reply to post by Buford2
Oh come-on? you blame feminism? Seriously? You really think "feminism" turned women into "sexed craved drug addicts"? Good Lord. That's like
saying "religion" turned all those priests into gay druggies (Ted Haggard, et al). Yeah, well, sorry to say, but this has nothing to do with
feminism. or religion for that matter. And by the way, "code pink"?!, you are totally mischaracterizing feminism as if it's this monolithic
movement of crazy evil women who want to destroy men, eat babies and force abortions on everyone or something. Your personal caricature of
"feminism" is not
feminism. You know what they say, "feminism is that radical notion that women are people too". But, whatevers, that's
another conversation entirely.
Anyway, this has to do with the fact that society as a whole wants to ignore and deny the very basic and natural fact that after puberty, teenagers
basically turn into giant horn-balls. People need to start acknowledging and accepting the fact that teenagers have sex. It's really very simple.
The prudishness of American society with all these cries of "oh noes, the innocent childrens!"..."who has corrupted them" combined with straight
up denial, only serves to create problems and make things worse. Fer crissakes, this is
nature, pure and simple, humans like sex, teenagers
like sex even more. What isn't natural is making "purity pledges" and "waiting 'til marriage"...and all this pressure that certain groups and
people place on teens to be "pure" and "virginal"...it's all extremely counterproductive and just creates more problems and confusion for the
teen. I mean, just look at the states that have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and you'll get the jist of what I'm talking about here (not to
mention all the reports of teenagers having butt-sex instead because they think it still means that they will still have their virginity if it
doesn't go in the regular hole - excuse my crude language, but this is true, and again, has led to all sorts of problems with std's etc.). So, It's
better to acknowledge that teenagers want to, and do have sex, instead of trying to sweep it under a rock and ignore it. Being prudish about sex and
denying ones natural urges just doesn't work. (just take the example of celibacy among catholic priests, or can you guess which state has the highest
pornography consumption?)
Of course I still think that this teacher was wrong for having sex with her student for the sole reason that she was in a position of power and
authority over her students. I've taught 3rd grade and I just couldn't imagine... the mere thought makes me want to throw up. However, once you
acknowledge the fact that teenagers have sex, enjoy sex, and many actively seek it out, it's not very surprising that this sort of thing will happen
once in awhile. Especially with male students, who, generally reach their sexual peak much earlier than their female peers (for men it's generally
16-20, for women late 20's early 30's)...so it really makes a lot of sense if you think about it, these female teachers all fall into that age
range, along with the teenage boys. I think it's simply a matter that these women were simply more "available" and probably more "willing" than
your average 16 year old teenage girl. If a teenage boy is looking to have sex, he's going to have a lot easier time with an older woman, than with
one of his own age. So for the boys it was an "easy score"...and for the women, they got a horny young teenage boy with a perpetual erection (again,
sorry to be crude about it)...but, it's a perfect match! Now again, I'm not excusing this sort of thing at all. I'm only saying that we should not
be surprised.
So, the fact that we know this sort of thing goes on means we need to acknowledge that teens are having sex, that they are going to continue to have
sex whether the parents or society as a whole approves or not. So, instead of infantilizing them and denying them their human nature, we should
instead address the issue of sex and focus on educating them; showing them how to make mature informed decisions (i'm talking about comprehensive sex
education, not the finger wagging "abstinence only" type). Now I don't know the situation between these boys and female teachers. Certainly a 10
year age difference is not that big a deal in the real world...and certainly it's not a big deal for 2 sexually mature people to have consensual sex.
However, the problem arises because the teacher is in a position of power over the student, and so that is why I have a problem. If these were 2
unrelated people, who say, met one day at a park and just decided to hook up in the back of their car, I wouldn't have a problem...but again, it's
the power dynamics of the student-teacher relationship that makes this troublesome. Honestly, I don't think that situations like this can necessarily
be prevented, like I said, teenagers have sex whether we like it or not, once in awhile, one of them is going to end up having sex with an older
adult, some of these older adults will end up being teachers. Still, I think this sort of thing has probably been going on for awhile. The media has
definitely hyped it up a lot, but, I don't think it's a new phenomenon. So again, instead of being in denial, the best course to take would be to
arm these teenagers with the tools and information they need to be able to make mature decisions and hope for the best.