Author Joel Williamson shared Elvis kept a group of three 14-year-old girls with him on the tour who were up "for pillow fights, tickling, kissing and cuddling when he was 22.
Yes, Priscilla was 14.
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.
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.
Actually, that’s exactly what age of consent is. The age at which you’re allowed to do things with an adult of any age.
Romeo and Juliet (or close in age) exceptions are for the situation you’re describing, and are usually tacked onto age of consent laws as an exception.
In Canada, there’s a pair of these. At 14 and 15 it’s less than 5 years older, and at 12 and 13 it’s less than 2 years older.
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 said it was objectively terrible, I didn’t mention morals. :)
Harming people is terrible, whether or not social morality supports it.
Because no one cared about that 60 years 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.
The sad truth is that it was a very common practice. Just wait until they hear about Jerry Lee Lewis.
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.
Jethro Tull doesn’t romanticize Aqualung (the old man that sits on a park bench and eyes little girls with bad intents). Quite the contrary actually.
Well he managed to sell rock music to white people so we can look past that
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.
