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

She was abused for nude modelling and movie roles that sexualized her, including fully nude sex scenes, from age 11 on.
The movies were shown in theatres and on TV. Mainstream magazines published the pictures.
Fucked up times.

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.

The 1970s... some people romanticizing it because they think it's cool and cheesy, kids are "latchkey" and no one trying to mind your manners. In reality drug abuse was really full-on, some US cities were plagued by crime in the open, there were all kinds of shock and gore movies, and sexual permissiveness is so low that even minors are not spared -- like boys from junior high literally talking about eventually getting laid.

Magazines like that one are so much a reflection of the views of the time, and this article has the author alternately despising "mainstream" culture while simultaneously selling her as a sex object.

No one should wonder why some men "thriving" from that decade were really fucked up, now curb-stomping civil rights so that they could get their own "freedoms".

The problem didn't just appear suddenly. Why do you think the situation in the US is what it is? Trash like trump don't see anything wrong with raping kids. This problem goes back to the beginning of time. We evolve socially but they stay in their caves.

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.

For people who weren’t around in the 70s and 80s trust me the sexism and sexual abuse back then was unreal!

How Shields was treated was not unusual at all.

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.

Her torrid freshness became an underground legend among the talent set. Producers literally held their breaths, waiting for the remarkable Brooke Shields to reach a reasonable age of fuckability, not yet legal, but oh, so sweet. Welcome to the end of innocence, Brookie.

Multiple people had to okay that. How? HOW????

If you are not familiar with Brooke's story... I'm sorry for ruining you day.

Shields, now 59, has been vocal about her experiences, including her infamous appearance in Playboy at age 10 and her role when she was a minor in The Blue Lagoon, a film that featured her and her co-star in numerous nude scenes.

Source: https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/resurfaced-article-from-1978-describes-12-year-old-brooke-shields-as-a-whore

What the actual fuck. This article is repulsive. The line just under her cover page picture is fucked up, the whole article is fucked up. I hate to even have this shit attached to my profile, but I’m going to transcribe this shitty article to be best ability so ya’ll can read this shit for yourselves.

Cover Page

Culture Hera Brooke Shields Million-dollar jailbait: She must have been a beautiful baby because today she’s America’s most famous 12-year-old hooker. by Ed Dwyer

Article

The most perfect nymphette in all creation has been found - in America. Her name is Brooks 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. She’s a sultry mix of all-American virgin and nascent whore. She’s the hottest new young thing in movies since a smoldering preteen named ElizabethTaylor stiffened up Louie Mayer’s cigar. She is only 12 years old and destined to be the sex symbol of 1984. In Louise Malle’s steamy Pretty Baby, Brooke is Violet, a baby prostitute raise to the chicken trade by her hooker mother (Susan Sarandon). The Frenchman’s film centers on the bordello in the old Storyville district of New Orleans, where Violet lives. The year is 1967, and smack in the middle of that red-light area, bubblin’ with sin, smoke and jazz, crows and female child raise on a diet of cock money. Patrician Brooke is devastating as a little lady who fucks and sucks for bucks. She eases like a vegan through moods that alternate between vulnerable, hot, angelic, mocking and sinful. She seduces both Keith Carradine and the camera in erotic scenes guaranteed to remain sensational for years. Brooke took to Violet’s story like a white takes to champagne. What’s more, is is intoxicating to watch.

Brooke Shields is a sultry mix of all-American virgin and whore.

Brooke’s looks have been her business all her young life. Extraordinarily beautiful even as an infant, Brooke was immediately steered by her mother, ex-model Terri Shields, into a modeling career. Her huge portfolio includes stints as the Ivory baby, a Breck girl, a Colgate kid, plus scads of cover-girl appearances in both women’s and family magazines. She’s been playing the prepubescent vamp since she was eight. At that tender age, she dropped her Garters(?) for a photographer and posed nude. Later she camped it up suggestively in full Victorian bimbo rig - garter belt, silk stockings, high heels. Brooke became a favorite subject for premier photographers like Avedon and Scavullo. By day she was the face that sold, at night she was the princess of wet dreams. Her torrid freshness became an underground legend among the talent set. Producers literally held their breaths, waiting for the remarkable Brooke Sheilds to reach a reasonable age of fuckability, not yet legal but oh so sweet. Welcome to the end of innocence Brookie. Now with Pretty Baby done, Brooke is being flooded with movie proposals. So far, she’s been inked to play the teenage Lucretia Borgia in an upcoming period thriller. And she is slated to star as the tormented young murderess in Alfred Sole’s Communion. By law she’s not permitted to expose her endearing young charms in a magazine until she’s 18. Nevertheless, Brooke recently posed starkers for a lavish Penthouse pictorial spread. Brooke is the first serious actress to violate the preteen sex taboo. Unlike pugnacious Jodie Foster or puerile Tatum O’Neal, she’s the delicious stuff of teenage fantasies become flesh; barely old enough to want, but too young to get. A sweet bird of youth, she comes armed with a sultry self-possession that alarms the sexually insecure adult. A mere prediction of a woman, she stirs erotic passions often better left unsatisfied. She’s a sweet temptation to all but blind men and eunuchs. She’s sister, daughter, sex object, victim, lover, tramp. We can look forward to watching her fill out over the next decade. Brooke Shields is not use another pretty baby; baby.

Hooooly shiiitt. You have NO IDEA how many times I just about threw this whole transcription away and said nope, fuck no. JFC. The ONLY reason I’m leaving this repulsive trash up here is so ya’ll can read how truly fucked up this author is. What the fuck became of this guy? Is he in jail? Looks like maybe this is the guy responsible for the creation of the High Times magazine?