The perception of childhood changed through ages, with our Western times, in my opinion, enjoying the most generous definition of it, extending the age of childhood - and implicitly, of consent - until late teens. The legal protection - from abuse, forced labour or marriage - in the Western world goes far from the previous approaches. Sexualisation of young girls, that we no need to go too far than the glorious rebelious 1970s. Personally, I experienced it much later, in the 1990s, but those are stories for another time.
I´ve first heard about Eva Ionesco as she was mentioned in Vanessa Springora´s book, with her very sharp insights into the French literary afterwriting debacle, as a case of young girl in the attention of social services. Ionesco´s story however, is even much cruel and her struggle with sexual abuse continues until today.
Eva´s mother - Irène/Irina - who died at the beginning of 2020s, was a Romanian-born photographer famous for her sexualized portraits of young girls, for whom her daughter was forced to pose from the very early age of four. Before being a photographer, Irène born from an incestuous relationship, used to play in a circus, until being partially incapacitated for this type of work from an accident.
In the autobiographical novel by Ionesco, read in the original French language - part of a series of three - Les Enfants de la Nuit/Children of the Night - her mother is portrayed in very cruel, sadistic even terms: manipulative, narcissistic, self-absorbed. Her daughter, in her very early teens, became aware of being used for purely financial purposes, as a free-model for her mother sexual photographic fantasies. Although she despised Irène, she is not cutting her out completely, even accepting a little dance of lies with the representatives of the social services. Her silent scream of abuse is her self-destructive night life, wasting herself out with drugs and illicit sex during the nights spent with her hard-partying band of dysfunctional teens, among which Christian Loboutin.
Without excusing her mother´s fundamental role in her traumatic story - until today Ionesco is fighting in court for her right to taking out of circulation her sexualised pictures - the amplitude of her case was facilitated by the so-called esprit du temps. In other words, it was a public open to the consumption of the media her mother produced; or the society accepted the picture of an 11-year old in Playboy; or a bunch of teenagers were accepted to roam the best of the Paris´ dubious clubs. It is the same world where Brooke Shields played the role of a 11-year old prostitute.
The topic of the book is not easy to digest, but it mirrors an age, an episode from the last century French world, introduced in its cruelest possible way. It is not an easy read, at times the writing is raw and traumatic - if it´s for the reader, spending some hours only with this book, think about how does it feel for Eva -, but necessary. As parents or just humans, it is vital to understand how to protect our children - from themselves and the others.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered for the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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