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When Students Make Sexual Advances By David R. Pichaske Recent bans on professor-student relationships are founded on two assumptions: that sex between teachers and students generally is initiated by experienced male professors with naive female students and that a power imbalance between vulnerable students and powerful faculty members renders even consensual relationships essentially non-consensual. Like mantras, both assumptions owe their power more to frequent chanting than to thoughtful analysis. One of the many things about sex that the Neo-Puritans who support such bans don't understand is that many sexual encounters are initiated by female students, even the most sheltered of whom are less naive than their protectors seem to believe -- especially if "sexual encounter" is understood to include gestures, dress, suggestive jokes and stories, body language, and deliberate "accidental" touching. Such behavior traditionally has been understood to be cognitively ambiguous -- that prolonged stare, that racy joke, that arm around the shoulder might be invitations, but they also might not be. Recently, such gestures have been redefined by harassment theorists as unambiguous indications of sexual interest, and therefore objectionable, and therefore proscribed. But to be fair, if such actions are defined as sexual overtures when initiated by professors, they should be defined as sexual overtures when initiated by students. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
