Nirvana’s fortunes have been up and down recently. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the band’s trademark hit, recently surpassed a billion Spotify streams, an unusual milestone for a 1990s song. Spencer Elden, who featured naked on the legendary Nevermind album cover when he was a newborn, is now suing the band. Elden has filed a lawsuit against the band and others involved, alleging child pornography and sexual exploitation. The issue has gotten a lot of attention, and Maggie Mabie, an attorney for Elden, had a heated discussion with Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Prime Time about it.
“The focal point of the image is the minor’s genitalia,” Mabie said during the chat, according to Yahoo! And, as we alleged in our complaint, that image, coupled with all of the other dosage components, is an extremely over-sexualized image that does constitute child pornography. More crucially, it was child exploitation in the manner in which the image was generated and in the manner in which it is still distributed today.”
Cuomo, on the other hand, did not agree with that viewpoint, saying, “I don’t recall anyone ever writing or anything being out there in society about this image as a sexualized or pornographic image.” I’ve always thought it was a metaphor for how people grab for money and do anything they can right out of the womb. It seemed to me that it was more about business than sexuality.”
“Spencer wants this image redacted,” Mabie continued, comparing Elden to child pornography victims. He’s saying he doesn’t want his genitalia out there for the world to see any longer, and if we can get this image censored, it’ll be a huge step forward for all child pornography victims, demonstrating that their voices are being heard and their privacy is being respected.”
“You think this man is really a good face for the anguish of child pornography?” Cuomo fired back against Mabie, highlighting the fact that Elden has consistently honored and re-created the album art over the years: “You think this man is really a good face for the pain of child pornography?” Someone who has made money off of it, has a tattoo on his breast commemorating it, has celebrated it at various times throughout his life, and has had all this time to reach out about it in the context that you’re presenting now, but has never done so? Do you honestly believe that this would be reassuring to real victims?”
