Following the nurse specialist debacle comes Barbara Ellen's extraordinary column on the Madeleine Martin affair:
...do we seriously think that a female teacher sleeping with a male pupil is on a par with a male teacher sleeping with a girl pupil? I don't. And neither, I'd wager, would most 15-year-old boys.Say what..? We are letting the 'Phwoar, lucky sod!' contingent decide sentencing now?
Certainly, she has been severely punished for her nine-day tryst with the teenager, who, his mother says, has been mocked by peers. If anything, one would have thought they might be jealous. The internet is awash with sites dealing with "older woman teacher-pupil" fantasies. And there lies the rub – should the law be treating male and female pupil victims equally when male and female teenagers are so different?Ahh, yes. It's the old 'No, actually, we don't want equality, we need appreciation of our differences and assistance for the designated victim classes' approach that has been creeping in to other issues, most recently race and religion.
In Martin's case, with her hefty prison sentence, and placement on the sex offenders' register, she has effectively been punished exactly the same as a man.This, Barbara is saying, is a bad thing...
The commenters disagree. Oh, boy, do they disagree!
Abusing a position as a religious studies teacher with responsibilities for moral guidance, a criminal seduced an under age boy and is now serving a jail sentence.
ReplyDeleteNext.
Yeah, like Polanski didn't commit, you know, "Rape, rape" according to Whoopi Goldberg (an acknowledged expert in these things)
ReplyDeleteI have no particular problems with anyone sleeping with anyone. What's the fuss about? What exactly is the crime FFS?
ReplyDeleteI am a fully paid up member of the "Phwoar, lucky sod!" contingent.
ReplyDeleteI think you are on to something here. We on the anti-statist wing are fighting old fights while our opponents have moved on. They still talk about "equality" (and they love it in job titles) but when you think about it, they have been actively promoting inequality for a long time. Maybe we should grab the word for ourselves, like they stole "liberal" from us?
ReplyDeleteSentencing has to be the same if the crimes the same, yes the boy may have been a lucky sod, but that's not the issue, it's what the teacher did and gender differences in this case make no difference to sentencing. You can't have one rule for them etc. it's already caused far too many problems with politicians getting off lightly.
ReplyDeleteThe comments must have been good. They're gone now.
ReplyDeleteI suppose she didn't get quite the response she expected.
Screw her.
ReplyDelete@ Leg-iron
ReplyDeleteThey have recently changed how to view comments. Go to the top of the article and the link is to the right.
STB.
Nope, that 'comments' link doesn't work either, maybe you have to be logged on.
ReplyDeleteLong time since I've been a teacher but I expect that any girl who sleeps around is still a "slag" but a boy doing likewise is merely "one of the lads".
I knew a chap ( adult ) who had been shagging his History Mistress since age 15, they eventually married, didn't do either of them any harm.
On the other hand that was before they changed the law to make the age of consent @18 for persons in a position of trust. That teacher broke the law and got punished accordingly. In law she was three years too soon, like a non-teacher shagging a 13 year old.
Well, they wanted equality, now they've got it, one of their own in gaol.
Mark Wadsworth...no not so lucky sod. You obviously didn't see the woman's picture in the paper...still if you're 15, a shag's a shag, right?
ReplyDeleteRather a 39 year old experienced woman than Tracey who has already been through 11A, 11B and is halfway through 11C.
In the Martin case, the bit I liked was 'he lost interest in his hobbies'.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can remember of the hobbies of 15 year old boy that is only to be expected.
I know it's wrong to mock, maybe he really has been traumatised (still makes me laugh though).
BTW a decade ago, she wouldn't have been committing a crime at all -gross misconduct certainly but not a serious criminal offence. But equality-obsessed Labour just couldn't bear having different ages of consent for males and females, could they? That's sexist per se.
And finally, when I was checking the date for the above, I found out that Saudi Arabia has taken a very non-sexist approach towards determining the age of consent: they don't have one at all. Now that's really putting the concept of Equality foremost.
Er...
"...a criminal seduced an under age boy and is now serving a jail sentence. "
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
"Yeah, like Polanski didn't commit, you know, "Rape, rape" according to Whoopi Goldberg..."
And that's going to provide entertainment when it gets to trial...
"What's the fuss about? What exactly is the crime FFS?"
Te same crime it would be were the sexes reversed, of course...
"I am a fully paid up member of the "Phwoar, lucky sod!" contingent."
I thought you would be... ;)
"I think you are on to something here. We on the anti-statist wing are fighting old fights while our opponents have moved on. "
ReplyDeleteThe goalposts always shift when they start losing...
"Maybe we should grab the word for ourselves, like they stole "liberal" from us?"
I like the sound of that!
"You can't have one rule for them etc. it's already caused far too many problems with politicians getting off lightly."
I wish it HAD caused problems. It seems to have only generated headlines.
"They have recently changed how to view comments."
CiF has been flaky for the past week or so.
I mean technologically. In some ways, it's always been flaky...
"Well, they wanted equality, now they've got it, one of their own in gaol."
ReplyDeleteI suspect they wanted it until they got it, then changed their minds. That's women for you.. ;)
"Rather a 39 year old experienced woman than Tracey who has already been through 11A, 11B and is halfway through 11C."
Indeed!
"BTW a decade ago, she wouldn't have been committing a crime at all -gross misconduct certainly but not a serious criminal offence. But equality-obsessed Labour just couldn't bear having different ages of consent for males and females, could they? That's sexist per se."
Is there nothing they haven't ruined in their quest to 'improve mankind'?
//Is there nothing they haven't ruined in their quest to 'improve mankind'?//
ReplyDeleteSubject matter for political satire, impersonations, lampooning, mocking, and ridicule. In these areas they have contributed immeasurable improvement.
For Julia's entertainment:
ReplyDeletehttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/men-the-gender-wars-are-over-%E2%80%94-we-won/
;-)
"Guardianistas (i.e the people who actually buy the newspaper..."
ReplyDeleteAh, but check out the circulation figures. Not that many do any more. In fact, if not for 'Autotrader', it'd go bust.. :)
"For Julia's entertainment:"
ROFL!
"Ah, but check out the circulation figures. Not that many do any more. In fact, if not for 'Autotrader', it'd go bust.. :)"
ReplyDeleteNice to see the Guardian's permanent crusade against cars then...
*smirkle*
(don't suppose 'Bicycletrader' will be as successful...)