List of Crap #130: Top 50 Kid Stars, Prodigies, and Beyond

[stethacantus]

Your trying to spin it, but applying the words "sexually attractive" to a 13-year old is troubling.

I checked IMDb and she was 15 an up when she was on 30 Rock.  I don't think I was ever attracted to a girl younger than that age, and that includes the years I was in High School. And only if the girl in question looked and acted older than she was.  I would prefer not finding any girl attractive until the day after she reached the age of consent, but that is not how it works. You find someone attractive based on what they look like and how they act, and if they can look and act much older than they are then you are going to find them attractive. Anyway, check out the 30 Rock episodes to see what I was talking about before you assume I was attracted to someone who looked like they were Honey Boo Boo.

#1 Robin Johnson
#2. Trini Alvarado
#3 Robbie Rist   ( a.k.a. Cousin Oliver )
#4 Greer Robson 
#5 Jackie Coogan
#6 Gary Colman
#7 Jonathan Ke Quan ( a.k.a. Shortround )
#8 Judy Garland
#9 Michael Jackson
#10  Corey Feldman
#11 "Little" Stevie Wonder
#12 Jodie Foster
#13 Debbie Gibson
#14 Mickey Rooney
#15 Johnny Wittiker
#16 Our Gang a.k.a The Little Rascals
#17 Jackie Earle  Haley
#18 Drew Barrymoore
#19 Baby Leroy
#20 Tatum O'Neal
#21 Miley Cyrus
#22 Todd Bridges
#23 Billy Mumy
#24 Ron Howard
#25 Christina Applegate

[George-2.0]

Your trying to spin it, but applying the words "sexually attractive" to a 13-year old is troubling.

I checked IMDb and she was 15 an up when she was on 30 Rock.  I don't think I was ever attracted to a girl younger than that age, and that includes the years I was in High School. And only if the girl in question looked and acted older than she was.  I would prefer not finding any girl attractive until the day after she reached the age of consent, but that is not how it works. You find someone attractive based on what they look like and how they act, and if they can look and act much older than they are then you are going to find them attractive. Anyway, check out the 30 Rock episodes to see what I was talking about before you assume I was attracted to someone who looked like they were Honey Boo Boo.

Yeah someone who just turned 15 the month it aired makes all the difference in the world. You also grouped Hit-Girl (13-years-old) with 30 Rock, which, yes, I've seen, and that doesn't change a thing, I don't care how a girl dresses or how she acts, she's still a GIRL, she was playing a girl of 14-15 in 30 Rock.

I gave you the opportunity to rephrase your comments but you keep doubling down and making it worse, maybe you don't understand what "sexually attractive" means, or that it's connected to sexual desire or arousal? If you really mean that you are sexually aroused by this kid, then please do not speak to me, ever. 

----

Folks I feel very sick to my stomach right now, this has really shaken me up. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm misunderstanding or exaggerating what was said. But I can't be here right now, this is toxic. I'm not deleting my account, this is not about losing my temper, it's just that this conversation has really, really bothered me. And I need to go away for a while. I'm sorry about leaving you hanging for the next LoC, but someone else will have to host the submissions thread.

[RVR II]

I guess the 'woke' that F-zero was referring to before he was banned finally happened but after the LoC was completed

[stansimpson]

May I just say I'm not the least surprised this has come up? Like there was a chance this coooould be problematic?

Did anyone else not see this at all as a possibility? Even maybe a probability?

Sorry I wasn't here at the beginning, but was this even mentioned? If it wasn't, I have to imagine it was an unspoken thing at least, right?

[CJones]

I'm surprised Shirly Temple wasn't #1. OTOH, I did not expect Bobby Fisher to rank anywhere near that high. Anyway, here was my list:

1 Hailee Steinfeld
2 Bobby Fisher
3 Wolfgang Mozart
4 Shirley Temple
5 Blaise Pascal
6 Jodie Foster
7 Dakota Fanning
8 Saoirse Ronan
9 Charlotte Church
10 Carl Friedrich Gauss
11 Abigail Breslin
12 Elle Fanning
13 Haley Joel Osment
14 Our Gang (aka Little Rascals)
15 Ivana Baquero <-- Ofelia from Pan's Labyrinth
16 Brooklynn Prince <-- Moonee from The Florida Project
17 Neil Patrick Harris
18 Heather O'Rourke <-- The Poltergeist girl. Really tragic how she died.
19 Christina Ricci
20 McCauley Culkin
21 Greta Thunberg
22 Drew Barrymore
23 Chloe Grace Moretz
24 Hayley Mills
25 Corey Feldman

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Testing, I can post in other threads but can't post my list here...

Trying to edit and paste:

My list:

1   Tatum O'Neal
2   Nadia Comaneci
3   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
4   Billy Mumy
5   Mara Wilson
6   Stevie Wonder
7   Bobby Fischer
8   Shirley Temple
9   Jennifer Capriati
10   Sarah Michelle Gellar
11   Haley Joel Osment
12   Ron Howard
13   Linda Blair
14   Valerie Bertinelli
15   Fred Savage
16   Jennette McCurdy
17   Abigail Breslin
18   Jodie Foster
19   Sissy Spacek
20   Emily Osment
21   Drew Barrymore
22   Neil Patrick Harris
23   Jaleel White
24   Jodie Sweetin
25   Danielle Fishel

This is so weird, let's see if I can paste this:

Too bad this had to end on a sour note.

