Sex Differentiation

newsnet5.com - News - Tutor Faces Sex Charges Involving 12-Year-Old Boy Why is it perceived differently when an older female is charged with sexual imposition on a younger male?

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I may catch some flack for this, which usually means I've struck a potentially embarrassing nerve.

Whenever a case like this comes up (the Mary Kay LeTourneau case comes to mind), most men and a lot of women privately react with either indifference or, oddly, incredulity. "What 12 year old boy, a walking testosterone factory, wouldn't want a hottie 32-year old teacher making a move?"

So why is that?

Perhaps it's because men grew up fantasizing about just that very situation, and find it confusing that when it happens, there isn't immediate cheering and backslapping going on. How is it that we project a certain positive light on older female/younger male couplings, but immediately think hideous thoughts about older male/younger female or same sex situations? Clearly, all of these cases involve the breaking of laws that carry the possibility of felony convictions. Clearly, all of the children involved cannot be expected to be able to defend themselves against an older, more powerful adult.

Some of us immediately imagine the tutor as attractive, no matter what she actually looks like. Some of us secretly cheer for the 12 year old, and imagine him bragging to his friends that he "got some." Some of us wish they had a certain Ms. So-and-so (or Mr. So-and-so) ask us to stay after class and "clap the erasers" or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

I invite your comments.

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