I just asked my folks about molesting kids 40 years ago

[titaniumsalute]

So the Fox Business News Neil Cavuto show had some Roy Moore supporter on last night saying things like 40 Years ago it wasn't all that out of the mainstream for adults to seduce 14 year olds sexually. CEO of the conservative advocacy group Independent Women's Voice, Heather Higgins.

40 years ago is 1977. (I'm 42.)

So I asked my folks...children of the 60s free spirits, rock 'n rollers, weed smokers, homeowners, parents in 1977. Would have it been in the mainstream in 1977 for adults to sexually seduce 14 year olds? Their reply..."Absolutely not. That is sick behavior. If any friend or relative would have done that they would have reported to the authorities. Or an ass kicking."

My folks are not from the South but from the midwest. But let's be honest...this wasn't a fucking mainstream event happening in the US.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Absolutely NOT! This is an insult to all decent Americans to even think that they would accept

this kind of sick behavior. We would have given them an ass kicking (not really) and then called the police (definitely)...no question about it.

There's even old jokes about older men getting married to young daughters (these jokes were in very poor taste)...

[MoonRiver]

2. Only pedophiles have EVER tried to normalize child sexual abuse,

for obvious reasons. That says a lot about Repukes on FAUX.

[shenmue]

4. Yeah, true

[femmedem]

3. I was fourteen for a few months in 1977. It would have been abhorrent for an adult to seduce me. n/t

[TexasProgresive]

5. I'm around your parents' age.

I grew up in Texas, New Orleans and deep south Louisiana. In my 20s I was in the USAF serving in Delaware. I lived in Maryland and Virginian. What your parents say is the way it was. Those cops that let Moore slide were covering their own arses. I'm sad that the only way they would've hit Moore hard is if he went after one of their daughters. He not only used his power against these children but to corrupt the institutions charged with keeping these children safe.

[Scarsdale]

28. My husband was

stationed at March AF Base California in the late 50's early 60's. One neighbor, Joyce was from Georgia. I was shocked when she told me she was married at 14. The husband was a couple of years older than Joyce. They had two kids. She was the most immaculate housekeeper I ever met. I really liked her and her husband. Those two seemed to have a good marriage, good child rearing skills. At 14 most of still belong in school, though.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. You kidding?

In the Seventies, let's say a teacher (not my teacher) made a move on me when I was 14, my parents would have grounded me, gave me private lessons at home, had him fired and blackballed, and sued the school system for letting him be "exposed" (pun intended) to innocent girls.

I know what I'm talking about because in 1975, my father called the town police who put out an APB to find me even though I had called home to say I was eating a sandwich with a 27 year old male friend. (I was 18.)

[usedtobedemgurl]

29. Your parents would have grounded you for an older male....

coming onto you? That is so wrong.

I recall, when I was 16, my Uncle's friend coming onto me. My mom was asleep upstairs and my Uncle and his friend were drunk. The guy, Dave, put his arm around me. I told him to remove it and he laughed. I told him, again, to remove it. Still, he laughed. I threatened him and said I would use my fingernails on him. He thought it was a joke. I informed him I would count down from five and then I would hurt him. He did not move his arm. I dug my nails in, after the five count, and only then did he remove his arm.

My mom got very angry the next day - at me. She said Dave showed her where I had penetrated his skin and that was wrong. I was flabbergasted and sure he had not told the whole story. I explained what happened and she said I could have moved and I did not need to hurt Dave. I was grounded for a week. I am still angry, thirty odd years later, that I was punished for that. Would you have been ok with your parents punishing you for not doing anything wrong?

[no_hypocrisy]

42. Nobody came on to me.

They knew where I was and knew with whom I was, and knew I was safe.

Dinner. Friend. I was over 18.

Excessive parental response.

[usedtobedemgurl]

57. "In the Seventies, let's say a teacher (not my teacher) made a move on me when I was 14,.......

my parents would have grounded me"

You did say your parents would have grounded you for a teacher making moves on you! That is horrible of them.

