Cuties and Cardi B
Awareness versus Exploitation
Our world is going crazy right now and I’m not talking about the Coronavirus pandemic. I’m talking about how we are rejecting God’s plan for sex and sexuality at two seemingly opposing extremes. Let’s talk about this and how Christians need to respond.
If you haven’t heard of the Netflix movie Cuties, then you’ve been living under a rock. As of right now, it is the 4th most-watched movie on Netflix (the only good news about this is that I had never heard of the top 3… I mean who’s seen “Pets United”?). It’s causing a lot of conversation and getting a mixed response in our culture. Some folks, who should be offended are condoning it, and even defending it by saying that this is intended to bring awareness to the fact that young girls are being hypersexualized in our culture. “Don’t you get it, it’s supposed to raise awareness of the over-sexualization of young girls?!”
Okay, let’s think about this. Are young girls being sexualized and objectified? Yes. Do we need to bring awareness to this? Absolutely, 100%. But do you need to objectify them in order to accomplish this? No… this is how you become a part of the problem.
Flip the script
Let’s do a little thought experiment. Suppose that I produced this film in my basement and you had to stream it off a shady internet site (nothing like the class act of Netflix), what would you think then? Or what if some guy in your neighborhood had a bunch of 5th-grade girls over to his house and paid them to twerk and grind to music so he put it online where random strangers would pay a fee to watch? He’d go to jail right? Sure (if one of the dads hadn’t got ahold of him first), at least I would hope so.
Where does Cardi come into this?
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is celebrating feminine liberty by keeping Cardi B’s “WAP” as the number one song in the world. What?! If you haven’t listened to it, don’t. It is perverse and pornographic. Yet, what’s crazy is that she is getting accolades because she is flaunting her sexual liberty and celebrating what it means to be a woman. But here’s the deal: you simply cannot have it both ways. If “WAP” characterizes femininity then we need to be teaching this at a young age. We need to be objectifying female sexuality wherever we find it. Just like I’m trying to cultivate characteristics of masculine maturity into my sons at a young age, if WAP is the goal then Cuties is the way to get there.
Where do we go from here?
We have to get on the same page. Yes, we need to fight against the hypersexualization of young girls. We need to help our young ladies find their identity in who God created them to be and not as sexual objects. This should come from the continued discipleship of the young people that God has placed in our lives. It is our job to help this generation of elementary school students (boys and girls) know who they are and what God has created them to be.
We need to identify the steady diet of YouTube and social media that is forming the minds of our young people and replace it with truth, with God’s Word, and with discipleship.
We need a transformation in our culture where we celebrate genuine femininity and masculinity as good gifts that God has given. God has created us as engendered image-bearers of God. In light of this, sex is a good gift of God and should be celebrated in the proper context. If we can start this now we can protect our kids in the present while preparing them for their future.