Double Standards Challenge Gender Equality

JOHNNY HUYNH
Staff Writer
So, here it goes: an adult man and a girl. All is fine until the man makes an inappropriate pass at the girl, and he’ll surely be charged for sexual harassment faster than you can say “case closed” at the bang of a gavel. Surely, that is justice if that kind of attention wasn’t called for. However, if that same situation were to happen vice-versa–between an adult woman and a boy–would it be treated the same way?
This situation has been parodied before in various pop cultural references. In the Comedy Central cartoon South Park, little baby Ike Brofloski was seduced by the much older Ms. Stephenson. Out of concern, his older brother Kyle reports the scandal to the police with the bare response of “sweet.” Although this is all in the name of fictional comedy, this does relate to the double standard that persists when law enforcement deals with sexual harassment between any adult and an under-aged individual, in this case, a faculty member and a student.
In 1993, a male Virginia high school teacher, who engaged in sexual activity with three female students, was charged with 26 years in prison. On the other hand, a female swim coach who had an “affair” with three eleven year old boys was only charged with a 30-day sentence. At the same time, the presiding judge viewed the activities with the younger boys as minor infractions upon both parties, assuming no harm was done during the court ruling, whereas the activities with the younger girls caused a great deal of harm.
The varied severities between the sentences show an obvious bias. Where the ruling falters is considering the meaning of pedophilia, the power of the “age of consent” laws and equality. Generally, pedophilia involves conduct without consent from an adult toward someone who is under the “age of consent.”
Regardless of gender pairings, all forms of pedophilia should be considered illegal and immoral in the eyes of the law, to make any exceptions to this mindset would place everyone in the bounds of injustice. By treating any case in this way, it also challenges the equality of gender treatment, giving an unequal opportunity for men and women under the jurisdiction that is supposed to defend them without bias.
For years since the suffrage movement, women have striven to establish equal treatment under the American jurisdiction. The persistence in sex-based double standards present levels of favoritism among both men and women, creating a judgment that establishes that neither gender are really equal after all.
Crimes, especially committed by potential sex offenders toward children, hurt a well-kept society that seeks to create a safe, organized community. Regardless of factors such as the gender of the person who commits the crime, appropriate measures must be taken to ensure the sanctity of the law and to prove that the issues it ought to resolve are serious matters.