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1. Mr. Polanski is wrong. Plenty of people want to fuck amputees, old ladies, midgets, assorted barnyard animals, etc.

   He failed by using “everyone” rather than “most people”. It’s true that most people (if we keep our definition of “people” to “men”) want to fuck young girls, judging by the “artifacts of Western popular culture…”

   And for one further outlier…Ben Franklin expressly recommended MILFs/Cougars to young men, with bullet point arguments and everything.

2. You can argue that the media shows that “most people want to fuck young girls” but that doesn’t make it legal. Also illegal in this case is the getting drunk and drugging the 13 year old child with quaaludes so he could sodomize her. I say extradite him and send him to max security jail where the inmates who hate child rapists will give him some of his own medicine.

3. The term “everyone” invalidates his claim..

   Young girls really don’t interest me. I can look at them and think, “very lovely” on occasion, but I really have no desire to do more than that. Real young girls are not the same as fantasy young girls, which is what the media throw at us. Real young girls are … well … young. If you’ve ever been in a car full of real young girls on a trip of any length, and managed not to throw yourself from the car while ripping down an interstate, you’ll know what I mean.

   As for Polanski, he ran because a plea deal fell through and he had every reason to believe that the judge was a publicity hound with a taste for a nationwide hanging judge reputation. That doesn’t excuse what Polanski did in the slightest, but it does throw a different light on the matter.

   • So far nobody seems to be handing in the assigned essay, I notice…. 🙂

4. The picture of that little beauty contestant makes Jon Benet look almost innocent (she was innocent, of course, she just didn’t look it). Where is this photo from?

   • Found it online.

5. Before I go anywhere, this is worse than the time John Yarmuth debated the positives of throwing kittens into wood chippers. For those of you unfamiliar with my claims, check the last minute of the following:

   http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/83449/march-08-2007/better-know-a-district—kentucky-s-3rd—john-yarmuth

   But moving onto the question at hand, I point you to the Village Voice. In this 2007 column, Tristan Taormino sits down with Nina Hartley, a then-48-year-old porn star who has seen her career spike up once she hit age 45. And the argument that tastes have changed doesn’t hold up, according to Taormino. The MILF phenomenon is nothing new, Hartley says in the article.

   “Being taught by someone who knows what she is doing—the older-woman-as-sex-teacher—has always been a classic theme in porno. It just never had a name.”

   The whole article can be found here: http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-10-30/columns/the-rise-of-milfs-and-mommies-in-sexual-fantasy-material/1

   If this isn’t thorough enough (as I suspect the esteemed Bonesparkle will claim), I invite others to build from it. In the meantime, I will be taking a shower, desperately trying to feel clean.

   • Tom: If I recall, you were explicitly instructed to avoid cherry picking anomalies.

6. You know, I tried this in court one time.

   “If I had just caused over $500,000 in property damage and $62,500 in city, state and county law enforcement resources it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… Judges want to drive recklessly on the wrong side of the road while high on Red Bull and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Juries want to drive recklessly on the wrong side of the road while high on Red Bull and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Everyone wants to fucking drive recklessly on the wrong side of the road while high on Red Bull and hallucinogenic mushrooms!”

   …Didn’t work. There was a girl in the car at the time, but she was made mostly of latex and looked closer to 25. Fitting that the face, with those giant lips, looked like she was screaming.

   “OH NOooOOOO!”

7. I truly am laughing out loud. There are some very wonderful and very sick people posting on this thread.

   Makes me like human beings. Almost.

8. I think that we need Mr. Polanski’s definition of “young girl” if Nina Hartley and Benjamin Franklin can ever ride together to rescue us from Dr. Bonesparkle’s leading question.

   If by “young girl” he means late teens (i.e. barely legal), then he’s right…at least as far as Lars Ulrich is concerned and based on the artifacts of Western popular culture. But since Mr. Polanski’s problem stems from wanting to fuck girls who are not nearly legal, that’s probably not what he means.

   If he means that every man wants to have sex with pre/barely pubescent girls, then he’s wrong. Brittany Spears was 17 when …Baby One More Time was released; she achieved her sex symbol status in what we shall henceforth refer to as the Lars Ulrich Years. Marilyn Monroe didn’t start acting until she was 20; even if she was immediately a sex symbol, she’d be at the upper end of the LUY scale. Farrah Fawcett was in her late 20’s; doesn’t even register on the LUY scale. Pam Anderson was 21 when her chest first graced the Jumbotron at the BC Place. Christina Aguilera was 19. Elle Macpherson was 21.

   Polanski may have a point about the world today. Gisele Bundchen is iffy; she started modeling at 13 but was 19 when declared officially “sexy”. Kate Moss was in her early teens when she started modeling. I’m done with wikipedia for the night, but it seems that Milly Cyrus might be too young for even Lars Ulrich. And it’s true that middle school girls these days are likely to be dressed like hookers.

   But Polanski did his deed in 1979; therefore, he is wrong…unless he’s claiming to be ahead of the cultural curve? Has this been thorough enough for you, Dr. Bonesparkle?

   • Lex: Sorry to have kept you buried in the Wikis half the night, but thanks for your diligence. However, the whole concept of sexy and legal is culturally inscribed, as you well know. Legal age in America is over-the-hill in some less developed nations.

     At what point a girl becomes sexy, well, that’s at least in part a function of the enculturating effects of a society’s media. If you’re saturation bombed with images and narratives over an extended period of time that insist that X is sexy, then over time that message will be internalized. I mean, let’s look at another very obvious example. Somehow or another, skinny has become sexy. We don’t have to go back too many years to find a time when the ideal female body was a lot fuller than it is now.

