Horrified internet users have said the people behind an article which sexualises 12-year-old Brooke Shields should be 'thrown in jail'.
Shields wasn't even a teenager at the time, but gained attention after being cast in a number of projects, including the 1976 film Alice, Sweet Alice, and 1978's Pretty Baby.
She went on to earn dozens of other acting credits, and is now looking back on her career in a two-part documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, in which she describes feeling sexualised in Hollywood from a young age.
The High Times article provides evidence to support Shields' feelings, with the opening lines reading: "The most perfect nymphette in all creation has been found – in America. Her name is Brooke Shields. 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.”
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It continues: "She’s a sultry mix of all-American virgin and nascent wh**e. 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.”
"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 article ends.
In the trailer for her new documentary, which is airing on Disney+, Shields admits she's 'amazed' she survived growing up with so much inappropriate attention on her.
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“The entirety of my life, it was, ‘She’s a pretty face,’ over and over and over and over and over again,” she said. “And that always, just, seared me… I’m amazed that I survived any of it.”
Shields criticises some of the experiences she had with journalists growing up, describing one interview as 'practically criminal'.
Her comments mirror the public's shock now over the High Times article, which was shared online in response to news of Shields' documentary.
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One stunned Twitter user commented: "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."
"Whoever wrote this piece needs to be in PRISON," another posted, while a third commented: "It’s incredible that something this outlandishly disgusting could be published not all that long ago."
UNILAD has attempted to contact the High Times for comment.
Topics: Celebrity, Twitter, Viral, Brooke Shields
Emily Brown