It was a baby they threw and here is why...

friend, i have seen use the term "immaculate conception" twice and i just wanted to point out that (and catholic friends please correct me if i am wrong) the immaculate conception refers to Mary's conception without original sin, not the conception of Christ--which is the virgin birth.

so the immaculate conception is of Mary, with an earthly mother and father but without the stain of original sin, according to catholic doctrine


and the virgin birth is of Jesus (which is actually what u r refering to) with only an earthly, pure, mother as a vessel, but as the Holy Spirit as the One causing conception, therefore and earthly mother but Heavenly Fatheri think i have that all correct...

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Do everything in Love. I Corinthians 16:14 NIV

Ragdickie -- to clarify, while he did say he knew what was happening, he never said he "liked it" (unless the Netflix version was edited). You could argue that was implied, and that any sex might be somewhat pleasurable to a drunk, horny teen, but he doesn't state it.

Frankly, that would make for a much more powerful move, though, as you imply. And maybe that was the case in the original version, and it was edited.

I think the movie can work both ways -- in the way you describe, where he's just trying to fit in, and as an indictment of a narrow-minded society that causes a relatively normal teen to think he's gay simply because he had one drunken incident. ("How can I want you and do that?").

The final scene does tend to lean toward the former interpretation, but could also just be seen as compassion for Dewey's more established homosexuality. (And a desire to protect the legend of Billy Joe.)

It's kind of hard to molest a grown man. Although Billy Joe's age is unspecified, he was finished with high school, and was played by a 20-year old actor.

The event was completely consensual.

Where is this baby supposed to have come from? In the movie, Billy Joe and Bobbie Lee have only been dating a few months before she even considers making love with him, and they never actually go all the way together. I saw the picture when it first came out and remember that it was rated PG. Surely nothing substantial was edited for TV airings. I gather that Billy Joe feared he had failed Bobbie Lee in some way, and perhaps that he had committed an unforgivable sin by "being with" Dewey Barksdale (who is not to be confused with Brother Taylor the preacher). That's as detailed as their encounter is ever described onscreen. Bobbie Lee's reaction is the real focus of attention. The viewer is supposed to mature along with her as she learns that sexual relationships are a lot more complicated -- and fragile -- than the teenage confessional magazines she reads ever suggested. Pregnancy is only one possible outcome. In that respect she is the true heroine of the story. She saves Dewey from a gruesome fate at the hands of Billy Joe's father, in effect forgiving him for what he's done because she can understand his feelings, however awkwardly, and has no desire to see him punished as a predator. If the film were remade today, that detail would of course be changed completely.

The song is more ambiguous, but I don't think a real baby was involved in its backstory either. Wouldn't someone have noticed the pregnancy? If an abortion was involved, why would that be done on the bridge? I interpret the song to mean that its narrator did make love with Billie Joe (as the name is spelled on the record) but that they used some kind of protection. That's what they threw off the Tallahatchee Bridge, probably in response to seeing "that nice young preacher" Brother Taylor snooping around. The song's narrator probably taunted Billie Joe into thinking she really was pregnant so he would take her away from her cotton chopping chores. That, in my opinion, is what pushed him over the edge and made him kill himself.

I fell in love with the song when it was new. I listened to it over and over. I heard all the talk about it in its day. I saw the movie when it came out and I might have had a reservation or two about how the story was treated.

As far as the original song, a lot was left to the imagination. Yet, even though Bobbie Gentry didn't spell out everything, many have theorised based on the actual title, "Ode To Billie Joe," and other facts. The movie script and the song lyrics don't necessarily mesh.

Peace,
John Martin, 47

Of course the book and the movie agree - the book is a novelization of the movie screenplay (written after the movie came out to capitalize on the movie's polularity). The song (which came first by several years) was intentionally vague about details, in order to focus on the Narrator's loneliness and the family's detachment form her emotional pain.

[deleted]

As someone else has already said, Billy Joe never says he liked "it." He simply says, "I knew" after Bobbie Lee implies that he didn't know what he was doing because he was drunk. And after saying that she couldn't be wrong about him, he replies, "Well, you are wrong." In that moment, Billy Joe is all but admitting to Bobbie Lee that he is in fact a "man like that." He finally accepts that reality, but ultimately cannot accept himself.


Sister, when I've raised hell, you'll know it!

And if she'd had a baby I suspect her family might have noticed! An aborted fetus would have been disposed of by the abolitionist

It has time for Bobby Lee to grow up and learn the facts of life regarding Billy Joe. And that was the symbol of the doll being thrown from the bridge.Billy Joe McAllister was gay.

"I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?"