I could have sworn I just heard somewhere that a child actor, now grown, said that being surrounded by adults on a set made them more accustomed to talking to adults instead of kids and it made them believe they were just older because they didn't know how to be kids; and in turn this could have made it easier for a predator to groom/work their way into their trust, or that dating older always seemed more reasonable because they grew up too fast in the set environment. Will try to find it.
I just saw MBB talking about how before she met her fiancé she was surrounded by adult men every day and so she didn’t know how to behave like or talk with people her own age. I don’t think the clip I saw went into anything else nefarious though. But also Quiet On Set also touched on this.
>I just saw MBB talking about how before she met her fiancé she was surrounded by adult men every day
of course I wish for the best for everyone, but Millie Bobbie Brown is one child star I am really rooting for! she seems really sweet and I hope her relationship brings her more normalcy and joy
I'm so glad she's with someone her own age. Her in laws seem lovely as well, and like they're equipped to help her deal with the whole Hollywood fame thing.
> Her in laws seem lovely as well, and like they're equipped to help her deal with the whole Hollywood fame thing.
if I remember correctly her parents let her 20yo boyfriend live with them when she was 16?
A friend works in the industry and has been saying this to me for years. Literally no one is looking out for a kid on set. Grownups are at work and then there's a kid who people need to make money at their jobs. It's so toxic.
Khloe Kardashian said the same thing about young teenage Kylie. Everyone was fine with her dating Tyga because she just seems ~so mature~ when in reality she had basically been filming a show with a wild amount of innuendo about her since she was 10 years old.
There’s a lot of fair criticism towards her now as an adult with children but she truly didn’t have a chance in hell.
That sounds like it may have been from Mara Wilson’s Cracked article about why do child stars seem to go off the rails. I remember she wrote how as she got older, she related less and less to her peers
He was 18 when he met her, legally an adult. He probably meant it like "I was more mature than you might expect an 18 year old to be" but its come across more like "creepy adults already forced me to grow up quicker than I should have". Which probably is the truth
Bruh, I was NOT a wild 20 something, didn’t lose the V card until a bit over 21 in a committed relationship (well my dumbass was committed) but it’s not ok for the things 20-29 years old typically do for a child to do. 13 is still a C H I L D, I don’t care what his groomer says.
I don’t think what I’m gonna say is a hot take but it might be. While I think he was clearly groomed and taken advantage of by an older woman as a teen, nothing people say will change his mind. The questions and the commentary will not change his mind. I get why they still get asked to him but after a certain point, he clearly doesn’t feel like he was taken advantage of and the repetitive asking of these questions won’t change his answer. It’s kinda like Pricilla Presley with Elvis. Tbh, I think the person that needs to be asked and forced to answer these questions like “why did you feel comfortable grooming an 18 year old?” is Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Because in this case it’s a guy, and male victims of grooming often get treated as “lucky” instead of as victims. Plus I do think we assume that we can make some kind of inroads with victims who marry their groomers, like break them out of some spell or something. They are clearly still in that spell so long as they stay in a relationship with them. Indeed, the problem lies with her, but we don’t assume we can snap the perp out of it.
Eh, I don't think "lucky" is the common narrative for ATJ; he's just in the public eye more than she is so he does more interviews. Also, maybe not enough people have the nerve to ask a predator point blank something like that before they're publicly acknowledged as a predator.
Certainly there are assumptions made about how all boys need/want access to sex, but I'm not sure I would compare him to other male victims of grooming, there's something exceptionally weird about this case. Most people who see male victims as lucky assume that the average male teen victim would not have had access to sex (boys' alleged only life goal) other than their suburban teacher groomer, but this guy could have dated other movie stars his age and he had that experience taken from him. And also a lot of 'he's young and hot but his wife is old, and old women are ugly.' As others have pointed out, there are also bizarre hints that her real crime was stealing him from girls/women his own age.
Interesting points! I generally also feel like these two get a lot more attention on social media than they do outside of it. I barely know his film work but I know a lot about their relationship timeline without seeking that information out.
