Should we pretend that child prostitution never existed, because it makes us uncomfortable? War, police corruption, slavery, and the Holocaust make me uncomfortable, but there are very good movies dealing with each of those subjects. You or I might avoid going to see a movie because we're uncomfortable with the subject matter, but film-makers should be free to make films you or I or anybody else would be uncomfortable with. After all, we don't have to go.
Pretty Baby is based on a true story. It was changed around to the point that I can't justify calling the movie itself a true story, but it's based on one. These sorts of things (if not these specific things) actually happened. What makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with humanity isn't that somebody made a movie about a child prostitute, or that a child did a nude scene in said movie; what makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with humanity is the fact that in a city with a slew of legal brothels, where a man could find adult women willing to do anything he might want, there was still a market for a child prostitute. It made economic sense for a brothel to have one available. THAT'S what makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with humanity.
I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart
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