# Why do '70s rock stars get a pass on statutory rape? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919 "2016-01-12T12:27:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/61 "2016-01-13T02:22:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock & Roll” has a reference to a 17-year-old BOY in whom she’s interested standing by the jukebox. 😃 Joan didn’t write it, she just changed the gender pronouns. [The original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0) was written and sung by a bloke. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/62 "2016-01-13T02:25:24Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > It’s not even that different to a lot of things, it’s just some people choose to pick this thing out - drinking and driving, mow down a line of people … lets not talk about that, lets ponder the exploited teen who somehow managed to end up backstage with a series of men… If you want to start a thread about drinking and driving or '70s racism or whatever nobody is stopping you. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/63 "2016-01-13T03:31:06Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > If you want to start a thread about drinking and driving or '70s racism or whatever nobody is stopping you. Sorry, you asked “why”. up\_the\_junction gave an answer similar to those of at least a dozen other posters. You don’t get to declare a perfectly reasonable answer out of bounds because you don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/64 "2016-01-13T04:06:59Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > I have tried, but can’t really seem to understand this attitude. It seems that most people agree that a line has to be drawn somewhere, and that it should be drawn conservatively in order to protect children. > > Yet folks seem to get very upset at the idea that they shouldn’t sexually engage with some small fraction of the population for the small fraction of the time they are both sexually desirable and underage. As if this is a terribly wrenching demand to make of an adult. > > I don’t know how many people of your preferred gender you\* see in a given day. Chances are, most of them are sexually unavailable to you for various reasons, including age, marital status, and it’s time to shampoo the cat. It’s important to be able to accept this likelihood and deal with it, or else your life will be chock full of disappointment and possibly prison. > > \*Generic “you,” not **octopus**. I understand the need, and I think most do too, of needing laws to prevent abuse of children. But calling someone a perv merely because they are sexually attracted to a sexually mature person is a bit strong. We have the laws we have today due to the economic need of people needing 12+ years of schooling. Not because it’s inherently immoral to find a fully developed 16 1/3 year old attractive. And it varies by state and nation. So is one a perv in Massachusetts for marrying and consummating the marriage at 14? Now I’m not advocating old adults have relations with young teens. But I have a hard time seeing the crime, other than offending old fashioned prudishness, of a 19 and a 16 or a 20 and a 17 or a 15 and 14 year old. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/65 "2016-01-13T04:23:05Z")
Somehow I got the idea that some states have a 2 year slide or something on statutory rape? That is, if she’s 16 and he’s 17 or 18, it’s not SR, but if he’s 19 or older, it is. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/66 "2016-01-13T04:35:03Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Somehow I got the idea that some states have a 2 year slide or something on statutory rape? That is, if she’s 16 and he’s 17 or 18, it’s not SR, but if he’s 19 or older, it is. Yes, generally known as [Romeo and Juliet](http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/violent_crimes/romeo-and-juliet-law.htm) laws. In the play, Juliet is two weeks from her 14th birthday. Romeo’s age isn’t mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/67 "2016-01-13T04:55:43Z")
Just like to add that years ago Mackenzie Philips went on Howard Stern and said that although she had sex with Mick Jagger when she was legal (17 I think) she said that the first thing he said to her when they got into the room was, \*“I’ve wanted to do this since you were twelve”. \* Rock stars are hedonistic, degenerate horn dogs and back in the 70s it took a lot to cause a scandal. If the sex was consensual nobody really gave a shit how old she was (or wasn’t)… ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/68 "2016-01-13T05:51:36Z")
Ringo Star’s song sometimes gets a bad rap. You’re 16 (You’re Beautiful & you’re mine) I think the guy in the song is a high school classmate referring to his gf. But, the strident PC crowd today assumes the worst. Odd, because the narrator in the song never implies that he’s an adult. A few of the youtube comments are brutal and completely unfair to Ringo. A shame since it’s a great song. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4x19vy_9aFc/hqdefault.jpg "Ringo Starr: You're 16 (You're Beautiful & you're mine)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x19vy_9aFc) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/69 "2016-01-13T06:11:54Z")
