Submitted 8 months ago by snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world to [deleted]
As disgusting as we see it now, keep in mind that, back then, child marriage was not only condoned but sometimes encouraged in those parts of the Southern U.S.
We’ll never know if he did it because he had a thing for young girls, or if he did it simply because it was an accepted practice.
Regardless of why, it’s objectively terrible that he did that.
Canada only changed the age of consent from 14 to 16 last decade.
Age of consent is not the same as age an adult is allowed to be with a minor. Minors should be allowed to consent to have sex, just not with much older people. Laws that prosecute, say, a 19 year old from having sex with a 17 years old, or god forbid two 14 years olds to have sex together, are absolutely draconian.
Fun fact: there’s no such thing as objective morality. Back in the 1920s people thought it was objectively terrible for Black people to have equal rights.
I can both agree with your statement AND assert with evidence that something is objectively bad. 🤣
Because his fame comes from an era when that kind of age gap and inappropriate conduct was handwaved away with “fRoM a GoOd FaMiLy!”
Especially in his native southern US. Especially especially among the white folks in his native southern US.
Have you not listened to songs from that era? They’re mostly about hooking up with underage girls.
Yeah, sweet seventeen by Chuck Berry also hits … as at the very least, creepy in 2024.
Don’t forget “Sweet Caroline” about an 11 y/o Caroline Kennedy. Fucking creep.
Might you be thinking of “Sweet Little Sixteen” by Chuck Berry? The guy who btw installed cameras in women’s bathrooms?
Also, the most venerated boomer band of all time…
“She was just 17… if you know what I mean “
Love the Beatles, mind you, but uhhhh… all of those boomer bands were like that.
“I used to pull your pigtails And your scrunched up nose But baby you been growing And baby it’s been showing From your head down to your toes”
Another Elvis hit, “Little Sister.”
Again, love the King, but uhhh….
Wait until you find out about Jerry Lee Lewis…
Wait until you find out about The Prophet Mohammed
So I can better understand, could you draw me a picture?
Wait until you find out about Donald Trump.
While some want to litigate what Mohamed did in the 15^th^ century, child marriage is still legal in most of the US and is still practiced (illegally) all throughout Europe.
I post this because I’m sick of people who think that Muslims have something to teach the West about persecution, degeneracy, theocracy, violence, and bigotry when we’ve been the world leaders of all forms of lechery for like 4 centuries.
Do you have anything else I can wait for if I already know about all these things?
Wait til you read about Gandhis sleeping habits in his old age.
Oh no…
Snoop was a pimp. Now everybody loves him. Weird.
And stood trial for a murder, which he was definitely present at. Everyone’s forgotten that Snoop is an actual OG, who ran with bangers.
Priscilla was 14 when they met, and he managed to convince her father to let her live with him. I blame the father just a much since he knew what was going down.
Not that I condone any of this, but consider that the cultural disgust of marrying a girl under the age of 18 is a more recent and modern taboo. Back then, in rural United States, it wasn’t an issue at all. Heck as a Gen X kid whose parents were from the Silent Generation, my mother married her first husband when she was 16 and he was 22. She never thought it was an issue other than she regretted marrying anyone at the age. But her parents, church, and teachers didn’t think it was a problem.
It’s hard to believe because most people might say Elvis lived in modern society but he’s not. The 20th century was full of changes that we don’t really think about.
I agree with you on that. And the changes still are going on. I remember in school in the 90’s it wasn’t uncommon for a college guy to date a high school girl with no real repercussion. Not saying that it was right back then, just looked at differently.
Paedophilia seemed weirdly acceptable right up until around 2000 or so. It’s really quite surreal how commonplace it was.
I won’t say acceptable, as there were still issues and such, but it was definitely persecuted differently.
Cris Collinsworth openly admitted to it
Amateur. In the 70s they admitted it in song.
Plus it was easier to cover up back then.
Uh… no. Baby raping has always been frowned upon as far as I’m concerned. 14 year old consensual (to the extent a 14 year old can be) groupies were a thing, in the not too distant past, but social mores have changed since then. Which is good. There’s an enormous difference between the two though.
