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This magazine called 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown one of TV’s ‘sexiest’ stars
SHE IS LITERALLY A CHILD!
by Katie Way
It is wrong and disgusting to sexualize any of the child actors in Stranger Things. There's no world in which this should be a hot take, and yet it bears repeating, given the way certain outlets cover the young stars — especially female lead Millie Bobby Brown.
Millie Bobby Brown's name does not belong in any conversation about sex or sex appeal because she is a 13-year-old, but some outlets cannot seem to abide by this rock-bottom standard.
Spanish publication PlayFM dug up a June issue of W Magazine that ran a cover story with the headline "Why TV Is Sexier Than Ever."
The magazine listed names of these sexy TV actors, including Nicole Kidman, Riz Ahmed, and Charlize Theron. All well and good.
But what's not okay is that Millie Bobby Brown appeared in the very same column.
On the publication's website, Brown's picture is included in a slideshow with TV's "hottest" stars.
Brown is extraordinarily talented, and her performance is Stranger Things definitely warrants press coverage, but not the kind that turns her, an underage girl, into a sex object.
Luckily, most people seem to be onboard with protecting Brown and her male costars from those who want to sexualize them, or cover them in a way that's inappropriate for children.
Because whether or not the sexualization is intentional, it promotes a view of child stars as viable objects of affection for adults, which is pedophilia and obviously wrong.
Mara Wilson, who starred in Matilda and began acting when she was only 5 years old, tweeted some particularly pertinent thoughts on the media's treatment of Brown.
Hopefully the repeated backlash will be enough for people to reframe the way they talk about the stars of Stranger Things — we can talk about how funny they are, how cute they are, and how much we like the projects they work on without commodifying or objectifying them. It's really that easy.