The dark side of Hollywood: the despicable sexualisation of child star Brooke Shields
It’s no secret that child actors have been routinely manipulated and exploited. From Shirley Temple to Drew Barrymore, countless adolescent stars have reported abuse and sexualisation from young ages, with many adults in the industry forcing them to ‘grow up’ too soon. The bizarre fetishisation and sexualisation of pre-pubescent girls have been prevalent in the film industry for decades, and many films have fed into this disgusting obsession.
Leon: The Professional, whose director, Luc Besson, loosely based the film on his own romantic relationship with a child, was a successful Hollywood movie, yet its star, a young Natalie Portman, was sexualised to the point of real trauma off-screen. Portman was sent outrageous fan mail, with one letter detailing “a rape fantasy”, she once claimed, which left her feeling incredibly “unsafe”.
The industry professionals and directors that continually allow child stars to appear as sexualised characters have a part to play in the widespread fetishisation of young girls, which has real-world consequences. Two of the 20th century’s most shocking depictions of sexualised girlhood, Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, featured the same actor: Brooke Shields. Born in 1965, Shields entered the spotlight as an 11-month-old baby when she was asked to model for a soap commercial by her mother’s photographer friend. Before she knew it, Shields was a child model, with her modelling agent Eileen Ford stating, “She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one”.
When she was aged ten, Shields was photographed by Garry Gross (clues in the name) for Playboy, with ‘consent’ from her mother, Teri. The photographer had Shields pose naked and covered in oil for the 1975 issue named Sugar ‘n’ Spice. By the time she was 11, she had landed a role in Louis Malle’s child prostitution drama Pretty Baby alongside Susan Sarandon and Keith Carradine. Pretty Baby, despite the controversy, is still widely lauded as a fantastic film, earning a Palme d’Or nomination at Cannes Film Festival.
However, the movie featured Shields as a child prostitute, and Malle required the child to appear nude several times, as well as kiss Carradine on the mouth. Despite the shocking nature of the tasks she was asked to perform, Shields asserts that she wasn’t traumatised by the movie: “It’s not in my nature to be a victim,” she told The Guardian. The actor has frequently expressed how she ‘compartmentalised’ her life while filming such intense scenes, finding herself preoccupied with looking after her alcoholic mother. She told Vogue: “When you grow up in an alcoholic household, you learn to navigate it at a very young age, and I was an only child. I just wanted to keep her safe.”
Regardless of whether Shields feels traumatised by the role or not, it was the responsibility of adults around her – not only her family but directors, producers, co-stars, and other industry giants – to protect the child from the gross sexualisation that came with such a role. Although Shields doesn’t believe herself to be a victim, it’s undeniable that she was failed by the adults around her, who treated her like a mini-adult. That’s all she ever knew.
In that same Guardian interview, Shields was asked if she thinks “how damaging it is, as a culture, to sexualise young girls like that?” Pausing for a moment, she replied: “I think it’s been done since the dawn of time, and I think it’s going to keep going on”. Indeed, films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon – her next major role when she was 14 – have only aided this cultural perception and supposed ‘acceptance’ of young girls as sexual beings to be gawked at by adult men.
In The Blue Lagoon, Shields starred opposite the 18-year-old actor Christopher Atkins, with the pair spending most of the film almost naked. Although body doubles were used for the sex scenes, the movie was a bizarre foray into adolescent sexual discovery, with director Randal Kleiser attempting to get the actors to fall for each other in real life. Reflecting on the job, Shields told Vogue: “I remember thinking, Can we just act? Do you not think that I’m talented enough?” The pair, stranded on an island, discover the enticements of the adult world by going skinny-dipping and having sex.
That same year, Shields appeared in a Calvin Klein advert, which included her saying: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing”. The commercial was banned by certain channels and considered child pornography, what with the 14-year-old saying something that could be interpreted as a double-entendre.
Throughout the early years of her career, Shields was continuously sexualised by the media due to her movie roles. Questions about her measurements and sexual history (she revealed she was a virgin during university, leading her to transform into a symbol of ‘respectable’ chastity) were all too common during interviews. She told the Armchair Expert podcast in 2021: “It’s practically criminal. It’s not journalism”.
Despite being a child, Shields became an American sex symbol from an incredibly early age, with a British tabloid even dubbing the nine-year-old star “the child who drives men crazy”. Her mother once said: “Brooke is like a work of art. And like any beautiful painting, the world should view Brooke and enjoy her”. Despite her mother’s seemingly good intentions and Shields’ frequent defence of her mother’s actions, the actor’s life in the spotlight was tainted by sexualisation. Industry and media giants framed Shields as promiscuous, then innocent and virginal – she was never allowed to just be a child.
Since then, Shields has continued to act, only starring in projects she is passionate about, has spread awareness about post-natal depression while raising two daughters, and has written several books. Although Shields does not see herself as a victim, many child actors can’t say the same, and the way the film industry treated her is just one example of its heinous corruption. Adults have a duty to protect children, yet Shields was exposed to a life of sexualisation that only emphasised a gross, widespread obsession with youth, in all of its innocence and manipulable naivety.