[no_hypocrisy]

58. He was teaching in another part of the school. He was never my teacher.

And BTW, what's wrong with eating a pastrami sandwich with someone without sex? Less than 6 months later, I was at college, sharing meals with professors. And reminder: I was over 18, legally an adult.

[usedtobedemgurl]

59. No one said anything was wrong with the patrami sandwich.

Again, I repeat, you said if someone had come onto you when you were 14, your parents would have grounded you. I quoted your exact sentence in my reply to your first reply. lol, yet you parse words and say you said a teacher and he was never your teacher. So you are now saying when you were 14 a teacher came onto you and you were grounded? Because that seems to be how you are correcting me. I thought it was hypothetical.

[no_hypocrisy]

60. Let's do this again.

1. My parents called the cops when I was over the age of 18 (legally an adult) despite knowing I was safe, eating a sandwich, and with a responsible individual who happened to be a teacher, not my teacher, in my district. No sex. Just pastrami.

2. My point being if my parents called the cops in such a benign situation, can you imagine what they would have done if I were 14? As they proved to be parents-on-steroids when I was 18, I suppose they would have sent me away to a very regimented environment. Since we weren't Catholic, convents were off the list. Reform school or the like? Perhaps.

3. So, no, they wouldn't have approved of me hypothetically "dating" 34 yo DA Roy Moore, not that I believe he'd be someone I'd be attracted to.

[Cracklin Charlie]

7. I grew up in the south 40 years ago.

This was not normal behavior then, or now.

And, where I grew up, this behavior would have precipitated a major ass-kicking, and likely being run out of town.

[Mariana]

54. Roy Moore was politically connected.

I'm sure that's why little was done about him. On the other hand, he does seem to have pretty much stopped at some point, at least locally. Maybe someone did finally sit him down and reason with him.

[spanone]

8. it's a ton of bullshit.

[volstork]

9. I was 11 in 1977, growing up in Memphis,

and I specifically remember my parents having discussions with my brother and me when we were even younger about inappropriate touching, etc. Pedophilia certainly was NOT acceptable in the mainstream at that time. What a load of crap.

[mountain grammy]

10. 40 years ago my son was molested by the babysitter

an older boy who lived next door. "Good Christian Republican" family, dad worked for NASA ,we were living in Houston. My son was around 7.. he told me 10 years later. I was livid and ashamed that my son didn't feel he could tell me. He said he talked to his older brother who told him not to be alone with the kid, but also didn't tell me. I think the fact that their dad was an abusive drunk had something to do with their silence, but that's too easy. I'll never forgive myself for not seeing this happening to my son and not preparing him for the creeps in the world.

The family still lived there when he told me. I called my ex, who still lives in Texas, and he called the local police and reported it so, if the guy wan't on their radar, they would know. Even my abusive ex had a line in the sand when it came to kids, and he's a republican asshole too, as misogynist as they come.

[notdarkyet]

21. I was five when I was abused by a man at a party my parents had. This

Was on base in Guam. Another guest watched him take me to the bathroom instead of putting my to ry don't know how to tell.bed. I was naked and he was kissing me. The guy who kicked the door in beat him very badly. So my mom said. Most the time no one knows with small children. They don t know how to tell.

[DrDan]

11. it was not "mainstream" in the South 40 years ago either

[HAB911]

12. Alabama

[TheOther95Percent]

13. I was a teenager in the 70s.

My mother - a life long pacifist - would have beaten the crap out of any 30+ year old guy who showed up on our doorstep thinking about dating me. My father would have grabbed his hunting rifle.

[blueinredohio]

14. In 1977 I would have been 20 and I would have been creeped out if a 30 some

year old man hit on me. So no it was not normal then and its not normal now

[tanyev]

15. They are trying to rewrite history. 1977 was not 1877.

In 1977 I was 14 years old in a small town in Texas and a man in his early 30s hitting on me would have been arrested.

