http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28992[Baptist Press News] 26 Sep 2008--Pro-family advocates were pleased when "Hounddog," a film that depicts the rape of a 9-year-old girl, did not enjoy the widespread exposure its director had wanted. It opened in only 11 theaters nationwide Sept. 19 and earned a dismal $13,744 at the box office during the first weekend.
Hounddog stirred controversy last year when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and has drawn extensive protests including movie critic Ted Baehr's call for a boycott of the film just before its release.
"These despicable movies promote pedophilia, whether intentionally or unintentionally," Baehr, founder of Movieguide, said. "There should be a massive public outcry against them. The inclusion of children in sexually explicit films is inappropriate. There also is no excuse for the authorities to allow such material to be shown publicly."
The North Carolina chapter of Concerned Women for America called on citizens to stop the distribution of Hounddog in theaters, and now they're urging people to help block its release on DVD. Hounddog, which stars 14-year-old Dakota Fanning, was filmed in North Carolina two years ago.
Fanning, who also starred in "Charlotte's Web" and "War of the Worlds," plays Lewellen, a sexually promiscuous young girl who lives in a broken home in the rural South during the 1950s. Though several scenes involving Fanning are overtly sexual, the most brutal is when she is raped by a teenage boy who tempts her with tickets to an Elvis concert.
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http://www.bluelineradio.com/08132006_df.html
Pretend Rape? - Blue Line Radio
As a rape survivor who has seen Hounddog I am bothered by the increasing inaccuracies which are being presented as truth.
ReplyDeleteFanning's character, Lewellen, does NOT play a sexually promiscuous young girl. She plays a girl who is totally innocent about how sexual predators view a 9 year old girl mimicking Elvis.
Rather than stopping immorality, those who are spreading these lies (intentionally or not) are choosing to silence rape victims stories in the name of morality while reinforcing dangerous victim blaming attitudes which sexual predators use to rationalize their crimes.