Sometimes people forget that the best art is about evoking strong emotion. I don’t know how anyone could finish this film without feeling very strongly about what a problem sexualization of children is.

Indeed, that appears to be the filmmaker’s objective.

Yet so many people are acting like evoking that strong response is itself a problem.

I’ve written a short novel about LGBT conversion therapy. A couple of the chapters are pretty disturbing, showing a highly sexualized scene in which an adult appears to be more than professionally interested in the young boy he is working with.

I wrote the scenes to evoke strong response. To in effect creep people out.

For the most part, the story was very positively received. But I got strong push back from some quarters from people who apparently conflated my realistic portrayal of a sexualized situation with my approving of the situation.

It was all rather bizarre, given the entire book was based on exposing and condemning conversion therapy and the harm it does to children.

I wonder what impact my book would have had if I had not pulled the camera up close, so to speak.

I wonder what impact Cuties could possibly have if the filmmaker had not shown what she was condemning.

I suppose not very much impact at all.