And if you examined a lot of marriage records from 1877, I expect you would find some 14 year old brides, but I bet it would still be a small percentage and would vary a great deal by region.

[Jim__]

16. It does make you wonder exactly what they mean by Make America Great Again.

It certainly wasn't true in NYC where I grew up. But, maybe it's true in their demented memories. What is it that they want to bring back?

[WestMichRad]

24. Let's let the words of candidate Roy Moore answer...

...your question of what they think would help make America great again:

Asked in September by an African-American what he thought was the “last time” America was great, Moore responded (referring to the era when slavery was legal):

“I think it was great at the time when families were united. Even though we had slavery, they cared for one another. ... Our families were strong, our country had a direction,” Moore responded, according to a Los Angeles Times report in September.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-slavery-twitter-response_us_5a29d45be4b069ec48ac1aae?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

[Honeycombe8]

17. My father would've killed anyone who'd messed with me or my sisters in the 1970s.

It was NOT acceptable. BTW, 40 years ago was the late 1970s, not the hippie generation. The late 1970s was, I think, the disco generation.

[IronLionZion]

18. Conservatives always long for a time that never existed

They imagine the past as being so much different than it actually was. And that everything would be better if we went backwards before the damn liberals ruined all the fun. It's idiotic.

[titaniumsalute]

36. That is a very great point

I've thought this for years. What exactly was "grande" and "old". Pollution? Lower pay and longer work hours? No vacation paid time? Pedophilia? Slavery? What do they want?

[DBoon]

56. An average lifespan of 35 years?

Plagues and famines? A population that is 95% illiterate as in cannot even sign their own name?

Maybe they really do want these things if it means they again have the unquestioned power of a 17th century monarch

[Marthe48]

19. My parents always told me to stay away from strangers

I'm 65, so that was 50s and 60s. When I was very little, my Mom said not to go with strangers. She warned us every once in awhile. We weren't allowed around her father alone, because he molested her.

[LittleGirl]

20. I was 17/18 in '77

and there is no way that was acceptable.
It was icky to have someone in their 30s hit on you at that age. ewww

[heaven05]

22. in the 'old south'

Last edited Fri Dec 8, 2017, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)

they just DID NOT talk about a too common occurrence...so, too many pollyanna answers here concerning the south I knew and grew up in. Lots of denial here about rape of young people by adults...IT JUST WASN'T TALKED ABOUT IN 'polite company'. It was/IS a part of southern culture...just ask any slave family....

[world wide wally]

23. I wonder if the person saying that was rationalizing or projecting

[haele]

50. Probably projecting.

Even when my mom was growing up in the 1940's/1950's, teenage girls were considered too young and immature for most adult men.
Only perverts, bullies, or men with emotional issues would want to have relationships with the average girl that was more than ten years younger than them.

Yes, maybe in the 1920's, Will and Arial Durant got married when he was 28, and she was his very mature and borderline genus 15 year old student - and it was scandalous then, even though it was more or less a respectful love between them. He still had to quit his job as a full-time teacher at the Ferrer Modern School.

Haele

[unblock]

25. 40 years ago it was creepy for a 17 year old to date a 14 year old!

it was really weird for a high school kid to be dating a college kid, with exceptions made for seniors in high school dating freshmen in college after they had already been dating when they were both in high school.

but a college kid dating a middle school kid? are you kidding me??

never mind someone in their 30s???

[Thor_MN]

26. I was a teen in the late 70's and dating anyone more than a year different is age

was considered odd. A college freshman dating a high school senior was the edge of normality.

[mulsh]

27. 40 years ago I was 20, I stopped trying to hit in younger girls when I turned 18. Your parents

are right.

Things were different 40 years ago but not all that different.

[Jarqui]

31. +1

I was 23. Had three sisters.

No way a 30+ year old man would be tolerated dating a 14 year old girl where I lived.

