I found it equal parts maddening and sad. Without getting into the debate about female sexual agency, even for minors, the fact that she says she didn’t feel exploited, that these men were actually protecting her, that she considers herself ‘special’ so there was nothing unusual about grown men sleeping with…

And as those norms evolve, we should still hold people accountable for what they did when these bad things were more the norm. I mean, think about all the other things that people decry as being too “PC” nowadays. It used to be okay to be a brazen racist, and now it’s not. (It was never okay, but it was widely…

How about: “It was rape. Fullstop.”

I don’t think the law is about why or whether you wanted to have sex with him. The law is about why or whether an adult wants to have sex with a teenager. It’s totally understandable that teenagers glamorize and desire older men - everything about that time in our lives says hurry, grow up! As teenagers, we are naive…

This reminds me of a discussion the lady and I had about Michael Jackson. She asked me,"Michael Jackson:Pop megastar or pedophile?!" To which I responded ,"Both, they aren't mutually exclusive."

Her word should count for quite a bit when discussing her own situation, much less so when discussing policy or societal norms.

I compared the Bowie story to drunk driving. Just because it doesn’t seem like there were any victims in this particular encounter, it doesn’t mean that what he did wasn’t wrong. I’m glad Lori Maddox has nothing but good feelings about everything that transpired, but Bowie was the adult in the situation, and he was…

i mostly see a “it was the times!!” excuse. which makes me feel bad for all victims of sexual assault before, what? 1985? like theirs doesnt count

I’m not sure if I would put this in the context of “that’s what everybody did back then” because 1) then why did Cosby & Polanski need to drug girls/women and 2) this happens today. Hello R. Kelly.

The original Thrillest post is... something. Wow. Bowie is just the tip of the iceberg. If you haven’t clicked, it’s worth a read.

It is easy to denounce the part Bowie played in this, even with any number of purportedly mitigating factors: the political context, Maddox’s story, the fact that he lived with generosity and openness, the less generous fact that his synapses were perpetually blitzed with cocaine.

psssst. don’t tell them about Michael Jackson.

“...you can understand how Lori Maddox could have possibly developed not just a sincere desire to fuck adult men but the channels to do it basically in public; why an entire scene encouraged her, photographed her, gave her drugs that made all of it feel better, loved her for it, celebrated her for it, for years. You…

Lionel Richie > the lot of them.

Do you really think any awards show is anything more than a giant marketing exercise for its industry? Explicit or implicit, the awards show is a collection of bought and paid for safe choices. The Grammys have all the credibility of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I fully get what you’re saying about how black men are treated in film but are you sure you want to equivocate black men being killed first with being gay? I mean, homosexuality is not as bad as death. Some of us are quite proud and enjoy it actually.

Maybe so, but not in this situation.

When he interrupted her on stage, her most recent album at the time had already sold more than twice as many copies as Kanye’s highest-selling album ever.

I file stuff like this under “black men are still men,” ie, they might be marginalized for their skin, but they still treat women like shit.