[Young Girl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJFVPxBpezk) raises eyebrows also. I don’t know why, the lyrics are about a guy who found out a girl was too young and tells her to go home. But I guess everyone figures he banged her anyway. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/70 "2016-01-13T06:40:32Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Just like to add that years ago Mackenzie Philips went on Howard Stern and said that although she had sex with Mick Jagger when she was legal (17 I think) she said that the first thing he said to her when they got into the room was, \*“I’ve wanted to do this since you were twelve”. > \* > Rock stars are hedonistic, degenerate horn dogs and back in the 70s it took a lot to cause a scandal. If the sex was consensual nobody really gave a shit how old she was (or wasn’t)… She also had an incestuous relationship with her father. That didn’t surprise me at all. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/71 "2016-01-13T07:49:33Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > If said girl has no regrets about her rock star fling, then how would you go about prosecuting the “crime”? > > No victim + no witnesses willing to testify = no trial. Pretty simple. No one is going to attempt to prosecute a crime with no evidence and and no complainant. I suspect it’s the “no evidence” thing that’s the real problem. People have been prosecuted for underage sex where the underage person was a willing participant. What makes it impossible is where as a consequence the underage person won’t testify. Take the OP example. There’s no way the woman would have testified against Bowie. If the police had called at her door she would have said “I was kidding, no such thing actually happened” and that would be that. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/72 "2016-01-13T09:09:11Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > If you want to start a thread about drinking and driving or '70s racism or whatever nobody is stopping you. You chose to make a cheap point and to smear a named individual, I chose to put in a cultural context. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/73 "2016-01-13T09:12:15Z")
A reference point: You guys do know 14 is legal in most of the southern part of your continent, and plenty of other places. Albeit with conditions some of the time. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/74 "2016-01-13T09:15:54Z")
[quote=“aceplace57, post:68, topic:742919”] Ringo Star’s song sometimes gets a bad rap. You’re 16 (You’re Beautiful & you’re mine) I think the guy in the song is a high school classmate referring to his gf. But, the strident PC crowd today assumes the worst. Odd, because the narrator in the song never implies that he’s an adult. A few of the youtube comments are brutal and completely unfair to Ringo. A shame since it’s a great song. [/QUOTE] FTR, that was a cover [a song originally recorded in 1960 by Johnny Burnette and written by the Sherman Brothers who would later compose the songs for **Mary Poppins**.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_Sixteen) You couldn’t find a better example of white bread teen pop from that era. Anyway, since we’re talking about songs about 16 year old girls from the 1950s and early 60s,[“Only Sixteen” by Sam Cooke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Sixteen) (and subsequently covered by Dr. Hook) would also probably raise a few eyebrows now. (Here’s a link to[the Sam Cooke version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN5XEUxuNZc).) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/75 "2016-01-13T11:54:06Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Sorry, you asked “why”. up\_the\_junction gave an answer similar to those of at least a dozen other posters. You don’t get to declare a perfectly reasonable answer out of bounds because you don’t like it. Plenty of people gave perfectly reasonable answers, including yourself. up\_the\_junction, however, initially responded with a vaguely homophobic rejoinder attempting to undermine my general query about things that, as other posters in this thread have illustrated, are a matter of record and not just hearsay. up\_the\_junction then proceeded to change tack and say well other terrible things happened why concentrate on just this, which is a bog standard waste of a response in any thread. The thread is about a specific thing, complaining that I’m not asking about something else entirely is tantamount to thread shitting. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/76 "2016-01-13T11:56:10Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > You chose to make a cheap point and to smear a named individual, I chose to put in a cultural context. All your posts are cheap points. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/77 "2016-01-13T12:16:07Z")
You may find this podcast interesting as it covers this exact topic. It’s a guy called Dan Carlin who does very good history podcasts but also does this series. [http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/](http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/) It’s episode 276 - Past Transgressions > [@](#): > > Imagine celebrities from the 1960s and 1970s who were involved in sexual conduct with minors in their heyday being called to account for it today. It’s currently happening in Great Britain. Dan has some thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/78 "2016-01-13T12:18:50Z")
If you think a post is out of line, report it. Don’t Jr. Mod or hijack the thread discussing it. The OP doesn’t really get to define or moderate how a thread progresses. > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Plenty of people gave perfectly reasonable answers, including yourself. up\_the\_junction, however, initially responded with a vaguely homophobic rejoinder attempting to undermine my general query about things that, as other posters in this thread have illustrated, are a matter of record and not just hearsay. up\_the\_junction then proceeded to change tack and say well other terrible things happened why concentrate on just this, which is a bog standard waste of a response in any thread. The thread is about a specific thing, complaining that I’m not asking about something else entirely is tantamount to thread shitting. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/79 "2016-01-13T12:21:32Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > You may find this podcast interesting as it covers this exact topic. > > It’s a guy called Dan Carlin who does very good history podcasts but also does this series. > > [http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/](http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/) > > It’s episode 276 - Past Transgressions Thanks, will have a look. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/80 "2016-01-13T12:22:29Z")
Go 27 mins into it to get to the point as he just deals with his podcast info for the first bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919.md?page=5)