The one difference in the times is that you would not necessarily go to the police. You'd just beat the crap out of the guy and the police would look the other way. I know of no one who would tolerate it.

[whathehell]

30. A pedophile molested my 10 year sister Sixty years ago

My parents reported it. The Perv was arrested, charged and convicted. End of story..

[ellie]

32. 40 years ago

I was 13 and no, this was not acceptable behavior. At all.

[whathehell]

33. This is one of the Lamest allegations the Right has pursued thus far..

May it die the quick the ignominious death it so richly deserves.

[RKP5637]

34. Grand Old Pedophiles GOP trying to say hey, pedophilia is fine using their Fox propaganda outlet.

[neeksgeek]

35. Two things ...

I was born in 1970. Grew up in the south. In the late 70s, there was a child abducted by a pedophile, very near my neighborhood. The entire community was on edge, and every parent that nine-year-old me knew was telling every child not to go away with strangers. It was unacceptable, in the strongest way.

Fast-forward to the late ‘80s: I was 18, and very briefly dated a 14-year old girl. Although I insisted that my intentions were entirely honorable, the minute her father found out I was 18, it was over.

[lunatica]

37. I'm 69. 40 years ago I was 19. The answer is NO!

It was just as creepy and disgusting then as it is now.

[Atman]

38. I graduated high school in 1977.

I met my wife when I was nineteen -- in a bar. She was sixteen. The drinking age was 18 back then, so sneaking into a bar wasn't that difficult. It's pretty tough to tell the difference between a 16 year old and an 18 year old. I know, technically it was illegal. Am I a perv? We dated for three years, and we've been married for 35 years. Oh, and this was Florida, not exactly the South, but close. I guess it rules out my chance of running for office.

[titaniumsalute]

40. I think there is a huge difference between 19 and 16 versus 14 and 32

[Atman]

55. I completely agree with you.

Obviously.

[titaniumsalute]

39. When I was 18 my long time friend and neighbor girl was 15

I had known her since I was about 6. We were of course friends, rode the bus together, etc. When I was 18 and still just out of high school she was at my house after school. Out of no where she wanted to make-out, etc. I started to and then a light switch clicked 1. "Holy shit I could go to jail for this" and 2. "She is only 15."

I must be honest I had to shut down some raging hormones but I did it. I have never forgotten that event and am proud it went the way it did. If I would have moved forward I would have felt yucky. And again it was only 3 a three year difference and someone I had known for years.

[Initech]

41. Their hypocrisy reeks.

They are so obsessed with party power that they're literally throwing away anything that is good and decent in this world. What's ironic is that this is the party that tried (and is still trying) to convince America that this super secret pedophile cabal has been operating under our noses this whole time - sponsored by their favorite boogeyman "The Deep State" (whatever that is). And that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta were running a child sex ring under the basement of a DC pizza parlor (they have no basement). But an actual pedophile running for the Senate? Hey it was cool 40 years ago!. Um.... go fuck yourselves, assholes!

[jalan48]

43. I can't speak for the South but where I grew up the perpetrator would have been beaten up by the

relatives of the child.

[Dave Starsky]

44. It's never been mainstream or accepted in my lifetime.

And I've been around quite a while, and I've lived in some very conservative areas.

These people are sick fucks.

[phylny]

45. Nope. I was in high school 40 years ago.

Teacher seduced me. He knew damned well it was wrong. Lost his job after I graduated. There were students before me, and after me.

Grown man, friend of my friend's brother, wanted to have sex with me when I was in 9th grade. He knew damned well it was wrong.

Before that, a middle school teacher ran his hands up and down my arm, making me feel terrified and dirty.

A Catholic priest in our parish was forced to give up the priesthood. He made the moves on two girls, sisters.

The behavior wasn't normalized then. Not at all.

[gollygee]

46. We watched scary movies in school warning of "stranger danger" in the 70s.

It was definitely not normal or mainstream.

