It seems that not a week goes by anymore before we hear about yet another teacher having sex with students. It happened here in the Capital City recently, and had the added bonus that the teacher's toddler son was in the carseat in the back of the car while the event was occurring! The one thing I find interesting about this recent spate of stories is that the teachers are overwhelmingly women and the students boys; given the "dirty old man" meme I'm sure many of us expect the male teachers to be pouncing on the girls.
Why does it seem so much less a big deal when the pedophile is a woman? Is it because we assume the boys can consent whereas girls must be coerced? Is it because we secretly cheer the boys for scoring with a woman? Is it that we don't have near as much trouble seeing teenage boys as sexual beings as we do teenage girls? Boys will be boys, and all that?
Where's all the talk of "equality" on this issue? I wonder what NOW's stand is?
Don't get me wrong. I certainly don't want to hear stories of male teachers doing the girls. What I decry here is the difference in the way we treat man/girl and woman/boy sex. Women need counseling, men should be shot. That kind of stuff.
Ready for this one? There's a school in New York that has two concurrent sex scandals. Both are of the woman/boy variety. Read all about it in this article from the EducationWonks.
Update, 4/16/05, 9:28 pm: Which gets you angrier, the story above, or this one? Why is that?
Update #2, 4/16/05, 2:19 pm: Apparently, pedophile isn't the correct word to use in these instances. These recent cases involve ephebophiles, not pedophiles. Except for Mary Kay Letourneau. She's a pedophile.
3 comments:
It comes from sexist lawmakers. Look at rape laws, a drunk female cannot give conset but an equally drunk male is suppose to be able to determine is conset has been given.
I've often wondered this myself. Mary Kay was turned into a TV star, for pete's sake--I reckon because she had that all american blondie thing going. I'm nnot sure what rape laws have to do with so much as a distinct decline in understanding the difference between Right and Wrong. As well as an increase in folks who believe the rules should apply to everyone but them--because they are 'special'.
In the area of law, I want more reasons for asymmetry than just "you can't get pregnant."
If that argument is allowed to stand, then Larry Summers' critics can back off at Harvard and the NOW crowd can pack up and go home.
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