Listening to a (usually excellent) progressive radio talk show sometime in the past few days, I was bummed to hear the host make a joke about students (male) scoring with hot (female) teachers. It came up as he was framing the topic for the show, asking what people believed to be the biggest problem in education these days. He made some random comment about teacher-student hook-ups being someone’s idea of the biggest problem, or fantasy, or something.
(I can’t distill the comment any better for you—but you can probably find a transcript. I actually changed the station for a few minutes until the show got back on track.)
I hate the double standard that exists—male teacher, female student = lecherous & illegal; male student, hot female teacher = fantasy & socially accepted hahaha.
I also hate it when progressive men say sexist things. Come on, guys, snap out of it. Fifty years ago, it was the anti-war protesters and civil rights activists asking the women in the movement to make coffee … have you really not recognized that we are full partners in the struggle yet?
Are you going to make me stand here and get all second-wave feminist on your asses? I try not to be a humorless feminist, but come on, really? I mean, I do have my limits.
In the spirit of being constructive, I offer this example of the media getting it right.
I really appreciate how thoughtfully this article about a teacher being arrested for soliciting a minor was written.
Nowhere in the story does it say whether the male teacher thought he was communicating with a male 13-year-old or female 13-year-old. The story simply refers to the 13-year-old as a minor.
I appreciate that the focus is 100% on the crime. Pedophilia. Period.
No mention made of sexual orientation, because sexual orientation doesn’t cause, predispose, or have anything to do with the crime of pedophilia.
Shout out to Brian Rogers, the Houston Chronicle reporter, for his careful, thoughtful, and accurate reporting.
nonsequiteuse 