Graham, Tom and Ian

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A look back: should a girl be sexy at 15?

by Lib Dem team on 21 August, 2012

Most of would feel more than a little uncomfortable at the idea of a man in his early forties dating a girl not yet sixteen – especially if she insists they’re “just good friends” and he says he wants to marry her. Seems a bit…creepy.

But rugged Hollywood actor John Ireland was happy to admit to a relationship with teenage starlet Tuesday Weld, as the October 1960 edition of Photoplay magazine reports in its feature “Should a girl be sexy at 15?”.

Tuesday Weld is no ordinary girl, it must be said. John Ireland was far from the only older man she dated. By the time Tuesday 17 – and perhaps well before – she had also stepped out with Frank Sinatra (aged 45 in 1960) and band leader Ray Anthony (then in his late 30s). Tuesday appears to have been an unusually precocious teenager with a lot of sex appeal, who knew what she was up to.

As the article says

Some say she is a precocious, publicity-seeking brat in need of a good spanking…but there are others – and they are in the majority – who say she is a frighteningly mature teenager who has more sex appeal than most girls well into their twenties.

Weld and Ireland never tied the knot, and both went onto have long and successful movie careers (Weld’s last feature was a bit of a let down – the none-too-successful film Investigating Sex from 2002).

What does it tell us? Clearly the mere fact that Photoplay ran the story was because it was something odd; and then as now Hollywood stars seem to play to different rules than the rest of us when it comes to sex and romance.

But what I found particularly interesting is the attitude to taken to the men in the story. The reporter, Pat Gledhill, discusses Tuesday at length, looks into her background (did her father dying when she was three contribute to her interest in older men?), her smoking and drinking, her exhibitionist streak and so on.

At no point does the article suggest there’s anything wrong in the activities or desires of the older men – Ireland, Sinatra and Anthony – in dating a girl of Tuesday’s age when they were in their late 30s or 40s. It’s difficult to tell from just one article, of course, but might it be that the biggest change this piece highlights between 1960 and today is the attitude society takes towards older men with an interest in teenage girls?

The article is slightly confusing in that is written throughout as if Tuesday Weld was 15 at the time of writing and refers to her age over and over again. However, Weld was born in August 1943, which would make her late-16 or just-turned-17 at the time the magazine was published.

   2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. Frederick Kenny says:

    Interesting departure from the usual discussions here.

    Presume the reason 15 is highlighted is that the age of consent in the UK is 16 (other than for teachers when it appears to be 18 for the younger partner).

    However, this age is not universal even in Europe – its 13 in Spain and 15 in France for example with any partner of this age or older including 45 year old men.

    Also these days plenty of affluent older women appear to prefer much younger male partners (maybe not 15) but early 20’s – in my view its sterotyped and maybe just politically correct to discuss this in the tired older man and (much) younger woman metaphore.

    Providing its legal (ie 16 or older for either partner in the UK) whats it got to do with anyone else.

  2. John Jacobs says:

    Age of consent in Iowa is 16 so if she is 14 or 15 use a chaperone like Elvis did. Nothing creepy about any man being attracted to a girl who has reached puberty.

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