author: Patchen Barss


Pornography has always been frowned upon as the destroyer of civilised societies. It has been put in the same decadent basket of other vices of man including cheating and gambling.

On the contrary, the idea of voyeurism goes back as far as our cavemen ancestors. They had been so fascinated with human anatomy, like excited schoolboys and toilet graffiti, that they decided to draw what they saw during the day on the wall of their dwellings. The early human civilisations were quite liberal with sexuality and nudity. Ancient sculptures of couples in various stages of undress and in acts of copulation are general knowledge. The Indian book of Kamasutra is the living proof of this. Even as late as the European Renaissance, the human body was immortalised in paintings.

Science and technology propelled the human race forward to meet various challenges. It helps Man to explore newer frontiers. Before the industrial revolution and the introduction of Gutenberg’s printing press, books and illustrations were handwritten and drawn. It was expensive, and it catered for the rich, who was also coincidentally literate. The general populace could not read; hence, it did not matter what was written. The Books at that time were filled with erotica, but the learned were thought to be able to handle it.

© Roy Singh

The democratisation of printing opened this bag of worms to all. The middle class, who had their own moral standards, were ill-prepared to handle these. The Church which was the de-facto moral guardian of the masses intervened. The naked body became immoral, and its depiction against the law. Nevertheless, the interest never wanes but goes on underground. It created a new branch of a discipline called pornography to the masses but fine art to the high heeled.

The next wave of information dissemination came in the form of photography (pictures) and moving pictures (movies). Again the human body became the fascination of the makers and consumers alike. Peep shows, watching fuzzy pornographic plates became a cheap thrill. When a succession of photographs became cine, for the first time, people had the option of starring at a human body without raising the eyebrow of the other.

It was a godsend. To hide out in a dark theatre in anonymity watching ‘dirty picture’ in near lifelike visuals and audio.

Erotica continued tickling minds. The demand for it continued. It propelled advances in cinematographic techniques and optics to meet requests. Slowly explicit pictures made it to the mainstream. In the 80s, it became a norm for a Hollywood flick to have the mandatory flashing of breasts to hit it big in the box office.

Betamax - a relic of the past ©Yahoo

The video was the next thing to hit the market. Porn consumers were particularly enthralled. In the comfort of their homes with the company of a stag (or maybe mixed) party, in anonymity, they could watch all the smut they want to their heart’s content. The video was the in-thing in the 80s, creating trade wars and advances in the storage of visual data.

Computer games gave a shot in the arm towards this end. With interactive capabilities, the end user-provider barrier slowly starts to become interactive. Again and again, porn financed improvements in technology. VHS and Betamax graduated to LaserDisc and to DVD for that elusive high definition. UHF transmissions and cable TV were riding on pornography for profitability.

With time, silicon chips became a mode of the information revolution. Computer games gave users the freedom of creating their own avatars. It metamorphosed to their choice of a partner not only in the war games but something more intimate, like cybersex. From dirty talks using keyboards, it moved to joysticks and now the tip of the finger.

Next giant step in broadcasting must surely be the internet. Again, in its infancy, porn-related stuff was its best seller. It had an essential role in pushing the process of going on-line a breeze. For a seamless, uninterrupted flow of erotica, good bandwidth was needed. Poof, came protocol to this end. 


What is the meaning of all these if money cannot be collected properly? The model of consuming first and pay later is notoriously unreliable in the porn industry. As it is a shady business, its patrons, naturally act dishonestly. Hence, there needs to be a safe encrypted secure way of collecting money before consumption. This sole intention must have improved our current way of internet shopping and credit card transactions. The need for anonymity helped online privacy and data protection.

 Comfortably Numbed - VR © Slate.

To keep up with piracy of dirty pictures, the porn industry developed its own way of tracing the source of copying and protection of its 'intellectual property'. This was later found useful in tracking down paedophiles and serial rapists.

It appears like there is no limit in satisfying the demand for porn. Its consumers demand more even when newer avenues are made available. It seems that sensations acquired through virtual reality are insufficient. In the near future, the industry hopes to venture into the field of haptic stimulations. This technology tries to transfer temperature, texture, motion and pressure stimuli to its end-users to satisfy their ever-expanding sexual gratifications.

A deep link exists between pornography, the tools and techniques of human communication. Sexual depiction is a powerful source of creativity and a driving force in innovation. Many modern search engines, online retailers, video/photo sharing sites and media moguls owe their success to pornographic websites.   

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.