Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

[Medusa]

So we all know about all those male teachers who have sex with their female students. Or the dad's of your friend and you sleep with him. And off to jail he goes. But why is it when it's an adult woman (and a pretty one at that) we let it pass? Its not just one case, but over and over. I keep seeing it on the news. Female teacher, sleeps with students. Not too much ends up happening. Or when something happens, she's out in a few years blah blah. Latest case in the news:
Alabama teacher sleeps with 17 year old student. Gets off of going to jail because she marries him. Now some may say, well, 17? He's a man. A 17 year old who gets seduced by a teacher, a friend's married mother, an employer, etc. They are not adults. They are not able to understand the severe consequences of affecting a marriage and family. They end up years down the line being hyper vigilant of their children, almost to the point of tyranny and paranoia. The effects of having a fling with a married woman who is your teacher, can indeed affect you for the long run. At least that's my opinion. And yours?

sauce

[Thothur]

Re: Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

Modern people's bodies develop quicker than their minds.

My grandfather was a man at age 12 back in 1918. He came over from Hungary at that age, and before that he was working full time to help his mother. His father and older brother were already in America. When he came over here, he learned English as a second language, and worked whatever jobs he could find. Eventually he found a full time job as a coal miner, and worked in the mine for 45 years before he finally retired, and then died of Black Lung a few years later.

Nowadays, you have 12 year old girls with the bodies of a 30 year old woman, and the minds of an 8 year old.
You have 18 year old males who think there's nothing more to life than playing Xbox all day long.

So yea... we have a problem.

Phytoestrogens have a lot to do with this. The girls are developing physically at a younger and younger age, and the males are taking much later to 'grow a set', if you'll pardon the expression.

[Aeran]

Re: Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

Comes down to the way we tend to attribute active agency, especially sexual agency, to men, and the way we struggle to see women as predators, or perpetrators of their own deeds. Same reason that a when a woman commits an awful crime, we automatically ask 'who did something so horrible to her that it drove her to this?' (for an example of this, look at the woman who cut off her husband's penis recently. The discussion immediately turned to a) making jokes about the man and b) wondering what horrible abuse he must have inflicted on her to make her do what she did. Imagine if the genders had been reversed and a man had irreversibly mutilated his wife's vagina... he'd be viewed as a sick, twisted psycho and society would throw the book at him without a second thought) We assume that the woman is assuming a passive role, and that the male in the situation must have been in charge, that if a woman did something it was in reaction to something else, not instigated by her own desires. Likewise, we similarly struggle with casting men in passive roles, seeing them as victims of outside agency or circumstance, the assumption is that they must have been in control and subsequently desired it, or if they weren't, that they're weak and deserve to be exploited because they aren't acting like a 'real man.'

[Ophidia]

Re: Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

I think it's less about the nature of the crime and more about gender bias when it comes to criminal sentencing. Women have statistically received shorter and lighter sentences for crimes than men. Women also have a better chance of avoiding being charged with crimes altogether, or being given a misdemeanor variant of charges when available. The disparity between men being arrested, charged and sentenced to women is probably much larger because most studies don't account for the number of times a woman avoids arrest completely compared to men.

My boobs have gotten me out of numerous minor violations - including encounters with female law enforcement.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

Ya know I have thought about this in passing... I always assumed I must be wrong noticing it, because no one else said anything... I think when it is an older women it is often considered normal, which is wierd because it has not always been the case. Any time you have an older man involved, it is assumed that the man is in the wrong becuase they are often the ones considered in control of any given situation, which is likely societal, and just how people percieve. I don't know why women get away with it more... they shouldn't, if an older man needs to be cast in jail, for sleeping with a younger girl, then the older woman needs the same treatment. Just my opinion...

[Heka]

Re: Gender bias in adult/child relationships(crimes)

Caz de wimen, day have deh boobiez.

(sorry I feel like trolling after the troll thread. Thanks a lot guys!)