Stephen Tyler and his 14 year old girlfriend.
Sorry, I was so disturbed I forgot the trigger warning: child molestation/rape. Enjoy this
completely ethical otter instead. Really, seriously sorry about that.
So, mommylife (whom I cannot link to because that page makes my antivirus software go into such a fit, it crashes my chrome) has this post up about the affects of abortion on the fathers:
Long before he won accolades as an American Idol judge, Steven Tyler was a bona-fide rock star, with all that that implied. In 1975, when he was in his late 20s and the lead singer for the band Aerosmith, Tyler persuaded the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Julia Holcomb, to make him her legal guardian so that they could live together in Boston.
When Miss Holcomb and Tyler conceived a child, his longtime friend Ray Tabano convinced Tyler that abortion was the only solution. In the Aerosmith "autobiography," Walk This Way (in which recollections by all the band members, and their friends and lovers, were assembled by the author Stephen Davis), Tabano says: "So they had the abortion, and it really messed Steven up because it was a boy. He . . . saw the whole thing and it [messed] him up big time."
Tyler also reflects on his abortion experience in the autobiography. "It was a big crisis. It's a major thing when you're growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. . . . You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I'm going, Jesus, what have I done?"
Read more at National Review Online
You know, Barbara may be all sympathic to Stephen's feelings, but you know what stuck out for me? This:
In 1975, when he was in his late 20s and the lead singer for the band Aerosmith, Tyler persuaded the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Julia Holcomb, to make him her legal guardian so that they could live together in Boston
Um . . . Barbara, what part of that doesn't make your skin crawl? You are the mother of multiple daughters and the fact that Stephen Tyler was at least 28 and having sex with raping* a 14 year old, over whom he had legal guardianship, does not bother you? Really? You are disgusting! Almost as disgusting as Stephen himself, not to mention the girl's parents. (I did not fail to copy any part of her post wherein she expresses even the smallest degree of discomfort with this. I may be the Empress of Snarktastica, but I am fair.)
So, anyway, what about the abortion? Well, were I Stephen's friend at that point (leaving aside that I would have called the cops when I found out he was raping a 14 year old), I would have recommended an abortion, too, for two reasons:
1. This child was in an inherently abusive relationship with a grown man. Further tying herself to him with a baby would only make matters worse.
2. Stephen's proven that he likes to rape children. Does anyone here feel comfortable with him having children, because I don't. Sure, maybe the incest thing would hold him back, but who wants to take that chance? Barbara, apparently.
So, no, I don't have a problem with an abortion in this case. At all. Not that I ever have a problem with someone else's choice to do with their body as they please, but in this case, huzzah!
Just as a side note, Stephen Tyler is why my husband and I stopped watching American Idol this year. (What? He's launching his career as a performing artist this year- please participate!- so it's basically research.) After the second time Stephen blatantly hit on an underage girl, my husband turns to me and says, "That was skeevy, right? I mean, you saw that, too?"
I said, "Yeah, that . . . makes me uncomfortable, too."
He said, "I would feel skeevy hitting on a 20 year old, and I'm at least half Stephen Tyler's age. That girl was 16, I have nieces older than that!"
I said, "Yeah, I know. So, no more American Idol?"
He said, "Never again."
Seriously, people, I was never a big Aerosmith fan, but this puts the entire catalogue in a new light. Was Janie pointing her gun at Stephen? Was it a 9 year old driving him crazy? Ew.
*He's a minimum of 28, she's 14. There cannot be consent in that situation. I'm calling it what it is.
"So they had the abortion, and it really messed Steven up because it was a boy."
ReplyDeleteHe would have been fine if it would have been a girl, though.
Yeah, Stephen Tyler's just a fantastic human being!
ReplyDeleteGood lord, where are the otters? I need to look away from this. Steven Tyler has always given me the creeps anyway. He disgusts me, and her parents should be tarred and feathered. Who gives guardianship of their fourteen year old daughter to the twenty-eight year old man who is obviously raping her? How did they not run him out of their house on a rail and call the cops?
ReplyDelete@D'Ma: maybe the other way around? Why give him that much of a head start...
ReplyDelete@Slow Learner: Touche! Isn't there something criminal in that all the way around?!? The parents and Steven Tyler?
ReplyDeleteI did not know this about Steven Tyler. Its a good thing I don't care anything about American Idol or I'd have to stop watching.
ReplyDeleteLast time I watched was earlier this season when it was on in a bar and I couldn't hear it anyway. We had a rousing debate about whether he looks more like Carly Simon or John Malkovich in drag. My vote went to Carly Simon.
