United Families International: Dedicated to informing you about the issues and forces impacting the family. Sign up for the latest from United Families International here. I have three daughters. When they were young, I gave considerable thought to how I could teach them the meaning of womanhood.
I tried to fill their lives with examples of compelling and independent women. I believe in the power of good literature, and literature translated to film, to impart important life lessons and characters they could model their lives after. Always on the lookout for strong female characters and themes that included courage and sacrifice, we included the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings on that list.
Issues were as important as character. My point in sharing this, and in the process opening myself to criticism — for I know some readers will object to the choice of films on my list — is that difficult topics portrayed on film will sometimes include scenes that make us squirm.
Cuties is a French film that tackles thorny issues thrown at us by the modern world, such as the challenges that immigrant children face finding their way in a new country and culture and the attendant tensions as those children question and act out against family values and religious teachings; family dysfunction; the pull of popularity; and the sexual exploitation of young girls.
(mh=kzrg9dgFfa4LsaMV)3.jpg "Call girl in Meridian")
It had the potential to be a film that parents could use as a tool in discussing problems that children and families today face. Instead, it has been getting a lot of bad press for good reason. This was the great purpose of the teen years. But two revolutions, the industrial and sexual, changed all that. Today, coming of age is about acting on, at ever younger ages, a growing list of rights and freedoms without any attendant responsibilities or obligations.
