Brooke Shields is carried by the man who won the auction for her virginity in a scene from the film Pretty Baby, 1978. Photo / Getty Images
Brooke Shields is carried by the man who won the auction for her virginity in a scene from the film Pretty Baby, 1978. Photo / Getty Images
A “perverse” article about a pre-teen Brooke Shields has resurfaced online, sparking a mountain of outrage on social media.
From the opening paragraph to the closing sentence, the actress – who was just 12 when the article was written in 1978 – was hypersexualised in the piece publishedin the High Times, which disturbingly remains on the magazine’s online archives to this day.
Documentary on Brooke Shields is coming out soon on Disney+ and I will never not be horrified by the way so many adults sexualised a prepubescent girl. Should all be thrown in jail pic.twitter.com/Qo7z9eGWbi
“The most perfect nymphette in all creation has been found – in America. Her name is Brooke Shields,” read the opening line, written by journalist Ed Dwyer.
“Brooke’s hair is elegant brown and clean, her skin pale and puritan, her eyes sinfully blue and her lean body just starting to curve into womanhood.”
The 57-year-old is currently trending after the recent release of her two-part documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, in which she admitted to feeling sexualised in Hollywood as a child star. And articles like this added to her anxiety, especially when she was compared to actresses twice her age.
“She’s a sultry mix of all-American virgin and nascent wh**e,” the article continued. “She’s the hottest new young thing in movies since a smouldering pre-teen named Elizabeth Taylor stiffened up Louie Mayer’s cigar. She is only 12 years old and destined to be the sex symbol of 1964.”
Brooke Shields, who was 14 at the time, with Christopher Atkins in Blue Lagoon, 1980. Photo / Getty Images
And the descriptions got more vulgar as the article went on.
“Unlike pugnacious Jodie Foster or puerile Tatum O’Neal, she’s the delicious stuff of teenage fantasies become flesh: barely old enough to want, but too young to get,” it read.
“Sweet temptation to all by blind men and eunuchs. She’s a sister, daughter, sex object, victim, lover, tramp. We can look forward to watching her fill out over the next decade. Brooke Shields is not just another pretty baby, baby.”
The decades-old article has now been slammed on social media, with many shocked and surprised it was ever originally published.
“How the f*** was this even allowed?!” wondered one Twitter user, while another said: “Couldn’t get past the first paragraph of that article. Perverse.”
Yet another commented, “Jesus Christ I feel really nauseous,” while others labelled the article, “sick and twisted”, “disgusting and “sickening”.
