Meghan McCain came out swinging against the film “Cuties,” asking, “Why in the world do we need to give people more excuses to sexualize young women?”
The film — and its subsequent release on streaming-giant Netflix — was the topic of discussion on Thursday’s “The View.”
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McCain admitted that she had not seen the full film, only the trailer — which she called “gross.” (RELATED: Meghan McCain Challenges Brian Stelter On Cuomo Brothers’ ‘Comedy Routine’ — He Ignores It)
“I am also not a fan of cancel culture as you know, Whoopi,” McCain began. “I’m a big fan of art and I hate censorship, and I agree that we’re down a slippery slope culturally in this way, but I have been listening to experts and one expert is actually Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi, who used to work in the San Francisco child abuse sexual assault unit and she tweeted, this ‘hypersexualizes girls to the delight of pedophiles that I once prosecuted. Please take this down, Netflix.'”
Hi @netflix, from a customer and former ADA in SFDA’a Child Abuse-Sexual Assault Unit: “Cuties” hypersexualizes girls my daughter’s age no doubt to the delight of pedophiles like the ones I prosecuted. Cancel this, apologize, work with experts to heal your harm. #CancelNetflix
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) September 10, 2020
“These are children,” McCain went on to say that she couldn’t see any good argument to “give the world a reason for disgusting pedophiles and perverts to sexualize young girls,” saying that she had seen reports of “filthy old men” reviewing the movie, commenting on how “hot” the girls were.
McCain also pointed out that her mother worked to stop sex trafficking, adding that among victims of trafficking, approximately one in four was a young girl. “Why in the world do we need to give people more excuses to sexualize young women? I just found the trailer gross,” she concluded.
Cohost Sunny Hostin weighed in then, saying that she had started to watch the film but had ultimately made the choice to turn it off.
“I didn’t enjoy the movie, but — and I don’t agree with the term cancel culture as all of you know. I think it’s more about consequence culture, and there are consequences when — when you have a film like this,” Hostin explained. “You can just not watch it which is what I decided to do. I just turned it off, but I certainly have a problem with sexualizing young girls and that is a problem in our culture. I’m raising a 14-year-old girl.”
Hostin also referenced her own time spent prosecuting sex crimes, saying that while she didn’t believe it reached the level of “child pornography,” she was still “conflicted” about the overall presentation.
McCain interrupted to get one more thought in, contrasting the reaction to “Cuties” with the reaction to the Christmas song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
“The same people who are making that argument about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ don’t have a problem with this film, and I think the messaging across the board about where sexuality exists and what’s okay in America is very confusing,” she said.