Duffy calls out Netflix for “irresponsible” glamorisation of rape in 365 Days!
John V.
Posted On July 3, 2020
Singer Duffy called out and criticised Netflix following the release of the movie 365 Days or 365 Dni, saying that the movie “glamorises sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape”.
The film is billed as an erotic romantic drama, following a young woman who ends up falling for a dominant Sicilian man after he imprisons her and grants her 365 days to fall in love with him.
In an open letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, singer-songwriter Duffy has accused the streaming service of being “irresponsible” in releasing the film, saying it was “careless, insensitive, and dangerous” for Netflix to host the film on its platform.
“I don’t want to be in this position to have to write to you, but the virtue of my suffering obliges me to do so, because of a violent experience that I endured of the kind that you have chosen to present as ‘adult erotica’. 365 Days glamorises the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape. This should not be anyone’s idea of entertainment, nor should it be described as such, or be commercialised in this manner,” wrote the singer.
Duffy then continued on to share that an estimated 25 million people are currently being trafficked around the world, and criticised Netflix for providing a platform for a film that frames trafficking in a “sexy” light.
“It grieves me that Netflix provides a platform for such ‘cinema’, that eroticises kidnapping and distorts sexual violence and trafficking as a ‘sexy’ movie. I just can’t imagine how Netflix could overlook how careless, insensitive, and dangerous this is. It has even prompted some young women, recently, to jovially ask Michele Morrone, the lead actor in the film, to kidnap them. To anyone who may exclaim ‘it is just a movie’, it is not ‘just’, when it has great influence to distort a subject which is widely undiscussed, such as sex trafficking and kidnapping, by making the subject erotic,” states Duffy.
“And because 365 Days has proved enormously popular, I also address this letter to viewers directly. I encourage the millions who have enjoyed the movie to reflect on the reality of kidnapping and trafficking, of force and sexual exploitation, and of an experience that is the polar opposite of the glossy fantasy depicted in 365 Days. When we know better, let us do better,” Duffy concluded.
