# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/121 "2016-01-14T20:46:51Z")
That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/122 "2016-01-14T21:27:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > One result of which was AIDS. What’s your point? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/123 "2016-01-14T22:27:08Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age. Alright, alright, alriiiiiiight. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/124 "2016-01-14T22:50:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Sex is too litigious these days. Been that way for the last couple decades. > > Attitudes and laws needed to change from the old days. Some of the stuff the old Rock Stars did was unacceptable even then. They got away with it because nobody looked too closely. But the scale swung way too far in the opposite direction. I’m expecting notaries public to set up shop in hotel lobbies very soon.\*\* Couples can get those sex contracts signed before going up to their room.\*\* As the saying goes [there’s an app for that](http://we-consent.org/). It’s got everything short of a breathalyzer module to verify your partner’s blood alcohol level. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/125 "2016-01-14T22:52:50Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > I’ve wondered the same thing myself - it seems weird that the world of TV light entertainment has been held to account in recent years (e.g. Operation Yewtree) - whereas musicians have been left alone, relatively. I’ve just concluded that the media have decided that they don’t want to have to disown half the bands of the latter half of the 20th century as paedophiles, on the basis of underage groupie trysts. You need to look up the word paedophile. And I am not critiquing your spelling . ---
**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 15, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/126 "2016-01-15T00:01:10Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > As the saying goes [there’s an app for that](http://we-consent.org/). It’s got everything short of a breathalyzer module to verify your partner’s blood alcohol level. That is the stupidest, most pointless thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t even understand how it’s supposed to work. Who is it for? The person using it or the person with them? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/127 "2016-01-15T00:19:46Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > That is the stupidest, most pointless thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t even understand how it’s supposed to work. Who is it for? The person using it or the person with them? Both, apparently. It’s based on a California law (surprise!) Here’s [an interview with the developer,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm56sxwHWGY) Michael Lissack. The disturbing thing is that the app is only available for iPhone, so if you use an Android phone, presumably you won’t be doing any legal hooking up. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/128 "2016-01-15T00:20:57Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And of course, we gave kids a lot more responsibility then. I was walking six blocks to school in grade 1, and the sidewalks were full of other kids doing the same. Today, there are no kids on the sidewalks, but lines of cars at the schools to pick the little darlings up. One parent at my kid’s school got a visit from child services because she let her kid walk one block to the school without supervision. That’s definitely not the case where I live (and no, I do not live in a small town). There has to be more to the story regarding the child who walked to school unsupervised. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/129 "2016-01-15T00:33:06Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > You need to look up the word paedophile. And I am not critiquing your spelling . Yes, there is a difference between statutory rape and child molesting. But many have been hard at work trying to erase it for a while now. Someone getting it on with a 14-15 y.o. groupie is not a pedophile. S/he’s doing something inappropriate, unethical, possibly abusive, unlawful almost anywhere but it’s not necessarily a sexual pathology. Some 14 y.o.'s ARE hotter than a $5 pistol. The adult is expected to _know better_, not to be repulsed. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/130 "2016-01-15T13:29:12Z")
Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones was nearly 50 when he started sleeping with a 14 year old Mandy Smith. Some believe he began sleeping with her when they first started going out - she was only 13 then. His own son, around 22 years old at the time, could have been considered a bit old for Mandy! My recollection of the times is the UK police did belatedly investigate the relationship, possibly this was after they were married, but Mandy simply refused to speak to the police. Without the support of Mandy, her mother (who had briefly dated Wyman before marrying his son) or Wyman himself the police dropped the inquiry. I speculate whether something similar happens with genuine Rock Stars (emphasis on the ‘Star’) like Jimmy Page. Perhaps a 14 year old in the 70s would be very proud of sleeping with the Led Zepplin guitar legend. Possibly she would still be proud in the 80s, 90s, 00s and even to this day. If there is no ‘victim’ (I would further speculate these women don’t self identify as being victims of anything), no complaint then the UK police aren’t going to do anything. On the other hand, while it may have seemed exciting at the time, sex with a minor TV actor, a radio DJ, a comedian or whatever no longer carries such a sense of achievement and the women now do consider themselves victims, do come forward and the police do get involved. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/131 "2016-01-17T23:49:00Z")
Daily Beast article: [David Bowie and Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Statutory Rape Problem](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/17/david-bowie-and-rock-n-roll-s-statutory-rape-problem.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page) ---
**Author:** ![Hocus\_Pocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/41988e/32.png) [@Hocus\_Pocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hocus_Pocus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/132 "2016-01-18T00:22:56Z")
IMO “70’s rock stars getting a pass” can be divided into legally & public acceptance (although both can mirror each other or not). And it’s the latter that’s pretty interesting to me when it comes to Don Henley. In 1980 a 16 y/o naked girl was found OD’ed in his house, along with another drunk 15 y/o girl. He ended up being charged for it, and pleaded no contest. What I find interesting is that this had no effect on the success of the Eagles. What makes it extra interesting for me is that when he came out with _Dirty Laundry_ nobody called him on his self-serving whine (although the acceptance of the song was probably due to the general lack of ethics by media in other news). Was it that the media didn’t want to bring up the past to avoid discussion of their own transgressions, or did the public simply not care? ---
