PATRIARCH'S PLANET

WAY TO GO, DUDE!

By JT Michcock

Press reports have recently focused in on a young man living in the Seattle, Washington area who has fathered two children. The teen, Vili Fuallau, became involved with his school teacher, Mary Kay Latourneau, when he was around twelve.

After siring a child at age 13, the teacher (who served six months in jail and was quickly placed on probation after the first pregnancy) returned to the embrace of her young lover and the result was a second child. Both children are now in the custody of the teen's mother.

Judicial officials, apparently dismayed by the tackiness of it all, decided that they needed to show a little spirit. As a consequence, Mrs. Latourneau is now in prison serving a seven and a half year sentence for – get this – "child rape."

The young man is now sixteen and he and his mother have decided to sue the school district and local municipality for failing to protect him from these assaults. http://cnn.com/2000/US/04/14/teachersex.ap/index.html

If this had been an instance where a male teacher had seduced a female student and gotten her pregnant, the male teacher likely would not have had a second opportunity. Further, the girl's parents would not have waited several years to bring a civil action against the father and aforementioned authorities.

Villi and his family had initially protested that the woman had suffered enough and urged her release. However, a series of letters where the teacher had threatened the youth with castration if he so much as talked to another woman, prompted a break down in that relationship. http://www.channel3000.com/news/stories/news-990223-141018.html

Just to be clear, Mrs. Letourneau is likely a nutcake of the highest order. Let's just hope the kid doesn't own any rabbits. From all reports, the woman needs serious psychological treatment.

That being said, trying to compare this relationship to one where the gender roles were reversed is insane. A number of men have argued on various forums that since this is a gender equal society we should not differentiate between the two scenarios.

Since when have we ever lived in a "gender equal" society?

By all accounts there was very little coercion involved in these two conceptions. In fact, the young man must have enjoyed himself given that he was brought to completion on at least two of those occasions. Yet there is still a drumbeat of criticism that focuses in on the alleged disparate treatment of this situation had the gender roles been reversed. http://tabletalk.salonmagazine.com/webx/webx.dll?13@@.ee87552

Let's review some biology here. If a man and a woman have sexual intercourse, there is only one of these parties that is likely to emerge pregnant following the encounter. For you Web-TVers, it ain't the guy. Women are looking for relationships and romance, a soul mate for their lives and a protector for herself and any children born. Men are looking for sex. Both these motivations are based upon the neurophysiology of the involved parties. Simply stated, women have far more invested in the procreative act.

Men being "initiated" by having sex with an older women is pervasive throughout a variety of cultures. These themes pervade the popular media. Audiences regarded the film "Summer of '42" as a perfect paean to such relationships. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6300268128/o/qid=956543460/sr=8-7/ref=aps_sr_v_3_1/102-8240787-5928001

Here's a quote from Amazon.com's review of Summer of '42: "Dorothy's husband conveniently leaves for duty overseas, and then, even more conveniently, becomes one of those "we regret" telegrams. Dorothy, desperate for comfort and sweetness, turns to Hermie--and surely makes his summer." Ahem.

It should follow that culture follows biology. After all, chairs look the way they do because most people walk upright and bend at the knees. The thought of a women initiating sex with a young boy is not nearly as shocking as the reverse. Can anyone say "Lolita"? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679410430/o/qid=956543890/sr=8-2/ref=aps_sr_b_1_2/102-8240787-5928001

Speaking of which, here's a quote from a review of "Lolita," also on Amazon.com: "Humbert, suave monster that he is, could have been the man next door or sitting on the park bench across from my school....Lolita, the obnoxious little girl who's 11 going on 18, then 14 going on 24, as much loses her childhood (innocence) to what money can buy (the symbolism behind the pair's car travels from motel to motel across America) as she does to Humbert's disgusting obsession.

Interesting contrast between the reviews of Summer of '42 and Lolita, wouldn't you say?

This attitude not only extends to child/adult pairings but also where one of the parties is mentally disabled. One of the earlier Mel Gibson films, "Tim," portrays the actor as a mentally retarded man who falls in love with Mary, portrayed by Piper Laurie, a woman of normal intelligence. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080024 The relationship is displayed as perfectly normal.

If there is a film to portray in a positive light an instance of a mentally retarded women falling for a man of normal intelligence, I have yet to see it. More than likely, such a story would appear on Lifetime Television and approvingly chronicle the man's eventual conviction for rape.

What is ridiculous is not that these differences in depiction exist, but the hue and cry as to how the portrayals are derided by those advocating gender equality. With men especially, there seems to be an almost overly eager effort to decry the "raping" of boys. Few of such young men would doubtless consider categorizing their own experiences as a sexual assault.

Looking at the situation, I believe that many of these men are simply pulling the female portion of the audience's collective legs. In other words, they really don't believe what they are saying.

One can almost hear the men, after positing their dismay over the "sexist" approaches taken by the culture, sitting back and enjoying a good laugh. The perplexed females in the audience respond by trying to rationalize their stated desire for equality with their instinctive belief that these situations are different. Feminists hoisted by their own petards.

Come on guys, give it up. It's not very manly to beat up on girls.

The appropriate position should be to recognize that these situations are not analogous. No adolescent boy has ever been psychologically harmed by having sexual relations with an older women other than the usual heartbreaks common to adult relationships. In contrast, many adolescent female bear the scars of relationships with older males, the most damaging being unwanted pregnancies in addition to the psychic damage. It is perfectly sensible to frown upon the former and to condemn the latter. It is also entirely acceptable to punish men far more severely than women. Mrs. Letourneau may very well belong in a psychiatric hospital, but certainly not a prison. Maybe a couple of months locked up in jail, but no more.

What should be the response of society? Protect the girls, let the boys handle themselves.

Picture yourself in the boy's locker room of Villi's school. Word of the student's escapades with his (fairly attractive) teacher is spreading through the hallways. Do you suppose his fellow male students are coming to his side to comfort him over this horrible experience? Do you think maybe they are scorning him, believing that he is to blame for initiating this unthinkable relationship?

Get real. More than likely, after they get done laughing, they are patting him on the shoulder and shouting something along the lines of "Way to go, Dude!"