I think you may be wrong. Wikipedia tells me that:
“In 1880, the ages of consent were set at 10 or 12 in most states, with the exception of Delaware where it was 7.”
I think it was that people weren’t seen as victims. They weren’t seen as helpless
I don’t like saying it because people get very emotional and unreasonable about this but:
These things were normal a long time ago. It’s only been in recent years, especially starting from the 1960s, that moral panic took over and these things are looked at now as “a crime”.
emotional and unreasonable
moral panic took over and these things are looked at now as “a crime”.
Ah yes, what a neutral and regulated way to phrase that.
I think they meant people’s reaction to the idea that the past could’ve had a different view on it that we view as disgusting rather than implying it’s “emotional and unreasonable” to view criminalized pedophilia as a “moral panic”, but I’m not a telepath. That was just my reading of it.
Because he was famous, white and in america.
Ding ding ding
Yes, Priscilla was 14.
Plenty of famous people were scumbags. Violent, racist, misogynist, beat up women, cheated, etc. From John Wayne to Frank Sinatra, they were awful human beings but people worship them.
Jerry Lee Lewis married a 13 year old.
Yeah, but she was his cousin so…
Well he managed to sell rock music to white people so we can look past that
Oh hey, you dripped this
/s
The /s has no drip, none at all
This, but also rape and other abuse was tolerated for some reason back then.
There is also a bit of a gender disparity for who is getting help now. Women can get help a lot more easy than men, and aren’t as likely to be dismissed when they come forward.
Lets keep pushing in the right direction
Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me because the fucker was whack
Idk, but I like the song return to sender
I absolutely hate (not dislike) that “huah” vocal noise that’s commonly associated with him and think any human making that noise needs to be taken out immediately.
I’ve never heard anything about any of this but I absolutely hate him and any contract he made on society simply as a product of the horror of that noise.
I exaggerate for humor, clearly, but I really do absolutely hate that noise and do not give it a single shred of artistic respect at all, it’s flatly and out-of-hand declined any consideration for credit at all and people that like him as an artist I will literally completely discount any of their artistic opinions.
I have the same artistic hate for Elvis that I have political and personal hate for Trump.
I don’t even have a way to know exactly what it is but just hearing his voice immediately sends me into a blinding rage. It’s not to my knowledge some kinda trauma type of memory associated with it, because I was only exposed to enough of it to just recognize the voice. There are just a few things I know of that make me that angry that quickly. One of them is having to backtrack. Like realizing you forgot a critical grocery and having to go back to the store immediately, or forgetting to bring that one super important thing to work and you have to go back for it before going in. That part multiplies with any kind of time pressure.
But Elvis hits me in the same kind of spot. A randomly specific and very reactive trigger. Well I say reactive but I just end up telling at myself and increasing blood pressure for a few minutes. I don’t literally go into a fugue state and start dropping people.
All that just to say that with me he is absolutely NOT loved and the little bit I heard about some kind of drama with the Graceland estate makes me laugh myself silly because screw those people, the whole lot of them. Do fans of Elvis even care a little bit about any of the family careers? It doesn’t seem so to me, but I’m not an expert.
You sound*…huah, all shook up.*
I guess I’ll accept the phrasing here. But I don’t like it.
Without Elvis we’d never have Johnny Bravo.
I would be very ok with that.
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Because no one cared about that 60 years ago
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Most people weren’t even aware of it.
The general public knowing every little detail about a celebrity’s life simply wasn’t a thing then.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 8 months ago
People wrote songs about it. Famous songs that you know the words to. People knew, they just didn’t care.
aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The sad truth is that it was a very common practice. Just wait until they hear about Jerry Lee Lewis.
TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And the Grateful Dead (sure Bob, you waited while she slept outside your room every night for 3 years), Chuck Berry, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, and about a hundred other groups. Hell, Kiss had the Christine Sixteen song, Jethro Tull had Aqualung, Seventeen by Winger, Into the Night by Benny Mardones, and a bunch of other songs have super uncomfortable lyrics about girls.
That’s not even getting into well known shit bags like Nugent.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m pretty sure fathers cared. Shotgun and shovel levels of caring.
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 8 months ago
At least one of the fathers openly endorsed it. I don’t think fathers cared as much about it as you think.