Beauty and the Beast. The story of Ted Cummings, and Elizabeth Thomas is an old one. A man in mid life crises being attracted to a young girl is not the most surprising thing in the world. Of course there is revulsion, and cries of pedophilia, but that’s not what’s in play here. This is a man grasping for his youth by enticing a girl, who while may be physically well grown, is not mentally equipped to understand the situation at all. He’s looking for a “new beginning” and she just moved from dolls to high school crushes. This is a recipe for disaster.
Social norms adjust from place to place, indeed from era to era. When Chuck Berry recorded “Sweet Little Sixteen” the “coming out” of a young girl on the eve of womanhood was a recognized red letter day, with the understanding that she would need…
