Pillar-of-the-community pedophilia

Kincaid mentions several times throughout his book what North America is both intrigued and disgusted by: “teacher sex scandals”. They’re all over the news, and frankly I can think of a few stories that never hit the news but occurred while my friends and I fought through high school. Sometimes they become old news fast, but the public is willing to hang onto a few stories now and then to demonstrate its “moral” stance of the situation.

I’m choosing to write about separate chapter of his book Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting than I did with my last Kincaid post. Under the heading “teacher sex scandals”, he presents some thoughts about the labelling of a child molester. He argues that the public is quick to both expect high moral standing from teachers at the same time that we show almost no hesitation when it comes to condemning them in court.  He suggests that perhaps this is because while teachers interacts with children for most of their day and are expected to be kind, they are also expected to maintain a professional, official image. They can be liked by students, but not too much. As a result of these expectations, teachers may be labelled “pillar-of-the-community pedophile or molester”, if they should engage in sexual acts with a student.

 The public is both fascinated and disgusted with these stories; rarely are these sexual interactions presented with the discourse of a relationship. They are presented as an adult manipulating and coercing a child into dirty, sinful acts. We are shocked because these people are supposed to both protect and teach our children at the same time as they are expected to supervise and discipline when things get out of hand.  When teachers don’t fulfill these expectations, they are subject to ridicule, discipline and social judgement by the public and their employers.

Kincaid states that we don’t question our line of thinking when it comes to the above narrative, that because it suits our needs of both fascination and repulsion, we don’t need to change it. News stories both glamorizing and admonishing the student-teacher sexual interaction fit the purpose of the news; to inform, entertain and shock the public with up to date events.  We are expected to feel shock, anger and disgust by these stories, partly because of the way that they are presented. As valuable members of society, teachers who breech codes of conduct become labelled as “professional pedophiles” or as mentioned above “pillar-of-the-community” pedophiles/molesters. But the particular ways in which the sexual interactions are presented to the public have much to do with how they are perceived. Never are the interactions between student-teacher portrayed as an egalitarian relationship, based on sameness of interests and equal attraction. They are most often represented as an exploitive and dangerous relationship, one in which children were lured into, where they were then used and abused by the wicked Pedophile/Child Molester. No one has names at this point, rather they are popularly thought of as “victim” and “predator” in the public’s eyes.

Are these perceptions remotely accurate in some cases? Probably not, much of it is likely plausible fiction in which it was assumed that the teacher had all the power in the world and the student was some helpless lamb in an evil world. Students aren’t dumb or asexual. We’re attracted to people older than us and our teachers sometimes. It happens and usually nothing is said or done about it and it’s no big deal. But the student who acts on it with a teacher is most likely not completely stupid. Despite who initiated what, student-teacher sex will always come back to bite the teacher in the ass, not the kid. It doesn’t matter if the student flaunted, flirted and charmed his/her way into the situation, the reality is that legally and socially, the teacher is in danger of losing their job and social lives. For someone who was supposed to be helpless, this sure places a lot of power in a student’s hand. On days that I feel particularly soulless, I figure a lot of students might try this; sleep with a teacher to get what you want and then manipulate the situation to fit your needs. But I have no soul or heart, so my assumptions that other people think this way are probably overestimated. No matter if they claim to be in love, the minute the student decides they’re unhappy is the minute the teacher better start watching their back for new legal and social recourse.