This is grim, but those of us born in the 80s will remember how absolutely obsessed the media was with Britney Spears becoming “legal” and reporting on her virginity every chance they got.
UK newspapers would frequently publish photos of 16 years old girls with their tits out. That was only made illegal in 2004.
Back during Paedomania of the early 2000s, Brass Eye had an episode taking the piss out of the press’s new found moral crusade, despite them happily being in on it for the better part of 30 years. The press did not like this at all. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to realise they were at fault, which led to the memorable juxtaposition of an article about “perv spoof bosses” on the opposite side of the page from an article about how big 15 year old Charlotte Church’s boobs were getting.

I’d forgotten they did this with Charlotte Church. Christ.
Kirsten Dunst and the Full House kids too
Chris Morris tried to warn us
Member the Olsen twins…gross
I think that was still very much a thing at least a decade after Britney became legal.

Gif reminder that Daenerys is 13 at the start of GoT. But ofc the actress was 24 in s1 so not really anything controversial.
I can’t say for sure that actresses ages were tracked as much but I remember like sites showing countdowns to when Emma Watson became of legal age. I’m the same age roughly so it wasn’t weird for me but it was weird that people did it.
And still do.
They did age up all the ASOIAF characters for the show, so the show insisting that we all ogle Daenerys didn’t really have much to do with pedophilia. It was just regular old gross ass Hollywood misogyny.
it wasn’t much long after brittney, but a radio station had a countdown for natalie portman’s 18th birthday when she was 13
Oh yeah that might be the one I’m remembering. Idk there were so fucking many it’s gross
Y’all… they were doing this to Millie Bobby Brown as recently as 2020.
I actually do not remember that because I actively ignored all popular music, all royal family, all oj simpson, and the rest. I still do. Oh yeah, also actor’s names, I try not to learn them.
Cool, thank you for your valuable insight.
Me too man, me too. Improved the signal to noise ratio in my head.
I’d bet that more-or-less describes a disproportionate amount of Fediverse users.
Today, it looks like the Brooke Shields situation was normal for the time, but I assure you that it wasn’t. Plenty of people called out the behavior of those around her, and it led to the tighter restrictions on childhood sexual exploitation that we see today. There’s a reason why Brooke Shields is pretty much a solo act - when Hollywood handlers tried to cross boundaries with her, they got slapped down pretty quickly, and nobody really followed.
her mom let her do a sexualized fully nude photoshoot when she was 10
Its my fault for having internet today.
Wat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Gross?wprov=sfti1#Brooke_Shields_photograph_controversy
Not only that, but when she wanted those photos to be taken down, US courts ruled that she has no right.
Truly the best democracy in the world.
I remember she was nude in Blue Lagoon and she was 14 or 15 at the time. It was a scandal.
Also, Woody Allen? Guess everyone knew he was a creep all the way back then.
Damn dude, I was ready to call you out on this as I remember the movie when I was a teenager and she looked 17-18. I googled it and you were right, she was 14.
Hopefully they used a body double for the nude scenes.
She farted once on the set of Blue Lagoon
Everybody sharts
Because 70’s were WILD for that shit.
Should I remind you that street marches were held in the name of “adult-child love”? That NAMBLA, a North-American Man-Boy Love Association (you can’t make this shit up) tried to meddle with LGBTQ+ to get included? That songs were written about teenage girls being taught “adult love”?
If anything, the article is characteristic of the time.
What the fuck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartman_Joins_NAMBLA
I thought it was just a joke when the episode aired
There’s a lot of things South Park have portrayed accurately that I simply didn’t think could be true.
“what scientologists actually belive” is another one.
I thought it was a joke up until… today.
I did some research (more than I should for this ancient trite) and this comes from February 1978 issue of High Times magazine. A fucking stoner magazine! What the hell was the writer of some second-rate publication for grass and shrooms doing writing a lust piece about an up-and-coming child actress? What kind of grass would make you want to fuck a child?
Hold on, it gets worse. According to Wikipedia, the article’s writer, Ed Dwyer, was the magazine’s founding editor. Imagine working at that magazine’s office and reading your boss’s 1970s equivalent of a horny post.
Well that answers my question of how this got past an editor, even in the 70s
Ed Dwyer was still writing for the Saturday Evening Post just a few years ago:
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/author/ed-dwyer/
Among others:
Ed Dwyer has written for Los Angeles Magazine, Variety, and AARP the Magazine, among other national publications.
Someone should subpoena that dude’s search history.
She played the role of a prostitute in a movie and instead of the article being like “whoa this movie is pretty heavy - trigger warning” it’s all “damn she’s hot.”

