Artists and Very Young Girls

"What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."

 

 But here's the thing. I don't even need molestation charges to know Woody Allen is a scumbag. Having sex with your girlfriend's 19-year-old daughter is plenty, thanks. And while molesting his 7-year-old daughter would perhaps catapult Allen from the league of "disgusting" to "monstrous," there's plenty to be disgusted by even without those allegations. 

Unfortunately, Woody is just one of our many artistic idols with a documented taste for teenage girls. In our society, if you give a certain kind of man the keys to the kingdom -- if you tell him, "You are special, you are above reproach, you can have what you want" -- part of what he wants is likely to be fresh, pretty, easily manipulated, very young girls. Girls who are in no position to rewrite the script they're used to.

 

As a result, underage girls and famous artists are an age-old pairing -- the chocolate and peanut butter of the artistic world.

 

You can't read about any artistic history or movement -- from punk rock to 18th century poetry -- without reading about someone's teenage mistress or girlfriend. Men with big egos and senses of entitlement combined with a lack of boundaries have always chewed up and swallowed emotionally immature young girls.

 

Off the top of my head alone: Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, as did Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis Presley was obsessed with 14-year-old girls (like his would-be wife Priscilla, who was 14 when he met her) and lost interest in his sexual partners once they were no longer virgins.

 

R. Kelly.

 

Ted Nugent has admitted to a fondness for underage girls, and at one point became 17-year-old girlfriend Pele Massa's legal guardian to avoid hassle. Marvin Gaye was 33 when he started dating 16-year-old Janis Hunter. The Eagles' Don Henley was arrested when police found a drugged, naked 16-year-old girl at his house. Salinger dated teenage girls.

 

Iggy Pop allegedly slept with Sable Starr when she was only 13, then wrote the song "Look Away" about her. Starr went on to have relationships with Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls and Richard Hell, all before turning 17. Chuck Berry went to jail for transporting an underage girl across state lines, and allegedly appeared in in a video urinating on a young girl in a hotel bathtub. Rob Lowe made a sex tape with a 16-year-old girl.

 

Roman Polanski plead guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, then fled to France to escape imprisonment. Cher was 16 when she met 27-year-old Sonny Bono. Jimmy Page had a relationship with Lori Maddox, a 14-year-old groupie he proceeded to keep behind closed doors for years to avoid legal trouble. She was linked to David Bowie a year earlier.

 

Charles Dickens left his wife for an 18-year-old and then publicly slandered his betrayed wife in the newspaper. Fifty-one-year-old Doug Hutchinson married 16-year-old Courtney Stodden. Bill Wyman, the Rolling Stones' bassist, infamously "dated" 13-year-old Mandy Smith. Mackenzie Phillips' musician dad first raped her when she was 17 or 18.

 

The above are not only just the ones that come to mind quickly, they're just the ones who got caught. Our cultural canon is built on the backs of young girls.

 

It's no mystery why teen girls would be drawn to the powerful men who court them. Young girls, a traditionally fairly powerless group, wake up one day to discover they wield enormous sexual power, power they may use without the perspective or emotional maturity to fully understand the consequences. Many 13-year-olds with access to rock stars and visionary directors would be thrilled to capture one's interest, but unable to fully understand how unlevel the playing field truly is.

 

As Priscilla Presley, groomed like a dress-up doll from the age of 14 to be Elvis's perfect woman, put it: "I was someone he created. I was just a kid and I was consumed by him. All I desired was not to disappoint him."  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE