The Mary Sue: When I was growing up, it was Emma Watson. For the generation before me, it was Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Now it’s Millie Bobby Brown. All of these child actresses have been turned into sexualized objects by older audiences. It’s not just the girls; the young boys are also being called cute, with fans saying how they shouldn’t call them in ten years. While people might frame it as a joke, it doesn’t stop the fact that what’s happening is the sexualization of children.
2 comments:
This is a very interesting read because I learned quite a bit that I simply had not realized before. I don't think I ever knew to the extent described how horrible people could be. This article addresses specifically children, but once you're famous, your image appears everywhere, and sadly that includes foot fetish websites and child porn, as well as simply on a google search. I never realized how horrible humans were, treating these children like objects of society and claiming their image, even though they are just children. I am disgusted by comments about waiting till their legal, or the constant stalking that occurs, because no, these kids will never have a "normal" childhood, but by stripping them of that by constantly asking for pictures, or associating them with pornographic sites, you are ruining their chance of trying to be a normal child. This article is really eye-opening and comes from a lady that used to be a child herself, so it makes the message even more important because she has already been in that horrible spotlight.
I commented the other day on the original Mara Wilson article but think that it is important to comment on this article as well for a few reasons. First of all I think it is very important that the young boys on Stranger Things were also addressed in this article.
We often dismiss the sexual violence that is perpetrated against teenage boys because we see them as inherently sexual and "wanting it". But that is simply not the case. A kid is still a kid and still deserves to be protected by adults who aren't pedophiles from adults who are.
I also thought that the idea of stalking being taking pictures of celebrities while they are doing everyday activities. While I didn't ever think of it this way, I think Lili Rienhart is right. Having to worry about people taking pictures of you at any point in the day must be terrible. I hope that one day we can all learn to treat celebrities with the respect that we would treat anyone else with.
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