Tonight I would like to discuss a touchy subject; relationships between legal adults and minors. In the United States, where I live, most states have laws that permit legal relationships between people that are 16 or older and people over 18 as long as the relationship started before the older party turned 18. We even have some borderline laws like Texas’s “Cinderella Laws”. But why am I talking about this? Jake Mcelfresh, more commonly known as Front Porch Step (FPS). That is why. If you are part of the alternative music scene or follow Warped Tour updates you probably have heard of this man. You’ve heard his voice, which is really quite nice, and heard his lyrics that vary from mediocre to pretty good for the genre. I, personally, have had a great appreciation for his music and existence till very recently. Jake Mcelfresh has been reported, by the girls themselves, to have had inappropriate relationships with minors. That sentence alone does not bother me, because I, as someone who did date older people as a minor, did have “inappropriate relations with legal adults”. But there’s a big difference between the guys I dated and Jake’s targets. I was sixteen and seventeen during my relationships with men whose ages were between eighteen and twenty. That is not a large age gap. Especially in comparison to the accusations of his targets of girls between 13 and 17. From what I managed to find, he is currently 22 years old and was no younger than 20 when he began this whole thing. I’m going to give you a few seconds to let that sink in. There have been reports, by the girls themselves, with extensive proof, that Jake did indeed sexually harass them at a young age. Unless someone decided to troll all of these girls who have come forward, and those who have not, for over two years now, I do believe at least some of these accounts are true. Moving on to why this is so disturbing beyond the age factor. 1.He writes songs that are almost exclusively about depression, break ups and women in general. Typical emo genre topics. As a writer, I can confidently state a majority of my work is influenced by events and people close/extremely relevant to me. Taylor Swift writes about her break ups. Robin Thicke writes about the women he will never get to lay a finger on. They write from personal, or lack of, experiences. It disturbs me to think the following lyrics could be about one of his victims instead of the girlfriend the media actually saw: To give you everything, there is nothing I won't do. Dump my heart into a blender just to pour it out to you. And I know you're feeling tired. Just let me hold you for a bit. Dive my face between your thighs until I cannot feel my lips. 2. Jake Mcelfresh sent multiple photos of himself naked to underage girls. Unprompted. Without warning. To do that to anyone is invasive. He also sent his junk. To underage girls. That have stated they were younger than 16. He was well over 20. The next two points will cover why I’m referring to these girls are “victims” and “targets”. 3. He used his fame to manipulate these girls. This one might not be as obvious to some people. When you’re not a big-shot musician in this day and age, you’re pretty much required to interact with your fans without the filter of a social media manager. He had direct access to his followers. He DM’ed the girls. Given, one did reportedly “egg him on” by posting a tweet about her wanting to have sex with him. If a stranger sent you a message that said that would you react by giving them your number? He even got these girls to send him photos. One girl states she sent over 50 risqué photos of herself per day at one point in their relationship. Another girl, one whose post about him was a singular screenshot, stated he said she made him send it. That it wasn’t by his own free will he exposed himself to her. 4. He emotionally manipulated these girls. I’m not even going to include my own thoughts on this. Here are two of the milder screenshots provided by one of the victims: So, even with age out of the picture, he used his fame and status to manipulate people. He also emotionally battered them. This is a long post, but I feel this is something that needs to be addressed and brought to a wider audience as the Internet continues to grow and be a more widespread form of communication. We have dating sites and social media. We have this app. The issues of people using fame to manipulate people are becoming more and more prominent. On an end note here is the link to the most recent article: http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/ever ... t_front_po If it doesn’t work, I’ll figure it out. DISCLAIMER: I did not contact anyone for this information. It was purely research and reading information already provided. Jake Mcelfresh has also not been tried and charged for anything. I used what was available currently. I expressed my opinons about the manner. ALSO, PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN OPENING LINKS ATTACHED IN THE ARTICLE ITSELF AS ONE (IS LABELED) CONTAINS NSFW CONTENT AND THE OTHERS CONTAIN DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF WHAT COULD BE CONSIDERED TRAUMATIC ACCOUNTS. I would also like you guys to voice yours. What do you think about the ordeal? Did advances in social media attribute the severity this has reached?
My opinion: Knowing how some teens are nowadays, I'd say they should've told thier parents. I wouldn't consider them "victims". They understood what was going on. I'm pretty sure most of today's teens know what they're getting into. I'm not saying what he did was right. He should have his junk cut off for doing this to kids, but they need to know it was their fault. I mean. If it was a 9 year old or close to that age then yah, dude needs to be killed. Just my opinion.
Were any of thr girls physically abused by him? I didnt understand the thread well enough and too much to go back
No. Emotional abuse is still abuse, though. This includes things like: -threatening to kill oneself if someone does/doesn't do a specific thing (usually over ending a relationship) -using ones insecurities (weight, appearance, etc) to make them uncomfortable -triggering people's anxiety -using things about a person's past, such as self harm to make them feel worse or guilty -blackmail
Hmm well.. Knowing the group of (mostly) females that go to warp tours, they get labeled emo/slut/goth etc. He might have included his feelings towards the girls in his lyrics but most bands in that genre write lyrics that make no sense at all.. So I don't think the lyrics have anything to do with that. It's disgusting how he's using his title to influence the girls, but really.. A lot of minors go to warp tour and with the storied that I've heard, what happens there is a lot worse. Really, this is the first time and it's not the last. I read something in summer about another artist who did the same thing and it cost him his job, reputation, friends, and other stuff. Jakes bound to have the same faith especially now that everyone knows.
Really sad. No matter what anyone says, these girls are victims. They were manipulated and influenced to do these things by a guy they looked up to/ admired/ felt a connection w thru his music. That isnt right. Speaking from a similar experience, I can understand y they did the things that they did. They're victims bc they dont actually understand the dynamics of what was going on-- they only thought they did. In my experience, I was 14 to 17 and the male was in his early 20s when we met. The entire time, I thought it was something special, a real relationship even at 17 when we split. Today, at 20, I see that there were so many different layers to that "rship" that my mind was just too immature to grasp. Having matured, I look at my time w him completely differently. Not by force, but bc it truly was very different from what i felt it was in my younger age. This whole story is quite sad, and I hope these girls wont suffer any lasting effects.
My aunties married when they were 16 ? no joke. Now days none of this is allowed and frown upon. Weird how times change