     How did that happen? By precisely the process I suggest in my seminar question.

     None of which excuses Polanski, who probably sees himself as some kind of pioneer. I’m just saying that there’s a larger trend at work here that we ought to be concerned about, as well.

     Tom: You’re right. I don’t need Sam’s help. However, his reply to you is essentially accurate.

9. Sam, I’ll respond to your comment, but I will ask that you allow Mudbone or Boneshard or whoever fight his own battles.

   My ability to extend my essay – for lack of a better word – is hampered by my unwillingness to research pornographic groups such as the X-Rated Critics Organization, which annually crowns one talented actress as MILF of the Year. For those willing to take on this… noble cause, I’ll suggest you search anililagnia, the attraction to an older woman.

   Instead, I’ll shift gears and point out that not everyone is attracted to females, regardless of their age. According to Kinsey’s research, approximately 10 percent of males were predominately homosexual between the ages of 16 and 55. Eight percent of that same age group were exclusively homosexual. You can see the figures here:

   http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-data.html

   By the way, the earlier mentioned Nina Hartly was second on the billing in the film “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin?”, according to Wikipedia. Hartly portrayed the character “Hilly” opposite Lisa Ann as Serra Paylin.

   • Tom: I’m not fighting anybody’s battles. I’m just noting that you seem to have ignored a major part of the assignment. And still are. If you’re having to do this kind of obscure research, then you are by definition searching for the anomalous. We are overwhelmed by evidence that Polanski was right (twisted and in need of imprisonment or worse, but right in his assessment of the fringe pedophilia rampant in our culture). So you’re standing in the world’s biggest landfill and thinking that if you walk a couple miles over thataway there’s a small patch where the grass is clean.

10. I know that legally Polanski is culpable. And no one is more sympathetic to child abuse than me. (I’ve known many victims stemming from my time in support groups. Also I’ve cultivated an interest in psychohistory, which maintains that child abuse has been critical in determining the course of history.)

    It’s just that, I came of age during the time of the Tate-LoBianca murders and was fairly steeped in Manson gore. Having said that, I understand the legal issues compelling prosecuting Polanski. But I don’t understand the appetite for a vendetta on the part of the public against a man who, while he harmed a child, suffered at least as terribly. Remember, too, that he’s a child of the Kracow Ghetto — another form of child abuse.

    That said, let the legal chips fall where they may.

11. I’d argue that Kinsey’s studies are not obscure, but perhaps the results are. If you want to split hairs that much, fine. I’ll play your little game.

    MILFs and the existence of homosexuality are established parts of Western pop culture. If my more academic attempts to prove that don’t qualify, how about American Pie (the obsession with Stiffler’s Mom), Will & Grace, The Birdcage, Fountain’s of Wayne’s song Stacey’s Mom and NAMBLA for starters? While these instances of Western Pop Culture didn’t reshape the landscape (arguably Will and Grace did, but I will never debate on behalf of that stupid (but long running and still syndicated) show. Not even to prove you wrong Bonesparkle), they certainly aren’t obscure.

    I apologize if this isn’t the essay you’re working for, but it will have to do. I suspect this will be a difficult post to explain to my boss if she realizes I’m not writing that budget article.

    • Okay, Tom. You get a special assignment. If you would, explain the difference between “rule” and “exception.” Please pay special attention to the difference between 99.99% and .01%.

12. Read the transcript of his trial, and you’ll see this from another light.

    Click to access RomanPolanskiTranscripts.pdf

    I just can’t understand all of the support Polanski has gotten from the left, in fact it boggles the mind.

    Jeff

13. Dr. Bonesparkle, i do not disagree with your statements, particularly the change over time. Clearly we have moved closer and closer to mass pedophilia. But if we’re going to argue the veracity of Polanski’s statement, then we must place his statement in the context of time. There’s no question that his statement is disturbingly true (excepting the amputee crowd and other outliers) now. But was that the case in 1979?

    Farrah Fawcett became a sex symbol around the same time, iirc. She was in her late 20’s. Yes, she was skinny but she also had breasts. Now, when we get to today and the models on the covers of magazines are 14ish years old and are skinny because of their age, Mr. Polanski has a point. But that makes his statement predictive rather than true at the moment of utterance.

    He may have been ahead of his time, but he was a pervert. Just because he’s in large – but dubious – company now doesn’t change that fact.

14. Drugging/raping 13-year-old girl OK Y/N?

    Drugging/raping 13-year-old girl OK if you excel in your field, are rich, and have lots of celeb pals Y/N?

    Drugging/raping 13-year-old girl OK if you excel in your field, are rich, and have lots of celeb pals Y/N?

    I guess the real question is: Is he rich, famous and/or simply faaabulous enough to be let off the hook for doing something heinous? If Roman Polanski was pumping gas for a living at the time I can tell you that he would’ve been thrown in the pokey and already sodomized to death with shivs by the time I was toilet trained.

15. Just wanted to remind everyone that in many ancient cultures, such as Rome and India (much more recently) men in their 40’s married girls that sometimes were not even in their teens yet. You cannot say this is evil because it is all relative upon the cultures. In the eyes of Christianity for instance you people judging this man makes you just as wicked. A sin is a sin. People that do not repent and turn to god will all be in the same place. A hater will be burning in hell fire right next to the rapist. I am not sticking up for pedophiles or saying Christianity is the only way. I am trying to get some of you to expand your minds.