Cultural What If?: Roman Polanski arrested on 1 February 1978, never reaching France

On the one hand, making a timeline where paedophilia becomes socially accepted by our time seems like a very interesting challenge. On the other hand, it feels deeply wrong, like we're stepping into territory man was never intended to go...

I'm not gonna venture further with this What If?, the implications simply both me too much...


It definitly is wrong and we better forget it all. Just one thing. Naturally in every TV-Soap and in every Sitcom would be a "Spring-Autum" couple (I think such a poetic name would be developed) to show how perfectly nice and normal people they are.
 
Even if it apparently was not the case with Polanski's case, my unshakable conviction on the issue is that if you are old enough to feel horny, you are old enough to have (hopefully protected) consensual sex.

Paedophilia has NOTHING to do with teenager sexuality, which is driven by basic human nature, and the people trying their worst to criminalize it away are prude-zealot idiots that try to legislate away the tides (and do much more harm than that). It would be much interesting (and beneficial) if butterflies may lead the US public to avoid the horrid mix-up between sexual abuse of pre-pubescent children and consensual teenager sexuality. Although I suppose you need a rather different '80s, and the rise to power of the religious right to be butterflied away.

YOu have somewhat of a point here.

Course Poloanski did dose the young lady with drugs in the booze so that sort of makes this a poor test case.
 
Even if it apparently was not the case with Polanski's case, my unshakable conviction on the issue is that if you are old enough to feel horny, you are old enough to have (hopefully protected) consensual sex.
In Polanski's case it was pretty different than what you described, for one thing the girl was drunk and drugged which instantly makes it several billion times worse.
 
...under the impression she's going to die Kitty tries to seduce her long time crush Collossus. Who promptly turns her down flat since he thinks she's far too young.
But that's hardly "sympathy for pedophiles", is it?
If memory serves and the translation was accurate, it also wasn't much of
a seduction attempt as it went along the lines of "Maybe we could..." "No.".
 
Long time since I read it and yeah it's pretty much aginst. Teenagers doing it is a case of whatever, not like about a quarter of the kids in my class didn't claim to have done it by 16. Adults drugging and forcing teens into sex should be a death penalty case though.
 
On the one hand, making a timeline where paedophilia becomes socially accepted by our time seems like a very interesting challenge. On the other hand, it feels deeply wrong, like we're stepping into territory man was never intended to go...
I'm not gonna venture further with this What If?, the implications simply both me too much...

It's not entirely impossible to imagine that California might set the age of consent at 13 as it is in Spain, or 12 as it is in certain parts of Mexico (according to Wikipedia - and it's 14 in Germany and 15 in Polanski's native Poland). But the POD needs to be much earlier than the 1970s. And it could be - consider this:
California's first penal code in 1850 proscribed sex with girls under the age of 10. The age of consent was raised to 14 in 1889, to 16 in 1897, and finally to 18 in 1913, where it has remained since that time.

Of course, even if sex with a 13 year-old was still legal in California in 1978, that wouldn't necessarily save Polanski from a rape charge - although I suspect a lot of girls in Hollywood over the age of 18 are plied with alcohol and drugs and pressed into non-consensual sex in similar circumstances, without ever reporting it to the police.

Back to the original POD, Polanski being prevented from running and sent to jail isn't going to change anyone's attitude to the age of consent, or to how celebrities behave. But it might affect other law and order issues, and it might affect sympathy for him.

The judge will probably use the flight attempt to justify sending him to prison in spite of the recommendations of the probation department and victim. But those recommendations will undoubtedly become public knowledge, and that will garner sympathy from many quarters - the "butterfly on a wheel" image, people condemning what is seen as overly harsh reaction without condoning the original offence. The ex parte communications between a district attorney and the judge, which caused the judge to suddenly start considering a prison sentence despite previous recommendations and agreements, will provide grounds for an appeal of the sentence.

With good grounds for an appeal and a fair degree of public pressure, I think the prison sentence will be reduced or quashed and the deportation order over-turned. Meanwhile, while Polanski is languishing in prison and post his release, the presence of a major celebrity might focus some attention on the status of America's prisons. Maybe prison reform replaces Tibet as the cause celebre for Hollywood. The decision of the judge to ignore recommendations and send him to jail will also focus attention on that issue - "would this grave injustice have been overturned if Mr Polanski wasn't a celebrity?" and so on.

After some jail time and assuming he escapes deportation, I'm sure Polanski's career will recover - as Victor Salva's did, although obviously Salva was (and is) much less well-known so it wasn't as big a story. Depending on how long he spends in jail, he might make another film sooner than he did in OTL (there was seven year gap between Polanski's Tess and Pirates, only a six year one between Salva's Clownhouse and Powder). And with the conviction spent, he isn't going to have to worry about which countries he visits and so on. Staying and facing his punishment would probably have been a lot better for him, perhaps even completely drawing a line under the incident - though I don't know whether it would have brought closure for his victim.
 
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Eurofed

Banned
YOu have somewhat of a point here.

Course Poloanski did dose the young lady with drugs in the booze so that sort of makes this a poor test case.

In Polanski's case it was pretty different than what you described, for one thing the girl was drunk and drugged which instantly makes it several billion times worse.

This is why I said:

Eurofed said:
Even if it apparently was not the case with Polanski's case.

when I made my point about the legalization of teenager consensual sex.
 
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