Makes you think America has a pedo problem. What a ridiculous notion.
We have accountability problems too on so many levels. Pedophilia is a good pace to start. As a society we should deal with pedophiles harshly, no matter who they are. A system where the rich are allowed to circumvent the law is our reality, but we should draw the line before pedophilia. If a rich person does what the Epstein abusers did, they should be at the mercy of the accused and their family, even if it means their death. Chain the abuser to a wall and let the abused and their families into the room with a crowbar. Thats simple justice and its long overdue.
The problem with that is false convictions happen. There were hundreds of false convictions for child rape and devil worship in living memory, in the 80s and 90s, the Satanic Panic.
fair call. Lacking a coherent and just justice system, Life in prison (but no beating) will have to be enough I guess.
It wasn’t just America. There was code used with women, girls about whose knee to avoid sitting on etc. Some people realized it was wrong but for the most part, society’s way of dealing was to ignore and pretend it wasn’t happening. And if a girl got pregnant - it was all her fault. The difference was the greater reach of TV, cable, magazines than previous decades which started to undo the secrecy. As much a people hate on Boomers, they were the ones who started saying enough already, there needs to be laws against this if people can’t figure out on their own that it is wrong.
the world does collectively
Not just america but other countries are better at ignoring it or in some cases dealing with it effectively. Some still allow it even if its officially illegal. The current US leaders want this as well.
This isn’t just sexualising children, this is sexual abuse of people. Nobody should be sexualised without their consent. It is a disgrace that this ever hapened to her; however, this thing is still happening around the world regardless of age.
The industries thrive on non consentual manipulation of people. Adults, teens and even children are driven deep into the trap that is abuse.
Remember the trump child beauty pageants?
Child beauty pageants are fucked up full stop. What the hell is that shit.

Im sure the writer came manytimes…
Is it me or is this a recent trend of making the impression that paedophilia in the 70s-80s was normal? Like a week or so
Things were bad in the 80s in general.
Look at movies from the time. Revenge of the Nerds has one of the nerds dressing up in the same costume as a jock to have sex with his rival’s girlfriend. And when she finds out after the deed, she loved the rape so much she decides to dump her boyfriend.
Blade Runner - the beloved classic sci-fi has Harrison Ford pinning a woman who says no to a wall and sexing her up as the romantic climax of the film.
Its so prevalent that I had an idea for a movie of a bunch of recently retired dudes being bored with getting old and deciding to re-enact a bunch of their favorite pranks from old movies only to get in JUST far enough to be in deep shit and then realise they are committing felonies and their antics trying to extract themselves.
Blade Runner - the beloved classic sci-fi has Harrison Ford pinning a woman who says no to a wall and sexing her up as the romantic climax of the film.
I’ve never seen a Blade Runner movie but America does have a consent problem.
Hasn’t noticed that but now you mention it, yeah shit this is definitely a subversive attempt to save the predator class.
Just because you weren’t aware how prevalent this stuff was until now doesn’t mean the rest of us also weren’t or that it’s made up. Pedophile shit used to be way out in the open, that’s just a fact. Brooke Shields did a pornographic full nude Playboy photoshoot when she was 10 years old.
Fucking gross child rapist shit.