Carly Simon in drag?
ReplyDeleteBoganette: I don't know about NZ, but sex crimes generally have a very short statute of limitations in the US (though it does vary state to state). In some states, if you beat someone in the course of a rape, the statute on the rape will run out before the statute on the aggravated assault.
If NZ is different, I will move there, spiders be damned!
dammmit, i used to like aerosmith.
ReplyDeleteHere in SC, it's still legal for a 13 year old girl to marry with parental consent.
ReplyDeleteWhat uzza said. I know I shouldn't judge the songs by the artist, but... goddammit. Goddammitgoddammitgoddammitgoddammit. Aerosmith has been a guilty pleasure for me ever since I first saw Armaggeddon (which redefines that Trope).
ReplyDeleteAlso I think the part where the 14-15 year old girl would have had to give birth, a very risky situation in the most favorable of circumstances, needs mentioning.
Tyler was born in '48, so he could have been 27, depending on when in the year it was. That doesn't make it any better. That's just math.
ReplyDeleteI knew Tyler was freaky-looking, and getting uglier as he gets older (fun fact: as I understand it, Aerosmith got their start because Clive Davis [Columbia Records] thought Tyler looked like Mick Jagger, and hoped some fans would be fooled; this actually nearly backfired on them, since fans weren't that stupid after all), but I never actually thought he was a perv until now.
jennifer, I didn't realize the age of marital consent with parental consent was still so young in SC. I know the independent (I guess you could call it) age of consent in several Southern states is still low compared to the average 17/18, but... 13? Jeeez.
ReplyDeleteI had a great-grandmother who was married at 12. "But she was a very mature 12" was always the family line. I just... I... WHAT.
PF - We don't have spiders! That's Australia. We have ummmmm sheep. And kiwis. Nothing can kill you in New Zealand. Not like horrible Australia ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah I figured there would be a short statute of limitations over there. I just said it because, well, that's what I want. Laws be damned! heh.
Janey's Got a Gun was my ANTHEM. it was a girl being raped by her father [or stepfather] and..
ReplyDeleteyeah. my anthem. not giving it up because there's MORE evidence that Tyler is even MORE of a jackass.
but i've never paid for it, or any of their music, and never will.
"Nothing can kill you in New Zealand. Not like horrible Australia ;)"
ReplyDeleteOh yeah? What about the Kea's? Yeah, we know your dirty secret. At least our spiders and snakes just jump on your face and bite you: they don't use tactics to sneak up behind you and chew through the brake-lines on your car. Seriously, screw those adorable, quirky, green parrots.
I feel like I can't focus on any one thing to be outraged about. The 14 year old girl he was raping, her parents for consenting to it, the comment about him being upset because the fetus was male, or how totally drugged up that child looks in the photo. Who can seriously think it was wrong for a child rape victim who was being fed drugs aborted the fetus of her rapist? Doesn't the drug part of it all extend the rape from statutory to forcible?
ReplyDeleteI hope his hepatitis really hurts.
It's absurd how little time victims of statutory rape have to come to terms with what happened and accuse their rapist.
Nymph - i just noticed your comment about age of consent.
ReplyDeletewhen i was 17 [and my mother was C.R.A.Z.Y!] after i tried to kill myself, my mother was trying to regain custody of me, to place me long-term mental care.
i was engaged [this is the other reason my mom tried to get custody back] and so my dad decided we should get married NOW, instead of waiting 18 months like we'd originally planned.
the *ONLY* state in the South that would let us get married without BOTH parent's consent was Virginia. in Alabama, you have to be *19* to get married w/out parental consent. in Georgia, you need parental consent [both parents] before 18 UNLESSS you could prove A) one of the parties was pregnant B) BY the other party.
neither of the Carolinas, nor Florida, Mississpi, Lousiana or Tennessee would let us get married without BOTH parent's consenting.
strangely, it turns out we COULD have here in Ohio.
the South is stranger than people think - sure, maybe a 15 year old can get married, but it takes BOTH parents to agree [unless one is dead, and you have to take in a death cert]. even if one parent has NO custody and NO rights, for whatever reason, you STILL can't married without THAT parent's rights. [unless your step-parent adopted you]
don't know WHY, just know it's so.
And what about the fire? That was suspicious in itself. Did he have this Ray guy try to kill her?
ReplyDeleteJulia Holcomb states in her video & written version of her life with Steven Tyler that she was 16 when she met him; not 14, as you stated. In most states, at that time, 16 WAS the legal age of consent.
ReplyDelete