I’m not a believer in conspiracy theories. Donald Trump won the 2016 election without Russian collusion, and he lost the 2020 election without massive fraud. Vaccines are wildly effective at preventing deaths and hospitalizations from the coronavirus. Jeffery Epstein did kill himself — well, probably.
But honestly, the Pizzagate weirdos and QAnon basement dwellers have a point. Not that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta drink the blood of babies, or that Trump and Robert Mueller are planning the mass execution of Democratic pedophiles. Rather, the baseline assumption undergirding these conspiracies, namely that the wealthy and powerful elite traffic children for their own sick sexual desires, exists for a reason.
I could point to Epstein or Harvey Weinstein or any number of accused or convicted rapists who were virtual open secrets in the top echelons of society for decades, but what about the victimization of children right out in the open?
Let’s take one tragic and telling example: Brooke Shields.
In a recent interview with Vogue, Shields reflected on her ad campaign with Calvin Klein. The commercials, which turned the actress and model into a household name, featured Shields donning the signature jeans and a seductive stare into the camera, saying, “You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” It was a clever ad and would have been tasteful — had Shields not been just 15 years old.
“I didn’t think it was about underwear or sexual in nature,” Shields told Vogue. “I was naive. I think the assumption was that I was much more savvy than I ever really was. I was a virgin, and I was a virgin forever after that.”
OK, 15 may still be technically underage, you may be thinking. But at least she’s fully clothed.
Except Shields’s first nude scene as an actress was in Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby when she was just 12 years old. Her first nude pictorial as a model was shot when she was 10 years old for a defunct Playboy publication called Sugar ‘n’ Spice.
I’m not linking to any evidence of the photos because they are unequivocally child pornography. A prepubescent Shields is covered in oil and wearing nothing except full, heavy adult makeup. And these photos weren’t stowed on some server to hide from the federal authorities. They were authorized by her mother, taken by a professional photographer, and put in a magazine published specifically to satiate the sex drives of fully grown men.
At the time, this was considered “controversial,” not outright criminal.
Shields is an extreme case, but it’s a symptom of a widespread trend in Hollywood.
Here’s another example: Just as Shields herself, rather than the adults who objectified her, was attacked and slut-shamed for the Calvin Klein campaign, Miley Cyrus was bullied into issuing an apology for the topless Vanity Fair cover that Annie Leibovitz shot when the actress was also 15 years old.
But again, who is to blame here? The underage actress blindsided by fame? Or the adults profiting off of a body the state does not consider capable of consenting to sex?
Pizzagate and QAnon are needlessly complex conspiracy theories by design. They served overt political purposes — namely to galvanize people to the alt-right and explain away election losses. The rampant antisemitism promulgated by their loudest adherents is a feature, not a bug.
But they use the most empathetic plea they can think of — #SaveTheChildren! — for a reason. Not only is it an effective appeal to pathos, but it’s also grounded in a sick, sad reality: Namely, that we’ve watched Hollywood elites sexualize and objectify children for decades. Their (predominately) Democratic friends in power do next to nothing about it or even cover for them.
If Hollywood wants to neutralize the claims they’re all trafficking children and drinking their blood, maybe they ought to stop sexualizing children.
