Justin Bieber was failed time and again – he deserves more than an apology
We all bore witness to the appalling treatment of Justin Bieber, writes Emma Clarke. Where was the outrage then? Why didn’t anyone stop it?
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A young Justin Bieber, visibly uneasy, shifts in his chair and shoots pleading glances over to his mum to intervene, after being asked by a female radio host to give her “the sex talk”.
“I really, I feel uncomfortable right now,” he replied. “Why do you want to know the sex talk from a 15-year-old boy? That’s pretty weird.”
Yes, it is pretty weird.
But, shockingly, this wasn’t the only inappropriate interaction the boy was subjected to at this time – in fact, this grim line of questioning punctuated most of his early career. Resurfaced footage of Bieber’s treatment over the years, that has been doing the rounds on social media ever since Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested in New York on Monday, proves as much.
Beyond the questionable “48 hours” the 15-year-old spent with the rapper – and the awkward exchange with him a year on, when Diddy called Bieber out for not “calling me and hanging out the way we used to hang out” – a slew of problematic clips have been unearthed.
While appearing on the chat show The Talk, Bieber was asked: “Would you rather be naked on stage during one full song or drink a cup of blended worms?”
When he was barely 18, Katy Perry, then 27 years old, was filmed grabbing his bum at the Capital Summertime Ball; and that same year, at the 2012 American Music Awards, then-39-year-old Jenny McCarthy held onto Bieber while he was collecting his award on stage. She started kissing his neck, as he squirmed to get away from her. “Wow. I feel violated right now,” he said.
Yet despite the clear lack of consent – and Bieber speaking out plainly about his discomfort – no one listened or heeded his calls to stop. It was as if the adults he interacted with believed they had some claim over him and his body – that they had the right to do and say as they pleased with him, because he was in the public eye. It’s just “Bieber Fever”, right?
McCarthy herself suggested as much, as she told reporters backstage at the event: “It was a little cougar scary, but I took the opportunity in the window, considering I’ll never get to do it again, and kind of molested him.”
What’s worse still is that those who should have been protecting him seemingly looked the other way, time and again, providing such “opportunity”.
It’s been well-reported that Bieber and his mother Pattie Mallette have had a strained relationship over the years (she released a tell-all memoir in 2012, detailing her struggles as a single mum, and he has given interviews about their estrangement) and she was present during a lot of the interviews when he was younger.
Then there’s the wildly inappropriate response his father, Jeremy, had to leaked nudes of Bieber in 2016. He wrote on X: “He’s a beaut”, in reference to his son’s penis. Yup.
There’s no two ways about it: the adults in Bieber’s life allowed this type of behaviour to unfold, for this child to be exposed to the grossest kinds of comments and actions – and so it became the norm, the accepted way to address the star. Then, when Bieber started “acting out” (tantrums in supermarkets, being arrested, DUIs...), they turned their backs on him and completely shirked responsibility.
Only now, over a decade on, are people finally acknowledging how wildly f**ked up this treatment was – but this was all playing out before our very eyes. We all bore witness to his “downfall” (aka, his suffering), so where was the outrage then?
It’s not even as though Bieber is an isolated case; we have seen similar patterns with child stars like Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Charlotte Church and the Olsen twins. Countdowns to their 18th birthdays; comments about their pubsecent bodies; coercive behaviour and speculation over their sexualities. It’s beyond sickening.
Just this year, a damning documentary titled Quiet on Set blasted kids’ TV channel Nickelodeon for its set up in the Noughties. In the series, former child actor Drake Bell claimed dialogue coach Brian Peck sexually assaulted him when he was aged 15 – and countless others spoke about the toxic environment created by producer Dan Schneider. (Peck spent 16 months in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender. Schneider has said: “Facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret,” he said. “I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”)
And in his 2013 autobiography, Coreyography, Eighties star Corey Feldman detailed how he and his Lost Boys co-star Corey Haim had been sexually abused by industry executives. Appearing on The View the year of its release, Feldman explained to the pannel: “I’m saying that there are people that were people that did this to both me and Corey, that are still working, they’re still out there, and they’re some of the richest, most powerful people in this business. And they do not want me saying what I’m saying right now.” His claims were disappointingly shrugged off and disregarded by Barbara Walters.
It’s clear that there’s a deep-rooted problem in the entertainment industry that spans decades – if not longer. But just how many more children need to be exposed to this awful, degrading and disgusting treatment before it’s taken seriously?
Justin Bieber and other child stars affected not only deserve an apology; they deserve justice for the childhood that was so cruelly stolen from them.