In film, recent masterpieces continue this work. The Florida Project (2017) gives us Halley, a young, reckless mother living in a budget motel near Disney World. She loves her son, Moonee, fiercely—playing with her, protecting her—but she is also a child herself, selling sex and stealing to survive. The son, Moonee, is often the more mature one. The film refuses to judge Halley. It simply observes: this is what poverty does to the maternal bond. It inverts it, forces the son to bear witness to her shame.

: In December 2020, a 45-year-old woman was arrested after her 13-year-old son accused her of sexual abuse. The complaint was originally filed by the boy's father, who lived in the Gulf.

“You’re not awful.”