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Brooke Shields’ story should horrify anyone, but it isn’t often talked about. I didn’t know that she was forced to pose naked for Playboy at 10. I’m shocked. There’s a lot of press on this right now, but what alarms me (in addition to all of it) is that no one is pointing fingers at Playboy for peddling child pornography, or bringing up Hugh Hefner. In addition to protecting powerful men, it also avoids saying the quiet part out loud: men fetishize, exploit, and destroy children, and not just a few random perverts but mainstream male sexuality in general.
Lots of discussion about Brooke’s mom, and rightfully so, but no broader discourse on the reasons her mom made her do those things.
Hugh Hefner had CP of multiple child celebrities. Bijou Phillips is one of them. There are others, apparently.
Watching Drew Barrymore and Brooke Shields talk about their lives was really heartbreaking. While Brooke stayed on the straight and narrow somehow, other stars like Drew Barrymore and Bijou Phillips didn't. The media portrayed them as "wild girls" from the wrong side of the track. They were spoiled and given too much freedom, according to the press. No they weren't they were neglected and exploited.
Drew Barrymore managed to recover in a way Bijou Phillips hasn't.
I doubt any child star has a good experience, even if they stay in the business.
The fact that Hugh Hefner is remembered by anyone as a "pioneer" makes me seethe, honestly. There was nothing progressive about him or his stupid magazine. "He made us more sex positive!" no...he didn't. He provided masturbation material to young boys before the internet came around. His magazine did nothing positive for women.
The worst claim is that he was an anti-racist crusader. How? Putting naked Black women in your magazine to be j***off material is not combating racism ffs.
I remember Playboy's ridiculous claim that 60% of the readership was women. They just would lie like the rugs their subjects posed upon.
And now for a little nuance: Brooke Shields' mom, despite letting her or pushing her to do sexualized nude scenes at the age of 10 or 12, also protected her hyper vigilantly from sexual assault. Despite the debauchery and predator-friendly culture of the era, Shields made it to the age of 22 before she ever had sex (and it was consensual), because her mom hovered so obsessively that Brooke was never left alone with any of Hollywood's predators. I give props to her mom for that.
I don’t know how one can say “hyper vigilantly protected” daughter from sexual assault when making one’s 10-year-old daughter pose for explicit naked photos in an adult dirty magazine.
Yeah...I think her mom was clearly more worried about her "value" going down if she was spotted with too many men and people thought she was having sex. It wasn't really protection, more like trying to maintain a product which is so sad.
Mothers & other female sexual abusers (which is what you are, if you pimp out your daughter to Playboy magazine) often are extremely controlling and vigilant about their victims sexuality, and monitor for signs of sexual development and sexual interest, while some of them hand off their daughter to select men they approve of, some of them get extremely invasive and messed up about normal sexual behavior. While I'm glad Shields wasn't raped or molested, and she didnt have to face the kind of mother who sells her daughter directly to boyfriends or male connections, I have to point out that a girl who doesnt have normal dating or sexual experiences, because her mother was hovering over her virginity and sexual value, and thought making child pornography was OK but having a teen boyfriend was going too far, is not healthy nor has a healthy relationship with her mom, by any means
I don't. It sounds like she wanted Brooke to maintain a squeaky clean reputation as a virgin, which was the selling point. Heavily sexualized, but not "used up." Britney Spears' family did that with her, too.
A truly protective mother would never have her 10 year old pose for Playboy. I think Brooke's mother was deranged. Even Brooke doesn't credit her mom for that. She's said in previous interviews that she wishes she hadn't waited so long- that she DOES wish she could have had that teenage love with a boyfriend.
If Brooke's mother is still alive, I think Brooke should dump her in the cheapest home she can find, then not even claim the body.
She is dead. Brooke was with her when she died.
This is what codependency looks like. I ended my relationship with my alcoholic mother, but my other siblings were just like this with her too. The alcoholic mother makes her children her enablers; it is really horrible and a lot of shitty stuff gets translated as maternal love. It is BS; I know from personal experience, and lots of therapy.
The Polly Platt season of You Must Remember This [podcast] covers production of Pretty Baby
(and Platt’s early partnership with and later experiences co-parenting with Peter Bogdonovich through his Cybill Shepherd and Dorothy Stratton phases)
http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2020/7/pollyplattarchive28
Very different, very crazy times.
In addition to being a seriously parentified and highly sexualized child and teenager working in the fashion and entertainment industries, Brooke was obviously a smart and sweet kid. Our parents dropped us off at her teen softcore sex movies partly because Brooke was a lovely young woman of good character.
Brooke disclosed she was raped, I don’t think it was before she lost her virginity, but she was at one point. She still didn’t say who it was even in her documentary.
Yes, her mom did one right thing, and at least appeared to be aware. After watching Quiet on the Set - so many parents are oblivious.
Side note: "lost her virginity" is one of the weirdest expressions, don't you think? It treats women's sexuality as a thing not connected to them. Also, 'lost'? I am sure she and Dean had perfectly fine sex together, since she went against her mother, said she was in love, etc. We need to deep-six that expression in the feminist crypt of terrible, sexist ideas and terms.