My wife recently attended a talk by Brooke Shields hosted by WBEZ at the Auditorium Club in Chicago. In anticipation of the talk, my wife asked if we could watch a 2023 documentary about her life called Pretty Baby, a reference to Louis Malle's 1978 film Pretty Baby in which Shields starred at the age of 11 that launched her into superstardom.
As someone whose early childhood was in the 1980s, I was unaware of the cultural phenomenon Brooke Shields had been during the late 70s and early 80s. The documentary was eye-opening in many ways, not the least of which was how Brooke Shields became a sexual icon at such a young age. As I watched her life unfold in the documentary, what became clear is that a major aspect of her celebrity was how she reflected a certain kind of sex appeal that deeply resonated with the American public.
What they never brought up in the documentary, but what I immediately noticed, is how Brooke Shields’ sexual resonance is grounded in the religious backdrop of Puritanism. Indeed, I don’t think one can fully understand why Brooke Shields “look” was so highly valued without also understanding the roots of Puritan Christianity in the United States.
Puritanism: A Short History
Beginning in 1630, between 20,000 and 25,000 Puritans migrated to New England during the Great Migration. Most of these Puritans settled in New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other nearby areas). Their original goal was to “purify” the Church of England, which was not taken well by church leaders. When the Puritans realized that reforming the Church of England was a fool’s errand, many opted to abandon England in favor of forming their own society in the New World.
The Puritans valued literacy and education, primarily so one could read the scriptures. They deplored laziness and extolled hard work. However, their greatest legacy was their moral strictness. Puritans had very specific views of how Christians should live, this included stringent rules around sexuality. Although they encouraged a robust sexual relationship within the confines of marriage, sexuality outside these confines was strictly prohibited.
In practice, this meant that men and women were expected to be sexually pure prior to marriage. Obviously, premarital sex, adultery and same-sex relationships were not tolerated. Anyone who deviated from these norms faced intense public shaming, expulsion from the community or, in the most extreme cases, execution.
Therefore, even though modesty was a valued commodity, women were held to stricter standards of behavior and dress because they were expected to be pillars of purity and virtue. Unsurprisingly, these sexual ethics seeped into our social fabric and became enmeshed within American attitudes towards sexuality that are prevalent centuries later.
Repression and Purity Culture
Like every aspect of American society, there are ebbs and flows in the sexual proclivities of different generations. The question is how far will each generation stray from Puritanical sexual norms? For example, sexual mores in the 1920s were considerably looser compared with the buttoned-up sexuality of 1940s and 50s. The sexual pendulum swung away from Puritanical sexuality during the counter-culture movement of the 1960s. Spurred by the birth control pill and feminism, a big aspect of the counter-culture movement was free love, where traditional relationship structures were rejected.
Evangelical Christianity, as we know it today, was founded in the 1970s as a reaction to the free love movement. One of the defining features was the reemergence of Puritanical sexual norms. Young people were taught that their sexual impulses are sinful. To embrace sexual desire is to open the door to evil and corruption from which there is no return. Therefore, leading a godly life means that boys and, particularly girls, should suppress and repress all of their sexual thoughts and desires until they are married.
As a result, these adolescents are taught to feel not just guilt, but deep shame around anything sexual. It’s important to distinguish between shame and guilt. Guilt is when our conscience tells us that we've done something wrong. Shame, on the other hand, makes us feel condemned to our very core. It causes us to question our worth and integrity. Sexual shame is particularly damaging because it forces us to repress aspects of ourselves that then have the potential to manifest in psychologically toxic ways later in life.
Brooke Shields and Repression
If you’ve watched Pretty Baby or read any of Ms. Shields’ books, you will understand a few critical elements of her childhood. First and foremost, her mother was divorced from her father and eventually came to depend on Brooke for income. From the time Brooke was a baby, her “look” had become famous, making her one of the most sought-after child actors for advertisements. Second, Brooke’s mother was an alcoholic who not only caused a great deal of chaos in Brooke’s life, but also developed a highly codependent relationship with her daughter.
These ingredients created a recipe for exploitation. None of the adults in Brooke’s life were looking out for her best interests. For example, by the time she was in late childhood (around 9 or 10 years old) Brooke was being photographed in provocative and sexualized poses. These photographs are what inspired director Louis Malle to cast Brooke in the 1978 film Pretty Baby at the age of 11 in which Shields plays the daughter of a prostitute whose virginity is auctioned off to highest bidder. Based on a true story, Shields’ character falls into an abusive relationship with a local photographer who marries her.
The film caused a firestorm of controversy. Reviewers contended Pretty Baby was nothing more than “sophisticated kiddie porn” garnering an X rating in the UK and an R18+ rating in Australia, for its nudity and sexual content. Both Brooke and her mother shrugged off these criticisms by stating the movie was “artistic”. The film was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or and won the Technical Grand Prize at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
Brooke, in the 2023 documentary, said that such a movie could never be made today because even asking a child to perform such a role would be considered abusive. However, in reflecting on the film’s production, Brooke said she really couldn’t comprehend the sexual component of the film. She was simply doing what the adults in her life were telling her to do. She describes being dissociated from her body and not really feeling anything. All that really mattered was that her actions generated approval from the adults around her, particularly her mother.
Pretty Baby launched Brooke Shields into superstardom and caught the eye of director Randal Kleiser who cast Shields in The Blue Lagoon, a story about two children (a boy and girl) marooned on an island. As they age into puberty, they explore their sexuality, which eventually results in Brooke’s character becoming pregnant and giving birth to a child. Even though the movie was panned by critics, it was the 12th highest grossing movie of 1980 transforming Brooke into an international sexual icon.
