Does the double standard still exist?

True, but the first sentence is profoundly different for males and females.

Good point. The level of public outrage seems to vary quite a bit between the various possible combinations.

An interesting exercize to do is to watch a few tv shows or read a book while mentally switching the genders of the main protagonists. It’s pretty freaky how different it makes everything seem if you really get into it.

No cite, but it’s my understanding that most colleges explicitly forbid relationships between faculty and students, regardless of whether the students have reached majority.

It gets fuzzy when you have students who also have faculty-ish roles, such as teaching assistants and dorm supervisors. One one grad student friend of mine was an in-house adviser living in an undergraduate dorm. she was expressly forbidden to date any undergrad living in that dorm, but anyone else, grad or undergrad, was fine.

In one of Douglas Hofstadter’s Douglas Hofstadter - Wikipedia books he included a 2 or 3 page short story which swapped Black & White for Male & Female as social categories. I couldn’t find an excerpt online, but it is mentioned in the wiki writeup.

It was disturbing & disorienting to read as it applied the two sets of binary stereotypes to the opposite groups. It was appalling to read as it brought into clear focus how much of what we accept as “normal” is in fact just social convention of a very pernicious sort.

How do you know? My friends and I giggled over Mr. So-and-so being “hot” when we were in middle school and high school. I really think you need to explain why the situation is so different for males and females.

At least if you’re 14 year old daughter got pregnant she’d have the option of getting an abortion. If your 14 year old son got his teacher pregnant he would have no say over whether or not she kept the baby. If she did he could even end up required to pay child support for the next 18 years.

The first sentence in my post was about pregnancy.

It’s a bad situation no doubt alphaboi867, no matter what way it happens. But I would certainly never force my imaginary daughter to get an abortion, it would be her decision. Almost as much out of my hands as would be the 30 year old teacher. No matter which way she decided there would be unpleasantness.

Treat them the same legally, no matter what pairing of sexes there are, but if my children were involved I do have my preferences.

True. What’s more, he could still be liable even if she were convicted of the statutory rape of him. It’s happened before.

Good point. I imagine they’re not all hot and blond, either.

The double standard exists, in part, because teenage boys are horny and looking to ‘lose it’ to anyone they can, and teenage girls can’t initiate sex, especially not with older, acne-free men.

The South Park episode cited was excellent. I can’t help feel that the double-standard often exists against the will of the abused (males). Are they all just happy they got laid, or afraid to act like they didn’t consent? What about male victims of older, female molesters who aren’t their teachers? Would people be accepting if they’d had sex with a male teacher?