Netflix, the video streaming giant, is in hot water with at least some segments of the American public because of a French film it is currently showing called Cuties (Mignonnes in the original French).

The film is about a group of 11-year-old girls in Paris who form a team to enter a dance competition. But this isnt ballet or jazz. Its twerking.

The initial negative reaction was to promotional images Netflix used: the four young girls posed provocatively in their clingy, midriff-baring tops and tight shorts. But once people watched the film, shock turned to outrage. During a performance, the girls simulate sexual intercourse; bump and grind their hips; bend over in front of the audience; and touch their crotches while they sigh, look skyward and suck on their fingers. And thats just one scene.

If some Americans were shocked by Cuties, they were even more taken aback by the reactions to their reaction. The right versus left cultural divide in the country has grown so deep that theres no longer even a consensus on something as serious as child exploitation, which would have generated broad agreement just a few years ago. Instead, the cultural elites came out in force to snub and insult the rubes who just dont understand great art.

An insufferable opinion piece by Sam Thielman on the NBC News website proclaims that criticism of Cuties is just a cynical ploy in the culture war. Thielman describes the film as a sweet-spirited French coming-of-age drama about an 11-year-old girl looking for friendship among the competitive dancers at her school.

Director Maimouna Doucoure has defended her film as a feminist cautionary tale about the sexualization of girls in todays society. But it was only Cardi B and other adult women twerking just a few short years ago. If we take director Doucoure at her word, that art has now filtered down to children. So how long before we have 8-year-olds singing about their WAPs? Will we be asked to believe thats just a statement, too?

The problem here isnt Netflix; the problem is a culture that celebrates the sexualization of everything including and especially children. And American culture sexualizes children at just about every opportunity.

For example, sex education in schools used to be about teaching human reproduction but has morphed into desensitization to vulgar slang and detailed explanations of explicit sex acts in early grade school and middle school. Planned Parenthood is responsible for a lot of this educational material.

Teen Vogue whose readership, we are told, is the 11- to 18-year-old demographic has featured articles on what gift to get your bestie after her abortion.

A culture that presents children as sexual objects is a culture that exploits them for adult gratification.

Claims to be protecting the children or trying to start a conversation are specious. I accept that the directors intention was to criticize the commodification of females in Western culture, but that wont be the result any more than 13 Reasons Why didnt glorify teen suicide. You cant say you want to discourage X and then make stars out of beautiful people who do X on film, become famous, make tons of money, go to glitzy parties and pose for glamorous magazine shoots. You may think youve fooled the public, but you havent fooled the children. They get therealmessage.

Laura Hollis is a syndicated columnist

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The problem isnt Netflix, the problem is us - Boston Herald