Wow:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A former Bismarck middle school teacher who admitted she had sex with a ninth-grader will spend 60 days in prison.It’s hard to believe that a 35-year-old man having sex with a 15-year-old, ninth-grade student would get the same sort of lenient statement.
South Central District Court Judge Bruce Romanick has ruled that 35-year-old Susan Duursma won’t have to register as a sex offender.
Thursday, September 04, 2014
If It Weren't For Double Standards, Sometimes There'd Be No Standards At All
How can this be justified?
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The reason why that appears to be a double standard is because it IS a double standard. And, it's based on a totally unfair standard of judgement of sexuality: a man who has sex with 100 women is a stud; reverse it and the woman's a slut. If a male teacher has a sex with an underage student, she been raped/molested; reverse it and the boy is considered 'lucky'. I think it would behoove us to reconsider the age of consent; puberty is occurring earlier and earlier, and 18 is (if you want to be honest about it) not realistic ...it's also not consistent. I know there are states that go as low as 15, and I believe (Arkansas ) may go as low as 13. Personally, I think 15 would be a much more realistic uniform standard ... but, that's just the number I picked.
The real crime is that someone used a power they had over another person to have a sexual relationship with them ... and that, to me is just as inexcusable whether the one in power is male or female -- and sentencing should reflect that equality of predatory behavior -- but it consistently doesn't, I think due to the societal standard of what's okay for men and women to do. This boy may or may not have been able to make a rational choice about whether he was ready to have sex or not, but either way, he's a victim in that the person he was having sex with had the power to make things either better or worse for him in class ... I'd much rather see her punished appropriately for that.
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