There is a glaring gender gap in society when it comes to the sexual abuse of children. Men who molest children are rightly condemned, cast out and vilified (unless they’re famous rock stars, of course). Women who do the same might – might – feel the less than full force of the law. But they suffer nowhere near the social opprobrium.
In fact, as often as not, these women will be surreptitiously feted, especially on social media. The mobs who bay for the blood of Catholic priests are as likely to nudge and wink at each other. Journalists and politicians, especially the “MeToo” harpies who screech in rage that even a man hugging a woman is “rape”, are running almost entirely silent on what is a serious and growing issue.
When Mary Kay Letourneau was caught having sex with her sixth-grade student in 1996, America was shocked. Now, reports of female teachers sexually abusing the young boys in their charge seem almost routine.
“Where were these teachers when I was at school?” is a common response from men, while women roll their eyes and victim-blame “horny teenage boys”. South Park featured an episode where five-year-old Ike is molested by his female teacher. The repeated response from other characters – including police? “Nice!”
To be fair, the South Park episode was undeniably funny, from a show which specialises in outrageous and offensive humour. In some cases, the naysayers are right about the horny teenage boys. But, as Gavin McInnes points out in a video about very famous rockstars banging 13 year old groupies in the 70s – it doesn’t matter if they liked it.
“Is that rape if they love it? Uh…Yeah. If a child enjoys sex with an adult, that child has been raped…the law is pretty good on this. Pretty obvious. We’ve been working on this for a while.”
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, at least five female educators in the Greater Akron area have faced charges of sexual misconduct with students in the past two year alone. Reporter Amanda Garrett…found that Akron is part of a national trend, which experts said is taking a growing toll on young boys.
A 2017 study published by the U.S. Justice Department revealed that most sexual abuse of students by employees of K-12 schools is committed by men. However, the number of female educators charged with such crimes is rising, the researchers found.
Psychologist Anna Salter, an expert on sexual predators, said these women are typically married moms in their mid-30s…Charol Shakeshaft, an education professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said there is a name for these women: “opportunistic abusers.”
But this is true of almost all child abusers. Despite popular imagery, most abusers are “situational offenders”.
Yet, even as men are increasingly demonised as “toxic”, female abusers are being given a relative pass.
A 2011 study published in the Journal of Social Psychology tested the theory that “male teachers are judged more harshly than female teachers for engaging in heterosexual intercourse with a student…Writing for Salon in June 2008 about the phenomenon of female teachers having sex with their students, journalist Carol Lloyd suggested that “the power imbalance between men and women may influence the way society regards statutory rapists.”
Which seems an awful lot like excuse-making. Women are victims, so it’s okay if they victimise others?
But contrary to the stereotypes of women as harmless nurturers – and teen boys as horny men – experts have said that female teachers do just as much harm to the boys they prey on as their male counterparts do to girls.
Such misconceptions can leave boys and men vulnerable…Male victims may be less likely to report sex crimes, Parker said, and even when they do, the justice system doesn’t take them seriously.
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Neither does society.
Yet, again contrary to popular belief, most victims of child abuse do not go on to develop serious long-term psychological problems. But, as Gavin McInnes says: that doesn’t matter. It’s the law – and everyone should be judged and punished equally under the law, no matter if they’re the creepy old man or the hot female teacher.
