(Cross-posted from Girl Ignited)
IT’S OK TO BE A GROSS CREEP IF YOU ARE SXC
Big news used to be that we were going to war or that the Berlin Wall had come down. Now it’s that James Franco tried to bang a 17 year old by sending her pervy Instagram messages (a curiosity in itself – if I was going to sexually harass someone I’d definitely use Facebook).
Sexy film star bloke wants to have sex with attractive young woman – TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW OK??? But actually, I can’t help but feel this is a bit gross. And that’s quite a big deal because I am almost entirely devoid of morals.
I am certainly no prude (perhaps to the dismay of many people who know me). I’m not Mary Whitehouse. I’m not offended by the mere thought of copulation. The opposite in fact.
I KNOW that the age of consent is 16 and the Scotland-dwelling gal in question was 17, but Franco is double her age plus one and she has not finished her A Levels yet. Or Highers or whatever they do up there under the reign of King Salmond (no but seriously Scottish independence FTW. Just thought I’d get that one in there).
I wouldn’t normally give a shit about where Jimmy F wants to stick his willy (within reason). Normally I’d just go ‘Oh ew can’t fancy him anymore’ and carry on with my day. But this article from The Telegraph made me think that we may not be responding to this whole thing properly.
Radhika Sanghani’s piece strikes me as quite problematic. She describes Franco as the ‘ideal celeb crush’, because he deigned to text a 17 year old he’d met at an autograph signing asking her for a shag. ‘Cue utter jealousy,’ she says. Oh and don’t be mean – he’s just ‘a flirty 35 year old blinded by his lust’! So that’s OK then, nooooo worries. All fine. You can’t blame a man for getting the horn!!!!
Personally, my top 3 celeb blokes who I would like to get to know intimately (political ideologies, favourite Jane Austen novel etc) are 1. Paul Rudd, 2. Joaquin Phoenix and 3. Matt Baker of Countryfile/Blue Peter fame (honourable mention to the Fassbender ) (now watch the Instagram messages come rolling in).
HOWEVER, I’m not sure how pleased I would be if any of these super sxc peeps sent me a message saying ‘Are you 18? Shall I book a room?’ Especially Matt Baker. It would negate all those times I voted for him on Strictly thinking he was a lovely family man who would cook me nice roast dinners.
Sanghani goes on to say that this encounter gives us all hope!!! We lucky ladies! Film stars might want to use us for sex! She writes that ‘I bet every One Direction fan who has been daily begging Niall to tweet her back is now smugly telling her confused/worried parents that actually, he might reply one day, because duh, James Franco did’.
Isn’t the idea that it’s some sort of an achievement for adolescent girls to successfully gain validation from fit famous men a bit of an irresponsible one for Sanghani to be celebrating?
And no, just no. No. Niall is not going to tweet you back, and even if he did, he is hardly going to make you a proposal of marriage. Especially when your Twitter bio is probably ‘I love Niall so much. Please follow me Niall. I am obsessed with you. PLEASE NIALL’.
You might think I am being a bit of a boring old hag – hey what’s wrong with a bit of CASUAL SEX if no one’s getting hurt!?!?
But to me, that’s the problem. Although 17 may be a year above the legal age of consent, that doesn’t necessarily mean we are totally capiche with the phenomenon that is sexy time when we’re that young. I mean, we get the mechanics of it of course, but we find all the emotions confusing. Having a one night stand with a 35 year old film star would probably feel not only extremely exploitative but also massively confusing.
At that age we’re still constantly searching for validation, and we don’t have enough experience of sex to separate it from emotion so casually. But the problem is, Franco won’t be flying over to Scotland to hang out and walk the dog. He will probably sod off in the morning and not even stay for breakfast.
I don’t think a one night stand with James Franco/Harry Styles/some bloke from The Wanted is anything to aspire to or be jealous of for any 17 year old – I think it would probably just be a massive head fuck. To their teen fans, beautiful famous people are like Disney princes or Ken dolls. They’re not real, and they’re not supposed to have genitals. Their fans want these guys to write them songs and bring them flowers, not Snapchat them pictures of their straining boners.
And aside from that, last time I checked, being used for sex wasn’t exactly top of the things I hope for my fellow lady friends in 2014.
But what I find perhaps most sinister, though, is that Franco’s behaviour seems to be being excused thanks to the fact that he is ‘hot’. If a 35 year old man who works in IT and has a receding hairline and halitosis started hanging around bus stops after school trying to pick up 17 year olds, he’d probably get his head smashed in. A 35 year old and a 17 year old bumping uglies may not be illegal, but I’m sure if it occurred between ‘normal’ people, it wouldn’t be seen as something to be quite so chillaxed about.
I’m just warning you. If any of you get a message on Instagram from James Franco, maybe just direct him to me. No, I don’t want to shag him. I’m just going to say ‘Oi creep. Pick on someone your own size. And stop writing shit novels.’