Again, in reflecting on that period in her life, Brooke described how, even though she was acting in a movie about a sexual coming of age story, she personally had zero sexual inclination. Her mother’s control over her life was absolute and would not allow Brooke to date. Brooke, compliant to her mother’s wishes due to their codependency, repressed her sexual identity. As a result, Brooke’s existence was an inherent contradiction: She was a sexual icon who was, at the same time, sexually pure. She represented an impossible combination of innocence and sensuality.
Brooke Shields: The Real-Life Truman Show
If you’ve ever watched the film The Truman Show, you are aware of the basic plotline. Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carrey) is adopted by a television studio and is raised on an enormous sound stage by actors who play his parents and the people who occupy his town. There are thousands of hidden cameras located all around the soundstage that allow Truman’s life to be broadcast worldwide, 24/7. The fundamental premise underlying the plot is that Truman is the only one ignorant of his reality. Everyone else in the world is in on the ruse. I would argue the same was true of Brooke Shield’s life as a child star.
As I stated earlier, Brooke Shields was one of the most photographed figures in the world during the 1970s. Beyond her movies, the most provocative ad campaign in which she was featured was a series of ads put out by Calvin Klein in 1980. At the time, these ads were highly controversial because they were laced with sexual innuendo. In fact, many networks would not run the ads and deemed them pornographic. The controversy was effective. Sales of Calvin Klein jeans shot up 300 percent.
One of the taglines from these ads was the question: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?” Brooke’s response, “Nothing.” The implication being that Brooke didn’t wear underwear. However, when Brooke was asked about the ads, she admitted it had never occurred to her that there was anything sexual about the tagline. From her perspective, she was simply saying that she loved the jeans so much she would never let anything stop her from wearing them.
Some might question whether this could be possible, but I absolutely believe she never made this connection. Indeed, her ignorance of the sexual nature of the tagline was the very reason the ads were so effective. Brooke Shields had repressed her sexuality to such a degree that those types of thoughts never really crossed her mind. Thus, even though her words and body language effused sexuality, the innocence behind her eyes was absolute. She couldn’t comprehend how her words and actions were interpreted by everyone else.
This is why Brooke Shields is like a real-life Truman Show. Everyone in world could see that she was a sexual icon except for her. Her sexuality was so repressed, she was the only one who couldn’t fully comprehend the reality of what she was doing. Similar to the world watching The Truman Show, everyone across the world is watching Brooke, interpreting her life to be one thing, when she herself was ignorant of how everyone else was viewing her. Indeed, this paradox is why Brooke Shields sexual iconography resonated so deeply with the American public.
The Puritanical Paradox
At the beginning, we discussed the history of Puritanism in the United States. I explained how modesty was valued commodity among men and women, but women were held to stricter standards of behavior and dress because they were expected to be pillars of purity and virtue. You might have noticed a dissonance between this description of Puritans and Brooke’s depiction in the media—her dress and behavior were not modest. Whether we’re talking about The Blue Lagoon or the Calvin Klein ads, Brooke was constantly being filmed in sexually provocative situations.
One might argue that if she was truly a reflection of Puritanical virtue, Brooke would have been far more modest. However, what you would be missing is that Brooke was outspoken about being a virgin (something she later regretted). Besides her roles in movies, Brooke admits that she had never kissed a boyfriend because her mother restricted her dating life. Think about it, the most recognizable sexual icon in the world and she’s never kissed a romantic interest!
She was the embodiment of the American Christian sexual ideal: Brooke was sexual without being sexual. I call this the Puritanical Paradox and conservative Christian leaders instantly recognized how Brooke fit this ideal (even though she was not particularly religious). They upheld Brooke Shields as the example of what all young women should strive towards. Yet, in order for this paradox to exist, a person has to severely repress their sexuality, which Brooke did because she grew up in a very toxic and chaotic environment.
What this tells us is that American Christian ideals around sexuality are inherently dysfunctional and unhealthy. Her fame was, in large measure, the result of the American public being inculcated with this ideal and being obsessed with someone who managed to so cleanly balance the outward expression of sexual maturity with the inward innocence of sexual purity. This insane concoction, brought to you by American Christianity, needs to be abandoned.
In my opinion, as a human grows into sexual maturity, they should be able to explore their sexuality without fear of shame and guilt. In spite of what church fathers like Augustine might promote in their writings, sexual impulses are not inherently sinful. They are a natural consequence of aging into adulthood and should be expressed rather than repressed. Sexual exploration is healthy, normal and should be encouraged along with education about how to prevent pregnancy and disease.
The fact that the church continues to saddle young people with such detrimental ideals around human sexuality is abusive. Not only are these ideals constructed, but these shameful sexual ideals often follow people in unhealthy ways for the rest of their lives. Thankfully, Brooke Shields was eventually able to break out of her purity prison and embrace her sexuality.
Today Brooke Shields is a very different kind of sexual icon—one of strength, resilience, and intelligence. Not only is Brooke aging gracefully, she reflects a poise and elegance that few people of her station are able to maintain after a lifetime in the public spotlight.
Brooke Shields’ new book is Brooke Shields is not Allowed to Get Old.
Please know the sexual abuse of children across all cultures and religions remains rampant. Worldwide and prevalent. We really have to fight the denial of this fact.