Sunday, September 1, 2013

WASHINGTON POST Op-Ed: Consensual Sex Between Teachers & Students Should Not Be Criminalized



Artist and writer Betsy Karasik has received a lot of backlash since her op-ed piece in The Washington Post was published last Friday [August 30, 2013].

In "The unintended consequences of laws addressing sex between teachers and students," Karasik argued that: "[...] our society needs to have an uncensored dialogue about the reality of sex in schools [...] I don’t believe that all sexual conduct between underage students and teachers should necessarily be classified as rape [...] consensual sexual activity between teachers and students should not be criminalized."

"When it comes to having sex on the brain, teenage boys got nothin’ on us. When I was growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, the sexual boundaries between teachers and students were much fuzzier. Throughout high school, college and law school, I knew students who had sexual relations with teachers. To the best of my knowledge, these situations were all consensual in every honest meaning of the word..."

I wrote in The Allure of Nymphets and on this blog about the plethora of teen novels, movies and television shows (e.g. Pretty Little Liars) that condone sexual relationships between teachers and students. Goodreads even has a list of almost 150 Student-Teacher Affair Novels - many of which have received favorable reviews.

However, thanks to feminists and despite the contradictory nature of the profession, teachers must avoid any sexual relationships with students.


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