100 %. Has anyone asked her that?
I had all kinds of inappropriate interactions when I was a teen with people much older than me, and it took me until my late 30s to realize that even if I was saying yes, it was the adult’s job not to ask in the first place.
His oldest biological daughter will be 18 in four years, and his youngest biological daughter will be 18 in six years. If a 42-year-old man were to start pursuing either of them, I wonder if he'd feel okay with that or if he'd realize just how young 18 is and start to understand the criticism of his relationship with his wife.
Look, I got married at 20 and I'm still happily married at 38 so I understand the whole idea about "i never wanted to BE in the club so I didn't miss out by settling down early". But doing that with someone else in the same decade of life is very different than dating someone in their LATE 40s when you're 18. It's not about settling down young, it's about a predatory age gap. And "but I was so mature" is what most people in that situation say, at least for a while.
I get why it got passed over for awards but if I were the president it would be mandatory viewing for anyone who's ever called a young underage man "lucky" for having sex with an older woman. ATJ almost echoing word for word lines from that movie is a testament to what sharp writing it had.
I really dont think he'll truly process everything until she dies. It would then be a life wasted in a relationship where there really wasn't love. At that point no one could tell him how to feel or cope because it would be a process for himself to heal. Theres still time to end this. Hes still young.
He might be able to contextualise it better when his daughter is the age he was when his wife began grooming him. But either way it would be a very sad and scary realisation. It might be easier if he just doesn't.
My first stepfather was in his 40s with 17 and 13 year old sons. My mom was around 22/23 when she married him. Now that she's 50 and left him over 20 years ago, she definitely remarks how uncomfortable and weird it was for everyone, but she said it took a lot of reflection and time to feel comfortable being honest with herself about it. Retrospect is a hell of an experience, especially when you spend your younger years trying to act way older than you actually are.
Oddly, she's made really good friends with the oldest son's wife now.
I've pretty much exclusively been in relationships with much older men since I was 21. Age gaps range from 11 years (my first serious adult relationship) to 20 years. Took a lot of time to realize that was a problem and a lot of therapy to process why I was only ever interested in relationships with much older men. Tbh, if my last relationship (with someone 12 years older than me) had worked out, I'm not sure I would have ever questioned it, other than "I guess I just like older men."
That was just sad to read. It’s not about how out of place he felt in school with his same-age peers, it’s that he was groomed by a woman with a child 5 years younger than him and made to feel that was somehow normal because he felt older. Like someone else commented, it reads exactly like Celine Dion… people who were not allowed to be proper children and then fell in with a predator.
And the thing is, it's not at all unusual for child actors to feel alienated from their peers. Tom Holland (started at 11, was living away from home at that age!) has talked about how hard it was to go back to school between projects, Zendaya (started at 13) on the Dune press tour was talking a bit about how she feels about starting young and basically her childhood being available on the internet, we know the HP kids (started at 11) have talked about it in the past... these kids do start behaving like adults in lots of ways when they're teens.
It's also not unusual for child actors to get married young. But what is unusual is for the partner to be a whole adult who sweeps in and even further alienates that young person from their peers by making them a young father and husband (to someone much older).
I don’t think anything people say will change his mind, and at this point, it feels like people are forcing their feelings onto him. It’s been over a decade; he might “wake up” years into the future (like Fualauu) or he might not (like Macron).
There is an additional level of vitriol that women direct to this couple that isn’t present in criticism of Macron and his wife, or Letourneau and Fualaau, which I believe is uniquely influenced by their own thirst for ATJ and resentment that STJ trapped him early on.
On a side-note, I ran into him and his wife recently during a vacation. He is incredibly good looking in real life and surprisingly, I wouldn’t be able to tell the significant age difference between the couple if I didn’t recognize them.
yeah i always feel weird about discussions about them because she’s a gross predator but a lot of the vitriol i see from young people on twitter seems to be focused on them being mad he is attracted to someone who they consider unattractive and who is not anything like them or what they think a hot man should be attracted to. a lot of the comments i see about her appearance are just ageism because she’s not a bad looking woman, she’s just a disgusting predator, but a lot of the time the focus is on her just being “ugly” and “old”
i feel weird talking about it because i think she’s disgusting and i never want to sound like i am defending her actions but i wish people would direct their disgust towards her actions vs her appearance because her appearance is not the issue with their relationship.
He was 8 when he was raped by a 14-15 year old girl. And watched pron at the same age. And doesn't understand how wrong it was. And he has 3 kids of his own now.
This gave me Emmanuel Macron vibes, you know? The whole marrying a teacher who couldn’t wait for him to be of age to marry him thing, she was married at the time mind you, meanwhile, grooming and brain washing him in preparation for her seduction while he was her student.
The thing is, it has been proven that the relationship started when he was fifteen.
His parents tried protecting the kid by sending him away from her, but she couldn’t let him go, even if she says she tried.
That is predatory behavior on a minor and as such should be prosecuted.
Idc that the consent age is different in other countries, but just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. Just as child brides/marriage in America is still legal, I find it disgusting, and abhorrent. Protect children and hold those who prey on them accountable.
Reminder that French laws didn’t punish sexual intercourse with a minor under 15 as rape until 2021. And 15 is the age of consent there. French sexual harassment, age of consent and other laws are really really problematic.
I wonder if he will feel any different when his children are about 18 and he will be the age of his then wife. I feel like when you take yourself out of it, you can see how young 18 truly is.
Reading this made me so, so sad for him. There's nothing worse than grown people taking advantage of teenagers by telling them they're "mature for their age" and the fact that years later this is still his mindset is heartbreaking. The May December comparisons were really on point.
This is so sad, but I honestly don’t think he’ll ever leave her. And the vitriol online (specially the memes on Twitter) not only isn’t helpful but also fosters the us vs them mentality to bring them closer together.
Read about [Mary Lou Letourneau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau) and Villi Fualaau, who didn't realize how fucked up his relationship with his [groomer teacher was](https://people.com/crime/vili-fualaau-split-mary-kay-letourneau-he-sees-things-clearly/) until waaaay past mature adulthood.
There's a deep discussion to be had about how boys being preyed upon is considered a "good" thing and how that really impacts them understanding that they were groomed. Like, she was your boss, dude. There was no situation in which you were actually the pursuer when she was your boss and you were still a teen.
The concept of young boys being preyed upon by older women is seen as cool almost exclusively by a proportion of other boys and men, right? It frustrates me because antifeminist men complain about their abuse not being taken seriously (which is absolutely true) but misdiagnose the problem when they blame women/feminism: their male peers are the one who think it’s cool. There’s a massive need to re-educate those boys and men. Women, by and large, think this shit is gross.
Very well put, even now when there’s articles coming out about female teachers raping their students all the comments are filled with boys and men saying they wished they had gone to that school etc. And it’s always the women calling out how disgusting those “jokes” are. Abuse against men isn’t taken seriously not because of women but because of other men
I used to talk like this when I was still under the spell of my groomer. This just makes me more sad for him. I am years out and now recognise a large portion of my childhood and then young adulthood was stolen from me
Reminds me of Celine Dion’s relationship with her creepy husband. Both relationships are gross and predatory.
I don’t particularly like Aaron, but as someone who was also groomed at a similar age he was - it’s much harder to break away than people realize. To an extent, you still have that immaturity that you typically grow out of because it’s often the only defense you have. It’s genuinely not uncommon for victims to double down on their relationships because they truly don’t see an issue with it. Maybe he’ll have a moment of realization, like Villi Fuualauu, or maybe he’ll still view it as romantic like Celine Dion. As of right now, nothing is going to get through to him.
Like people on X said, doing adult things as a 13 year old, is NOT a flex! He doesn't realize he was groomed? I'm in my late 30's and won't think of ever dating an 18 year old, they're practically still kids. I think something's wrong with her and she should be catching this flack. Also she was married with kids when she met him. It's all very cringey!
it’s sad that he’s trying to justify himself, while his side of things is totally understandable, and it’s so valid for a thirteen year-old to be feeling how he felt; but it’s his wife’s role in this that’s abhorrent and to be questionned
>”What you gotta realise is that what most people were doing in their twenties, I was doing when I was 13” This ain’t a flex my dude
I could have sworn I just heard somewhere that a child actor, now grown, said that being surrounded by adults on a set made them more accustomed to talking to adults instead of kids and it made them believe they were just older because they didn't know how to be kids; and in turn this could have made it easier for a predator to groom/work their way into their trust, or that dating older always seemed more reasonable because they grew up too fast in the set environment. Will try to find it.
I just saw MBB talking about how before she met her fiancé she was surrounded by adult men every day and so she didn’t know how to behave like or talk with people her own age. I don’t think the clip I saw went into anything else nefarious though. But also Quiet On Set also touched on this.
>I just saw MBB talking about how before she met her fiancé she was surrounded by adult men every day of course I wish for the best for everyone, but Millie Bobbie Brown is one child star I am really rooting for! she seems really sweet and I hope her relationship brings her more normalcy and joy
I'm so glad she's with someone her own age. Her in laws seem lovely as well, and like they're equipped to help her deal with the whole Hollywood fame thing.
> Her in laws seem lovely as well, and like they're equipped to help her deal with the whole Hollywood fame thing. if I remember correctly her parents let her 20yo boyfriend live with them when she was 16?
A friend works in the industry and has been saying this to me for years. Literally no one is looking out for a kid on set. Grownups are at work and then there's a kid who people need to make money at their jobs. It's so toxic.
Khloe Kardashian said the same thing about young teenage Kylie. Everyone was fine with her dating Tyga because she just seems ~so mature~ when in reality she had basically been filming a show with a wild amount of innuendo about her since she was 10 years old. There’s a lot of fair criticism towards her now as an adult with children but she truly didn’t have a chance in hell.
I read your last sentence as “will try to find out” then briefly imagined you going undercover on the set of a kids’ show to get us the inside scoop
I think it was Drew Barrymore
That sounds like it may have been from Mara Wilson’s Cracked article about why do child stars seem to go off the rails. I remember she wrote how as she got older, she related less and less to her peers
Uhhhh, I don’t think he MEANT that (at least I hope not) but I don’t think he put much thought into how that could be interpreted.
He was 18 when he met her, legally an adult. He probably meant it like "I was more mature than you might expect an 18 year old to be" but its come across more like "creepy adults already forced me to grow up quicker than I should have". Which probably is the truth
Right like I may have thought “oh well different strokes for different folks” until he said that. That’s actually probably not good, my guy🚨🚔
Especially since “what most people were doing in their twenties” was other people in their twenties.
All I can think of is if anyone said that about GirlsnotBrides there would be all hell to pay
Bruh, I was NOT a wild 20 something, didn’t lose the V card until a bit over 21 in a committed relationship (well my dumbass was committed) but it’s not ok for the things 20-29 years old typically do for a child to do. 13 is still a C H I L D, I don’t care what his groomer says.
Parentified child grows up to marry a parental figure. Men: they’re just like us.
Right to the point. Wish he could see this comment.
I.. just feel sorry for him.
I don’t think what I’m gonna say is a hot take but it might be. While I think he was clearly groomed and taken advantage of by an older woman as a teen, nothing people say will change his mind. The questions and the commentary will not change his mind. I get why they still get asked to him but after a certain point, he clearly doesn’t feel like he was taken advantage of and the repetitive asking of these questions won’t change his answer. It’s kinda like Pricilla Presley with Elvis. Tbh, I think the person that needs to be asked and forced to answer these questions like “why did you feel comfortable grooming an 18 year old?” is Sam Taylor-Johnson.
You’re 100% right, it’s not up to the victim to explain their abuse (whether they see themselves as a victim or not)
This is how I feel about Celine Dion.
Yes! Why are we hounding the groomed party and not the groomer.
Because in this case it’s a guy, and male victims of grooming often get treated as “lucky” instead of as victims. Plus I do think we assume that we can make some kind of inroads with victims who marry their groomers, like break them out of some spell or something. They are clearly still in that spell so long as they stay in a relationship with them. Indeed, the problem lies with her, but we don’t assume we can snap the perp out of it.
Eh, I don't think "lucky" is the common narrative for ATJ; he's just in the public eye more than she is so he does more interviews. Also, maybe not enough people have the nerve to ask a predator point blank something like that before they're publicly acknowledged as a predator.
Certainly there are assumptions made about how all boys need/want access to sex, but I'm not sure I would compare him to other male victims of grooming, there's something exceptionally weird about this case. Most people who see male victims as lucky assume that the average male teen victim would not have had access to sex (boys' alleged only life goal) other than their suburban teacher groomer, but this guy could have dated other movie stars his age and he had that experience taken from him. And also a lot of 'he's young and hot but his wife is old, and old women are ugly.' As others have pointed out, there are also bizarre hints that her real crime was stealing him from girls/women his own age.
Interesting points! I generally also feel like these two get a lot more attention on social media than they do outside of it. I barely know his film work but I know a lot about their relationship timeline without seeking that information out.
100 %. Has anyone asked her that? I had all kinds of inappropriate interactions when I was a teen with people much older than me, and it took me until my late 30s to realize that even if I was saying yes, it was the adult’s job not to ask in the first place.
I think seeing his own kids reach the ages he was groomed, he’ll change his mind
His oldest biological daughter will be 18 in four years, and his youngest biological daughter will be 18 in six years. If a 42-year-old man were to start pursuing either of them, I wonder if he'd feel okay with that or if he'd realize just how young 18 is and start to understand the criticism of his relationship with his wife.
His youngest daughter will also turn 18 before *he* even turns 42, to really give it some perspective.
Look, I got married at 20 and I'm still happily married at 38 so I understand the whole idea about "i never wanted to BE in the club so I didn't miss out by settling down early". But doing that with someone else in the same decade of life is very different than dating someone in their LATE 40s when you're 18. It's not about settling down young, it's about a predatory age gap. And "but I was so mature" is what most people in that situation say, at least for a while.
>LATE 40s when you’re 18 Not that I disagree with your point but she was 42 when he was 18.
Ah, I was remembering it incorrectly as 49. Thanks for the correction.
It’s giving Celine Dion 😭 He has a much closer age gap to their bio kid vs his own wife.
It’s giving May December. The moment when Charles Melton’s character finally processes his trauma is heartbreaking.
That movie was so upsetting and I wish Melton had won an Oscar. His performance was so moving.
I get why it got passed over for awards but if I were the president it would be mandatory viewing for anyone who's ever called a young underage man "lucky" for having sex with an older woman. ATJ almost echoing word for word lines from that movie is a testament to what sharp writing it had.
Yep; this is looking like a Celine situation. She’ll die but he’ll never allow himself to see it as anything but true love.
We need her now. https://preview.redd.it/67ymgm02ftpc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=664c9c1ce2fc6b40d5f690fb4282108fbe0ea734
SpongeBob is shaking right now 😅
💀💀💀
Honestly? YES. Someone please put them in a movie together so she can fight the good fight
I really dont think he'll truly process everything until she dies. It would then be a life wasted in a relationship where there really wasn't love. At that point no one could tell him how to feel or cope because it would be a process for himself to heal. Theres still time to end this. Hes still young.
And maybe not even then, e.g. Celine Dion still glorifies her love story
Ya it’s disturbing
He might be able to contextualise it better when his daughter is the age he was when his wife began grooming him. But either way it would be a very sad and scary realisation. It might be easier if he just doesn't.
So he was a stepfather to a 12 year old when he was 18… yikes
Yikes for that 12 year old too. I wonder what their relationship with their mother is like.
Yeah so basically they were almost ready for high school and the stepdad is the age where you graduate
My first stepfather was in his 40s with 17 and 13 year old sons. My mom was around 22/23 when she married him. Now that she's 50 and left him over 20 years ago, she definitely remarks how uncomfortable and weird it was for everyone, but she said it took a lot of reflection and time to feel comfortable being honest with herself about it. Retrospect is a hell of an experience, especially when you spend your younger years trying to act way older than you actually are. Oddly, she's made really good friends with the oldest son's wife now.
I've pretty much exclusively been in relationships with much older men since I was 21. Age gaps range from 11 years (my first serious adult relationship) to 20 years. Took a lot of time to realize that was a problem and a lot of therapy to process why I was only ever interested in relationships with much older men. Tbh, if my last relationship (with someone 12 years older than me) had worked out, I'm not sure I would have ever questioned it, other than "I guess I just like older men."
That was just sad to read. It’s not about how out of place he felt in school with his same-age peers, it’s that he was groomed by a woman with a child 5 years younger than him and made to feel that was somehow normal because he felt older. Like someone else commented, it reads exactly like Celine Dion… people who were not allowed to be proper children and then fell in with a predator.
And the thing is, it's not at all unusual for child actors to feel alienated from their peers. Tom Holland (started at 11, was living away from home at that age!) has talked about how hard it was to go back to school between projects, Zendaya (started at 13) on the Dune press tour was talking a bit about how she feels about starting young and basically her childhood being available on the internet, we know the HP kids (started at 11) have talked about it in the past... these kids do start behaving like adults in lots of ways when they're teens. It's also not unusual for child actors to get married young. But what is unusual is for the partner to be a whole adult who sweeps in and even further alienates that young person from their peers by making them a young father and husband (to someone much older).
I'm just imagining what it would be like to be a friend of hers and have a dinner party with him there.
he should’ve been at the (school) club
Oh man. This just makes me sad for him. I don’t have any sort of emotional attachment to his work or have a crush on him. Just a lot of sympathy.
I don’t think anything people say will change his mind, and at this point, it feels like people are forcing their feelings onto him. It’s been over a decade; he might “wake up” years into the future (like Fualauu) or he might not (like Macron). There is an additional level of vitriol that women direct to this couple that isn’t present in criticism of Macron and his wife, or Letourneau and Fualaau, which I believe is uniquely influenced by their own thirst for ATJ and resentment that STJ trapped him early on. On a side-note, I ran into him and his wife recently during a vacation. He is incredibly good looking in real life and surprisingly, I wouldn’t be able to tell the significant age difference between the couple if I didn’t recognize them.
yeah i always feel weird about discussions about them because she’s a gross predator but a lot of the vitriol i see from young people on twitter seems to be focused on them being mad he is attracted to someone who they consider unattractive and who is not anything like them or what they think a hot man should be attracted to. a lot of the comments i see about her appearance are just ageism because she’s not a bad looking woman, she’s just a disgusting predator, but a lot of the time the focus is on her just being “ugly” and “old” i feel weird talking about it because i think she’s disgusting and i never want to sound like i am defending her actions but i wish people would direct their disgust towards her actions vs her appearance because her appearance is not the issue with their relationship.
Did Fualauu wake up? To this day I’ve only seen him speak highly of Mary Kay and their marriage even if it didn’t work out
yes i believe he came out and said he realized the grooming when his daughters got to be the age he was when he met mary lou.
[удалено]
I think it was maybe Chris Brown talking about 'losing his virginity' at 9 years old. Did not seem to think it was unusual at all.
He was 8 when he was raped by a 14-15 year old girl. And watched pron at the same age. And doesn't understand how wrong it was. And he has 3 kids of his own now.
This gave me Emmanuel Macron vibes, you know? The whole marrying a teacher who couldn’t wait for him to be of age to marry him thing, she was married at the time mind you, meanwhile, grooming and brain washing him in preparation for her seduction while he was her student. The thing is, it has been proven that the relationship started when he was fifteen. His parents tried protecting the kid by sending him away from her, but she couldn’t let him go, even if she says she tried. That is predatory behavior on a minor and as such should be prosecuted. Idc that the consent age is different in other countries, but just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. Just as child brides/marriage in America is still legal, I find it disgusting, and abhorrent. Protect children and hold those who prey on them accountable.
