‘The Blue Lagoon’ Is Disturbing And It Sexualizes Minors, Even Brooke Shields Admits The Movie “Wouldn’t Be Allowed Today”

It’s been over four decades since Brooke Shields acted alongside her cousin, Christopher Atkins. At face value, it seems like any other '80s Hollywood blockbuster movie – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Shields famously played the character Emmeline Lestrange in The Blue Lagoon. The actress was only 14 years old, while Atkins was 18. 

Recently, the Pretty Baby star reunited with her cousin on her podcast Now What?, where she admitted that there would never be another film like The Blue Lagoon again. “Never again will a movie be made like that,” Shields said. “It wouldn’t be allowed.” The reason is evident: The duo is naked the entire movie, with breasts and genitals exposed in certain scenes. The plot, which was highly inappropriate for minors, included sex and masturbation.

The 57-year-old recalls taping her long locks to her boobs. “I don’t know what I was trying to cover. Remember the bumpy pads?” she asks Atkins. "They would stick these little flesh-colored things to my nipple because nipple is where they drew the line, evidently, with this movie.” Unfortunately, that’s not all – the pair were also directed to tan nude before filming to avoid tan lines.

The production team also wanted Atkins and Shields to get together outside of work. “They wanted so desperately for us to fall in love with each other,” Shields says. 

Is The Blue Lagoon Considered Child Pornography? 

Apparently, steps were taken to ensure that the movie wouldn't be classified as child pornography. Shields confirmed previously that The Blue Lagoon used body doubles for her sex scenes; one of them being Valerie Taylor, who was 30 years old at the time. It's incredibly disturbing to think about this casting choice, as it suggests the audience imagine a minor's physique as a mature woman's. In hindsight, it doesn’t make sense for directors to choose a minor for such an R-rated film in the first place.

Brooke Shields' History of Being Sexualized as a Child 

Shields has a history of being sexualized in Hollywood at an extremely young age. The actress posted completely topless and uncensored for Playboy Magazine when she was only 10 with the consent of her mother, Teri Shields. Gary Gross, the photographer, was never criminally charged, since the law on sexual child exploitation was not ratified until 1977. Shields' Playboy shoot took place in 1975.

The photos fueled public backlash, and Shields' mother ended up suing Gross, but the lawsuit was later dismissed. New York State Supreme Court Justice Edward Greenfield ruled that the images were "not erotic or pornographic" except to "possibly perverse minds." The judge had described Teri Shields as "maternally protective and exploitive at the same time,"
and tried to portray her daughter as "sexually provocative and exciting," all while "attempting to preserve her innocence." Greenfield then added, "She cannot have it both ways."

The Blue Lagoon is disturbing, but the film Shields starred in when she was only 12 has it beat in terms of creepiness. Shields played a child prostitute in the controversial movie Pretty Baby. The motion picture – unsurprisingly – had nude scenes that involved the young actress, and it also shows a scene where men auction for her virginity.

Last year, an interviewer asked Shields to look back at all of these films and images, and their damaging effects of sexualizing young girls. “I think it’s been done since the dawn of time, and I think it’s going to keep going on,” the actress said. According to the writer, Shields seemed "a little detached and academic" about the topic, and added: “There’s something incredibly seductive about youth…I think it just has different forms, and it’s how you survive it, and whether you choose to be victimized by it. It’s not in my nature to be a victim.”

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