**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 18, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/133 "2016-01-18T00:45:08Z")
I hate to tell you this but I don’t think anyone cares. 16-year old groupies can take care of themselves, if they can’t then they learn a lesson and grow up a bit. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/134 "2016-01-18T03:45:13Z")
Maybe it should be renamed the British Pedophile Invasion. Disgusting, really. Too bad we have limitation statutes. ---
**Author:** ![Hocus\_Pocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/41988e/32.png) [@Hocus\_Pocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hocus_Pocus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/135 "2016-01-18T04:44:05Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I hate to tell you this but I don’t think anyone cares. 16-year old groupies can take care of themselves, if they can’t then they learn a lesson and grow up a bit. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon. So I take it you have no problem with teachers hitting upon their 16 y/o students? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/136 "2016-01-18T04:53:14Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I hate to tell you this but I don’t think anyone cares. 16-year old groupies can take care of themselves, if they can’t then they learn a lesson and grow up a bit. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon. I hate to say it, but this about sums things up. I was about that age in the 1970s, and I knew a few female high-school classmates who would somehow manage to get backstage when Led Zeppelin, the Who, and others would come through town. Let’s just say, if their word was anything to go by, they didn’t get just autographs (although they got those, as well, to prove that they were there). It was a different time, and teenagers were presumed to be older than they are regarded now. Most of us smoked cigarettes, for example, and our parents might not have liked it, but couldn’t stop us after we were 16 (the legal age for smoking in my jurisdiction in those days). We rode the subways without adult supervision, unless we were cruising in a friend’s beater up and down Yonge Street in Toronto on Friday and Saturday nights. We had no government-imposed curfew, and we usually succeeded in getting beer when we wanted it. Never mind the poker and crap games we played for real money when we did not feel like cruising Yonge. All before we were 18. And girls… Oh, there were girls. Led Zeppelin didn’t come through every day, after all. But nowadays, I look at my 18-year-old nephew. His first beer was bought for him by his Dad, on his 18th birthday (the legal age is 18 here). He has never cruised the main drag in a car with friends; he has no driver’s license, nor do his friends (their parents drive them everywhere). He does not know how to take public transit. He has never smoked a cigarette (even to say, “This is stupid, why do people do this?”) he cannot play poker, he cannot play craps, he does not go out on Friday or Saturday nights with his friends to nightclubs or bars. He is uncomfortable if he is not at school or home. He is still a child in all respects, as I see them. Teenagers in my day (as **up\_the\_junction** indicates) could take care of themselves. They were curious, they explored, they pushed the boundaries. Nowadays, they seem to ask permission of their parents for everything; while my generation went ahead and did stuff anyway, parents be damned. To bring things back to the OP, 1970s rock stars got a pass because the girls never saw anything wrong with what they were doing, and never told their parents. It was a different time. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/137 "2016-01-18T06:08:02Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Maybe it should be renamed the British Pedophile Invasion. Disgusting, really. Too bad we have limitation statutes. Please don’t diminish real pedophilia by calling what sexual antics transpire with 16 and 17 year olds what’s reserved for pre-pubescent _children._ Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/138 "2016-01-18T06:29:47Z")
> [@Hocus\_Pocus](#): > > So I take it you have no problem with teachers hitting upon their 16 y/o students? Kids have to go to school and their teachers are bound to exercise care over them. No-one has to go backstage with a rock band in pursuit of “autographs” and “memorabilia”. ---
**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 18, 2016, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/139 "2016-01-18T08:39:40Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I hate to say it, but this about sums things up. I was about that age in the 1970s, and I knew a few female high-school classmates who would somehow manage to get backstage when Led Zeppelin, the Who, and others would come through town. Let’s just say, if their word was anything to go by, they didn’t get just autographs (although they got those, as well, to prove that they were there). And the bragging rights back at school was the main incentive - it was, and still is, part of the period when young women are working out their pulling skills - their allure. They have to know this stuff. Like people everywhere, they want status, sometimes notoriety in their group and school. This isn’t, or wasn’t Little House on the Prairie; the way young girls usually get backstage is by offering favours, usually blowjobs, to bouncers/roadies - it’s a deal for the girls, it’s a perk for the roadies. I don’t understand how 50 years down the road people are still delusional about how the game works. ---
**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 18, 2016, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919/140 "2016-01-18T08:57:46Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Teenagers in my day (as **up\_the\_junction** indicates) could take care of themselves. They were curious, they explored, they pushed the boundaries. Nowadays, they seem to ask permission of their parents for everything; while my generation went ahead and did stuff anyway, parents be damned. > > To bring things back to the OP, 1970s rock stars got a pass because the girls never saw anything wrong with what they were doing, and never told their parents. It was a different time. Teenagers can still take care of themselves - look at sports fields and dating sites. The change is the fetishisation of innocence by adults. You know the latest craze in London, at least a local sub genre - and this is privately educated, middle class society? It’s called the The Line. a group of teenage girlfriends working a line of cocks at a house party, swapping, having fun among themselves. Nightmare for the parents as they don’t want to be thought of as having let it happen at their house 🙂 Some people maybe need to get over themselves a little. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-70s-rock-stars-get-a-pass-on-statutory-rape/742919.md?page=8)