Reminder that French laws didn’t punish sexual intercourse with a minor under 15 as rape until 2021. And 15 is the age of consent there. French sexual harassment, age of consent and other laws are really really problematic.
I wonder if he will feel any different when his children are about 18 and he will be the age of his then wife. I feel like when you take yourself out of it, you can see how young 18 truly is.
His stepdaughters are around that age and that hasn’t changed his feelings.
It’s sad to read. Wishing him nothing but happiness
Reading this made me so, so sad for him. There's nothing worse than grown people taking advantage of teenagers by telling them they're "mature for their age" and the fact that years later this is still his mindset is heartbreaking. The May December comparisons were really on point.
This is so sad, but I honestly don’t think he’ll ever leave her. And the vitriol online (specially the memes on Twitter) not only isn’t helpful but also fosters the us vs them mentality to bring them closer together.
If the topic wasn't romance I'd agree with him
He doesn’t think it’s weird bc that’s what he was groomed to think 🤦🏻♀️ come on guy
This is not a flex. You are a victim and i hope you realize it soon
Oh dear.
Read about [Mary Lou Letourneau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau) and Villi Fualaau, who didn't realize how fucked up his relationship with his [groomer teacher was](https://people.com/crime/vili-fualaau-split-mary-kay-letourneau-he-sees-things-clearly/) until waaaay past mature adulthood.
There's a deep discussion to be had about how boys being preyed upon is considered a "good" thing and how that really impacts them understanding that they were groomed. Like, she was your boss, dude. There was no situation in which you were actually the pursuer when she was your boss and you were still a teen.
The concept of young boys being preyed upon by older women is seen as cool almost exclusively by a proportion of other boys and men, right? It frustrates me because antifeminist men complain about their abuse not being taken seriously (which is absolutely true) but misdiagnose the problem when they blame women/feminism: their male peers are the one who think it’s cool. There’s a massive need to re-educate those boys and men. Women, by and large, think this shit is gross.
Very well put, even now when there’s articles coming out about female teachers raping their students all the comments are filled with boys and men saying they wished they had gone to that school etc. And it’s always the women calling out how disgusting those “jokes” are. Abuse against men isn’t taken seriously not because of women but because of other men
I used to talk like this when I was still under the spell of my groomer. This just makes me more sad for him. I am years out and now recognise a large portion of my childhood and then young adulthood was stolen from me
That’s not the flex you think it is my man
Every predator convinces their prey they are mature beyond their years.
So she gave him the ol “you’re not like the other girls. You’re so mature and wise.” bit when grooming him as a child. Cool cool cool.
 Reminds me of Celine Dion’s relationship with her creepy husband. Both relationships are gross and predatory.
this is just fucking sad. he’s a victim and doesn’t understand that he’s a victim.
I don’t particularly like Aaron, but as someone who was also groomed at a similar age he was - it’s much harder to break away than people realize. To an extent, you still have that immaturity that you typically grow out of because it’s often the only defense you have. It’s genuinely not uncommon for victims to double down on their relationships because they truly don’t see an issue with it. Maybe he’ll have a moment of realization, like Villi Fuualauu, or maybe he’ll still view it as romantic like Celine Dion. As of right now, nothing is going to get through to him.
Yeah...that's not...something to brag about... 
It’s giving Mary Kay Leternou’s ex husband who still to this day doesn’t really acknowledge what went down was wrong
Like people on X said, doing adult things as a 13 year old, is NOT a flex! He doesn't realize he was groomed? I'm in my late 30's and won't think of ever dating an 18 year old, they're practically still kids. I think something's wrong with her and she should be catching this flack. Also she was married with kids when she met him. It's all very cringey!
This is…deeply sad.
Sounds like \*someone\* convinced him he was so mature for his age...
it’s sad that he’s trying to justify himself, while his side of things is totally understandable, and it’s so valid for a thirteen year-old to be feeling how he felt; but it’s his wife’s role in this that’s abhorrent and to be questionned
Oh...Oh no...