Courtney Stodden 'completely sickened' by Netflix's 'Cuties': It's 'basically distributing child pornography'
'I am a survivor of somebody who has been victimized as a child,' the star, 26, says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Courtney Stodden, who captivated the public's attention in 2011 at the age of 16 for marrying then-51-year-old Doug Hutchison, is giving her two cents about the controversy surrounding Netflix's "Cuties."
The streamer first came under fire last month after it released an "inappropriate" promotional poster of the film which showed pre-teen girls in sexualized dance poses. The movie was officially released in the U.S. on Sept. 9 and was met with even more widespread criticism, leading to the hashtag #CancelNetflix trending on Twitter due to its alleged hypersexualization of minors. After watching a few clips from the film, Stodden claimed it's all too reminiscent of her past.
"It's apparently a drama-comedy. They're basically distributing child pornography. Turkey has banned it, so that's awesome, but the U.S.? It's still up and it's extremely disturbing. I usually don't speak out on this stuff...I am a survivor of somebody who has been victimized as a child, overly sexualized as a child. Seeing the scenes that I've seen, I'm just completely sickened," Stodden reacted in a video posted to her Instagram account on Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}'CUTIES' MOVIE SPAWNS TRENDING HASHTAG #CANCELNETFLIX
The former reality star and lingerie model, who finalized her divorce from Hutchison earlier this year, demanded Netflix to remove "Cuties," which also goes by the title “Mignonnes,” from its library of content.
"So Netflix, this is your responsibility. You need to remove this from your platform. I really don't like jumping on cancel culture bandwagons, but honestly, every celebrity needs to come out and speak out for the sake of our children. This is not acceptable," Stodden continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 26-year-old warned that there are "pedophiles" who may watch the film and view it as "commercial use."
"They think it's acceptable to go ahead and groom and prey on our children and so it's your responsibility to apologize and take this content down," she demanded.
COURTNEY STODDEN POSTS UNDERWEAR PIC, TALKS 'LIVING IN HELL' TO ACHIEVE PERFECTION ONLINE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a statement to Fox News on Thursday, a Netflix spokesperson defended the movie's content amid the backlash.
"'Cuties' is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children," the spokesperson said. "It's an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up - and we'd encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie."
Netflix is catching backlash for its film "Cuties." (Netflix)
The movie focuses on a group of 11-year-old girls who form a twerking dance group, much to the chagrin of one character’s very conservative Senegalese family. Netflix previously apologized after the poster for the French film showed the underage cast posing in a sexual manner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In addition to the hashtag trending on Twitter, a Change.org petition has garnered more than 598,700 signatures calling for people to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in light of “Cuties” being added to its library of content.
Maïmouna Doucouré, the director of the film, revealed she began receiving death threats last month after Netflix's poster went viral.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I discovered the poster at the same time as the American public,” she revealed. “My reaction? It was a strange experience. I hadn’t seen the poster until after I started getting all these reactions on social media, direct messages from people, attacks on me. I didn’t understand what was going on. That was when I went and saw what the poster looked like.”
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Doucouré told Deadline the sexualized poster did not represent the content of the film. She said the plot is based around her life and tells "the story of many children who have to navigate between a liberal Western culture and a conservative culture at home."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She concluded: “I actually hope that those who haven’t seen it, will see it, and I can’t wait to see their reaction. Hopefully they will understand that we’re actually on the same side of this battle. If we join forces, we could make a big change in this world that hypersexualizes children.”
Fox News' Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.