Streaming Black girlhood: biculturality, nostalgia and hypervisibility in Cuties.
The era of streaming services and online distribution of independent films have offered more varied representations of the African Diaspora than were previously available through traditional media. Within this context, Maïmouna Doucouré's acclaimed 2020 film, Cuties, presents a poignant and nuanced,...
| Published in: | Cultural Studies Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 389 - 410 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Film/TV Criticism and Review |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
May2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=176243864&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 176243864 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09502386 05G jtl: Cultural Studies issn: 09502386 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2024 vid: 38 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 176243864 10.1080/09502386.2023.2261949 ppf: 389 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.5MB tig: atl: Streaming Black girlhood: biculturality, nostalgia and hypervisibility in Cuties. aug: au: Shakes, Nicosia Thelamour, Barbara affil: Department of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Merced, USA Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, USA su: Cuties (Film) African American girls Feminism African diaspora Sadness sug: subj: Cuties (Film) African American girls Feminism African diaspora Sadness keyword: Afro-French film girlhood immigration Nostalgia social media ab: The era of streaming services and online distribution of independent films have offered more varied representations of the African Diaspora than were previously available through traditional media. Within this context, Maïmouna Doucouré's acclaimed 2020 film, Cuties, presents a poignant and nuanced, yet controversial representation of Black immigrant biculturality, girlhood, and puberty. In this essay, we engage with Cuties through the lens of nostalgia as an escape from uncomfortable realities. Set in France, the film centres the immigrant experience. The protagonist Aminata (Amy), a French-Senegalese preteen, witnesses her mother's sadness at her husband's impending wedding. Amy embarks on a journey of body agency and rage that demonstrates her navigation between cultures. We critically engage with how Amy disrupts her mother's and community's immigrant nostalgia: a longing and idealizing for the culture of their homeland in opposition to the dominant culture of their adopted country. We also examine how the U.S. release of Cuties on Netflix got caught, perhaps unintentionally, in the crosshairs of a U.S. culture war. The marketing for Cuties presented a sexualized, feel-good depiction of the girls in the film which distracted from Doucouré's true aim of depicting the rage of girlhood and the negative influences of sexualized popular culture, hypervisibility, and imagery on adolescent girls. We consider this backlash from the perspective of nostalgia as well: We unpack how this controversy reflects some Black viewers' desire for a 'return' to polite and tame filmic representations of Black girls. Despite Doucouré's efforts to explain herself and sympathetic critics' campaign to defend the film, there was some preoccupation with the young girls' display of sexuality. We perceive Doucouré as challenging audiences to stay present in the challenges facing young Black girls, particularly as they are increasingly exposed to online models of sexuality and femininity. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Film/TV Criticism and Review src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Cultural Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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