[Luz]

47. I was 18 in 1977. Call me crazy, but I was dating other

18 year olds. I doubt I would've dated a 25 year old then. Much less a 30 year old businessman.

What in the world would we have in common?

[sagetea]

48. I don't know if it was mainstream.

I know my mother gave me to a 34 yr. old man when I was 16 who did horrible things to me including keeping me in a cage without food or water unless I gave him sex. He got arrested, his family got me out to plead his innocence. They arrested me as a runaway and questioned me without an adult present, which lead to them dropping the case. I found out later, that it was a setup, the 'detective', knew I was underage when he questioned me, he did so to get the man off. His parents were very wealthy and upstanding in that small town. His ex-wife became my foster parent.

Mainstream...maybe, maybe not, but it is NOT normal. But, it does happen more than any of us know. This is just the beginning, just the tip of the iceberg. When you fall down the rabbit hole of pedophilia, it gets worse and at times unbearable to hear what has happened to young children. And I know in my heart of hearts, that Roy Moore's next step (if he hadn't taken it yet) is human trafficking. Which by the way is exploding with too many children from all over and with a huge facility in Russia.

Ho!
sage

[haele]

49. 40 years ago, I was 18.

And when I was 14, it was still a crime to "seduce" a 14 year old, and was definitely considered odd for anyone who was over 19 or 20 to be interested in "dating" someone under 16.

Even at the turn of the 20th century, the average age of marriage for most young women was 18. It was understood by most people - even in traditional households - that a successful marriage required women who could take care of a household, not teenagers who were inexperienced and could be molded.

In the early 1900's, girls only married younger than that when there were a lot of kids in her family so she would leave and there would be less stress about getting everyone else fed and cared for or to bring in another means of adult support to the family without having to pay someone or go hunt out a business partner.
And even then, there wasn't usually a huge age difference between the married couple - 3 to 5 years difference was the normal accepted difference in an adult marriage.
The ideal situation for marriage pretty much everywhere in the United States was understood to be where the man was typically old enough to be establishing himself and still have the same energy and interests level as the woman, and the woman was typically old enough to handle a household and budget, and to safely manage pregnancy.

The only other situation where a girl would be married off young was if the man was from a "traditional" family where it was accepted that the man would marry a teenager, it only was because he also had a older female at home (Mom, Grandmother, or Auntie) who was expected to teach the young wife her expected duties - and he could indulge in responsibility-free sexy fun time before the girl had her first kid and settled down to be a proper wife. This still happens in third world countries, and typically only happens in the situation above. No middle aged wanna-be patriarch is going to bring home a teenager as a wife without Mamma - or an older wife - here to teach her how to run his household the way he's comfortable having it run...

For those who think it was acceptable, in 1972, when I was 13, a coach at the high school I ended up going to later on was fired when it was found out he was dating a 20-year old who had recently graduated from that school - after she had started community college. He had just gone through a divorce, and one of his kids was going to my middle school and another was a sophomore where he was coaching, so everyone found out pretty quickly what had been going on and it was suspected that maybe he was interested in her years before...

Finally, why would Moore be banned from the mall in his home town back in the late 1970's if it wasn't out of the mainstream for adult men to try to get all "friendly" with and try to date teenage girls back then?

Haele

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

51. When I was about 15, back around 1964, I sometimes babysat for some neighbors.

One night when the couple came home the man told me how pretty I looked. That's all he did but it sort of creeped me out, so I told my dad and he became livid and told me I couldn't sit for them any more. I don't think he ever said anything to the neighbor, but I shudder to think what he might have done if the guy had actually made a pass at me. So, no, it wasn't OK back then.

[Dorian Gray]

52. Only for Roman Polanski and Roy Moore and Charles Manson.

[LisaM]

53. The movie "Animal House" came out in 1978.

Remember the scene where Larry is lying on the grass with the mayor's daughter and she tells him she's only 13? Even in that movie, that was not acceptable.