"barely legal" is a key word phrase from the porn industry used to describe 18 year olds.

@carrideen @futurebird
There is not a world in which this is ethical behavior. Unethical at minimum, and dismissible IMO.
The inherent power differential between facility and student places a pressure to comply on the student. Consent within power differentials hard to navigate. That’s why most places have rules against bosses dating subordinates. Too much potential for abuse, or favoritism.
Add in the relative immaturity of 18-22-year-olds and that power gap grows. Our brains are not done developing until middle-late twenty’s. Presumably, a prof has hit that point and has more life experience, where the student has not. Another way the student is disadvantaged in these interactions.
Any institution that does not explicitly denounce this behavior, and set up safeguards for students is also inherently an unethical and immoral institution. There should be no tolerance for abuse in higher education. We should be preparing the next generation to take over and run this world into a better future, not compound trauma many already have experienced.

@jeffcodes @carrideen @futurebird At law School, I, then a thirty year old man, pursued, dated, and eventually married a 35-year-old professor. we have three beautiful children together.

be careful of categoricals like there is no world.

@Amoshias @carrideen @futurebird
Running the world in a manner than caters to the exception leads to a lot of abuse.
I am a licensed therapist. There are therapist out there who married former clients. I still would never say that allowing that categorically is safe and ethical.
There is an inherent power structure and single-directional vulnerability at play. It should always remain unethical to have relationships with clients. I’ll gladly engage in a discussion of, “how long is long enough without contact or relationship to pursue and deeper relationship?”

@jeffcodes @carrideen @futurebird At law School, I, then a thirty year old man, pursued, dated, and eventually married a 35-year-old professor. we have three beautiful children together.

be careful of categoricals like there is no world.

@Amoshias @carrideen @futurebird
Running the world in a manner than caters to the exception leads to a lot of abuse.
I am a licensed therapist. There are therapist out there who married former clients. I still would never say that allowing that categorically is safe and ethical.
There is an inherent power structure and single-directional vulnerability at play. It should always remain unethical to have relationships with clients. I’ll gladly engage in a discussion of, “how long is long enough without contact or relationship to pursue and deeper relationship?”

@jeffcodes @Amoshias @futurebird Yeah, I don't see how marriage is a desirable outcome for of academic mentorship, or therapy. If you marry your professor or therapist, someone has done their job badly! Even long after a student is no longer in my class, I have to write recommendation letters for them and mentor them in their decisions. You can't write recommendations for your spouse. Even if it's a happy marriage, it is certainly not good teaching.

@carrideen @Amoshias @futurebird
I would agree. For me, I could never, would never, have an outside romantic relationship with current or former clients.
Even a casual friendship seems odd and rife with opportunity for abuse. Former clients toward therapist and expecting their ear, and therapist toward former client where the therapist may, even inadvertently, use their former vulnerabilities for the therapists own ends.
The err is to be cautious. There are 8.5 billion people on this planet. You can find a companion that is not problematic of all times elsewhere.

@jeffcodes @Amoshias @futurebird I often reminded my colleagues who dated students, and claimed they just happen to be attracted to 20-year-olds, which is NOT A CRIME, that it's still bad pedagogy, and they would be more than welcome to date other 20yos. Oh no, they say, I need smart 20yos. OK, so date students at the college in the next town over. For some fascinating reason, those 20yos are not attracted to mediocre middle-aged academics. Just the ones in their classes.

"barely legal" is a key word phrase from the porn industry used to describe 18 year olds. It's also tied to "virgin" porn. To some it is 'soft' immorality. "Boys will be boys." (Why are the boys all wealthy men over 50?)

The attraction of these products is in part about a naive inexperienced person (a virgin) being taken advantage of. But also how whatever is "off limits" becomes more attractive and mysterious.

But can we please stop and recognize how gross it all is? 1/

@futurebird @gbargoud > Edit: changed men to people.

I think framing it as a problem only among men can be harmful. Women like Ghislaine Maxwell are every bit as dangerous as any man, and talking about exploitation as something men do to women makes it easier for them to go unnoticed.