Yeah I think at this point it must be only 4 or 5 states that don’t have them. Which is good! I think Texas actually has a pretty liberal policy when it comes to this - 17 is the age of consent, but anyone 14 or older can consent to sex if there’s no more than a 3 year age difference between them and their partner.…

Yeah, I think that’s incredibly important. The tendency toward telling women “I know you think you want this, and you’re doing it of your own free will, but you’re wrong,” is the kind of simplistic and autonomy-denying perspective that turns people off of feminism. It’s a sort of missing the feminist forest for the…

Bet you defended Bill Clinton for his private sex life with his 21 year intern

Yeah, to me that detail is important. It shows she was confident enough in the situation to say no, and he was respectful enough to accept it. That’s not something that can be said about every groupie/rock star encounter, you know?

I think you summed up my conflicted feelings perfectly.

“I also can’t ignore that Lori had already said no to David once, and had every reason to think it’d be safe to do so again.” <— Bingo.

I cringed when I saw the headline. I was prepared for this to be a “Your Fave is Problematic”-style takedown of Bowie, and I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. I clicked anyhow and was pleasantly surprised.

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 was 13-14 in the mid-70s, and I got a lot of attention from grown men. I was thrilled by it. Boys my age either ignored me, barked at me, or called me names. Adult men talked to me like I was a person, admired me, complemented me. At the time, it was bliss, and I felt it made me special. And thanks mainly to a lack…

She could have if it had been in Canada. 14 was the age of consent until 2006.

This is very well written. My feelings on this are complicated, but my instinct is that women should get to own their sexual history, whether its morally problematic or not. If Maddox says she’s okay with it, I believe her. If she had said she was raped, I also believe her.

True, but, as an adult, she still thinks she had a great time. Her word should count for something.

psssst. don’t tell them about Michael Jackson.

I loved Bowie’s music, but a 14 year old can’t legally consent. He’s a rapist whether she liked the experience or not.

Well it seems clear my expression of musical preference indicates I am deeply racist.

Some of this make sense.

Jesus Christ. Somewhere out there, an English teacher just hanged themselves.

I ... what is the relevance of the color of her skin or who she dated?

Probably because the Anti-Beyonce people we keep being told about never existed in the first place.

But but but Hamilton Nolan quoted like five random internet people that posted mean things about Beyonce... and there was the SNL skit... are you telling me the vast majority of people give zero shits about her performance? That can’t be...