Brooke Shields Reflects on Facing Over-Sexualization at 15: “It’s Practically Criminal”

Brooke Shields was fifteen-years-old when she posed for her infamous 1980 Calvin Klein jeans campaign. In the ads, the model sported the jeans, reciting numerous lines that were received with much backlash claiming the content to be overtly sexual in nature.

At the time, Shields partook in multiple interviews about the campaign. Most notably, she spoke with Barbara Walters, who asked the young Shields many intimate and invasive questions about her sexual and personal history. 

“It’s practically criminal,” Shields explained. “It’s not journalism.”

A few months back, Shields reflected on the experience as a whole. 

“They take the one commercial, which is a rhetorical question. I was naive, I didn’t think anything of it,” she said of her teenage self. “I didn’t think it had to do with underwear, I didn’t think it was sexual in nature. I would say it about my sister, ‘Nobody can come between me and my sister.’”

Despite the criticism and abuse, Shields put Calvin Klein on the map in a whole new way with the ads. 

“I feel like the controversy backfired. The campaign was extremely successful. And then, I think the underwear sort of overtook the jeans, and they understood what sells and how to push the envelope,” she explained. “There’s an appeal to it that is so undeniable, and they tapped right into it. They knew exactly what they were doing, and I think it did set the tone for decades.”

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Photo credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com