I guess I had one on my list that shouldn't have been there, I never looked up how old Sarah Michelle Gellar was when Buffy started, I always assumed she was about the same age as her character but she was 20 when that show started.  She did do a lot of acting before when she was very young but I never saw any of that.


OK, some combination of words in a few lines I wrote about Breslin and Foster in Nim's Island causes the post to go away, weird...

[George-2.0]

May I just say I'm not the least surprised this has come up? Like there was a chance this coooould be problematic?

Did anyone else not see this at all as a possibility? Even maybe a probability?

Sorry I wasn't here at the beginning, but was this even mentioned? If it wasn't, I have to imagine it was an unspoken thing at least, right?

Your not wrong, I guess my brain just doesn't go there, when I watch a Hayley Mills film, for example, I don't think of her that way, I think she's talented, or funny, or good with drama, I like the movie (or not) and that's it. But yes, I was out there, reading the stories and collecting pictures, so I was sadly aware of the problematic nature (for example, I found and grabbed a tasteful photo off the net -and tasteful was key- then I notice the words "hot body" within that URL... and this is for an image of a child, for God's sake! Even though there was nothing provocative in the image, I went searching for another photo).

I should have posted a list of forbidden subjects and words. I would have thought that this would go without saying –  that if you wanted to speak to the troubling aspects, the exploitation and abuse in an academic way, that's one thing, but NEVER, ever use words that speak to a kids sexual attractiveness, don't refer to them in a sexualized manner, even mildly.

I thought that was a given but I was wrong, painfully wrong. Your 100 percent right, I should have addressed it. And I've been kicking myself all day. Stupid, stupid me. Not only stupid but psychologically unsettling, I don't mean to sound melodramatic -and excuse my language- but this has royally fucked me up.

[George-2.0]

And I'm sorry this went sour, it was going so well. I'm going to post my list, then run off and decompress some more.

Thank you for your lists and your comments.


I believe I was the only one with a saint on my list.

1. Pamela Franklin
2. Nathalia Crane
3. Hayley Mills
4. Jerry Mathers
5. Our Gang / The Little Rascals
6. Patty Duke 
7. Martin Stephens (actor, Village of the Damned, The Innocents)
8. Joan of Arc (saint, heroine - file her under "historically significant", though if you're French or Catholic, she's most certainly a star.)
9. Patty McCormack (actor, The Bad Seed)
10. Judy Garland
11. Shirley Temple
12. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (prodigy - philosopher, composer, poet, feminist nun. Her outspoken opinions granted her nicknames such as "The Tenth Muse" and "The Phoenix of Mexico", for she was a flame that rose from the ashes of "religious authoritarianism". She was the subject of a biopic I liked, titled I, The Worst of All.
13. Ana Torrent (actor, Spirit of the Beehive, Cría cuervos, Elisa, vida mía)
14. Blaise Pascal
15. Mary Badham (actor, To Kill a Mockingbird)
16. Jodie Foster
17. Johnny Whitaker
18. Saoirse Ronan
19. Jennifer Capriati 
20. Anne Frank
21. Chloe Grace Mortez
22. Jackie Coogan
23. Ron Howard
24. Jean Forest (French actor from the silent era)
25. Alma Deutscher (prodigy - pianist, violinist, composer)

A few from my big list
Winona Mae (voiced Emily Prime in Don Hertzfeldt's first 2 "World of Tomorrow" shorts)
Johnny Crawford (original Mouseketeer, The Rifleman, was riffed on in MST3K for Space Children and Village of the Giants)
Peggy Ann Garner (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
Thérèse of Lisieux (saint)
Sabu (actor)
Jascha Heifeitz (violinist)
Jena Malone (actor, singer)
Bruce Lee (actor)

[ColeStratton]

I solely did child actors -- thus I'm not gonna post someone like Pascal cuz I was still thinking of the "child stars" moniker and not child geniuses, etc. I still had a ton of them I couldn't include on it. RE: everything that's going on in this thread -- I'm sorry this took a turn. It definitely didn't occur to me when I was making my list, but the vast majority of my picks were from the 80s when I was growing up. I'm sure I had some age-appropriate star crushes when I was an adolescent so it was all pretty innocent. Like when I was 10 I was in love with Jennifer Connelly.

These LOC are supposed to be fun things to spur conversation about our picks and things we love. It's tough when it gets personal or controversial. I always try to keep it light on my end, cuz ultimately we're a bunch of John Cusacks making our Top 5s at a record store. I value you all and I truly hate seeing these things turn nasty. Maybe I'll try hosting a list soon (which I've never done) on some topic that I'm passionate about.

Here's my list for this topic:

1.   River Phoenix
2.   Kurt Russell
3.   Christian Slater
4.   Michael J. Fox
5.   Christina Ricci
6.   Jason Bateman
7.   Drew Barrymore
8.   Jodie Foster
9.   Haley Joel Osment
10.   Leonardo DiCaprio
11.   Kaitlyn Dever
12.   Sean Astin
13.   Diane Lane
14.   Neil Patrick Harris
15.   "The Coreys" Corey Haim & Corey Feldman
16.   Martha Plimpton
17.   Macauley Culkin
18.   Jacob Tremblay
19.   Ricky Schroder
20.   Jodie Sweetin
21.   Alfonso Ribeiro
22.   Ron Howard
23.   Tatum O'Neal
24.   Kirsten Dunst
25.   Leaf Phoenix =)

[Pak-Man]

I was going to vote for Michael J. Fox, but then I found out that he was born in 1961, which means he was in his 20s when he started doing Family Ties or anything else I know him from, which was my biggest surprise when researching my list.