In recent years, the #MeToo movement has brought to light countless stories of sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry. As a result, many brave survivors have come forward to share their experiences, and powerful documentaries have been released to shed light on the issue. Among them is Brooke Shields, a prominent actress and model whose life and career have been shaped by the toxic culture of Hollywood. In this article, we will explore Shields’ journey and the rise of the post #MeToo doc, as we discuss how documentaries have become an important tool for exposing abuse and holding those responsible accountable.
Brooke Shields has lived her entire life in the public eye, from landing her first modeling job at 11 months old to being declared “the 80s look” by Time Magazine at just 16. Hulu’s new two-part documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, tells her story, focusing on the moments when Shields was forced to negotiate misogynistic terrain, with sexualization and damnation lurking on either side. From her early days being managed by her controlling and alcoholic mother to playing a child prostitute in the film Pretty Baby, Shields has faced a litany of challenges in her career.
One of the most affecting parts of the documentary comes in part two, when Shields looks back at the birth of her first child, Rowan. After a labor lasting more than 24 hours, which transformed into an emergency caesarean during which Shields lost “buckets of blood”, she went home and fell into a deep depression. At her lowest point, Shields later wrote that she “thought of swallowing a bottle of pills or jumping out the window of [her] apartment”. And then, while the now 57-year-old Shields is discussing her experience of postpartum, up pops Tom Cruise, in a 2005 Today Show interview, accusing Shields of promoting dangerous drug use for taking antidepressants.
Many viewers will surely recoil at Cruise’s comments, but the moment is illuminating. Cruise’s criticism is an intrusive attack on what a woman in the public eye chooses to do with her body, and how she owns her mind. Appearing where he does in the documentary – after a seemingly endless stream of middle-aged men on talk shows talking down to a young Shields, while leering over her looks and virginity – Cruise emerges as yet another man who strongly implies Brooke Shields is either a dumb girl, or a dangerous woman – someone who needs to be corrected, put right; not someone to be heeded or taken seriously. But the episode is also illuminating in another way. Shields responded to Cruise’s comments by penning an op-ed in The New York Times, advancing a clear, sincere, and intelligent argument for medication to treat postpartum and for the condition to be more widely studied and understood. Shields had reclaimed her voice and agency in a public realm that has repeatedly stripped her of them.
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is also Shields’s “history, personal, and real,” and it seems like an attempt to reclaim her voice and agency in a public realm that has repeatedly stripped her of them. From the start, the documentary makes its perspective clear: here is a woman who has always been “more than a pretty face,” now telling her side of the story. Yet, what is more interesting about the two-parter and the woman at the heart of it is her refusal to fit neatly into any box – whether labeled “pretty baby,” “femme fatale,” “virgin,” “villain” or “victim.”
Shields repeatedly displays an uncanny ability to dismiss any attempt to make an easy narrative of victim and villain, in favor of positions that prioritize humor and nuance. She asks, “I’m fascinated with that journey of innocence to experience, and who owns it. Do they become a victim to it? Or do they not?” Repeatedly, Shields shows that she does own it, and it is this agency that has allowed her to survive and thrive where others have not.
Despite the challenges she has faced, Shields is warm, funny, and bright. She truly is more than a pretty face, and those who would try to reduce her to such should take note of her fortitude and resilience. Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields tells the story of a woman who has always been “more than a pretty face” and allows her to reclaim her voice in the face of oppression. Shields’s journey may have been challenging, but she has come out a stronger and more resilient person on the other side.
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With the #MeToo movement in full swing, powerful and inspiring women like Brooke Shields are sharing their stories to help shed light on the injustices and abuses that many women have faced in the entertainment industry. Through the rise of the post #MeToo documentary, we are seeing a shift in the power dynamic, as women take control of their own narratives and demand accountability from those who have wronged them. By bravely stepping forward and sharing her experiences, Brooke Shields is not only paving the way for future generations of women in the entertainment industry, but also proving that the power of storytelling is a force to be reckoned with. As we continue to strive for equality and justice for all, we must never forget the bravery and strength of women like Brooke Shields, and the countless others who are speaking out and making a difference.
