TWO Adult Female Teachers Prey On A 16 Year Old Boy=Rape

[thesquanderer]

50. It's not as simple as "rape is rape"

I agree with many of the other posts here. There are two definitions of rape. One is the act of forcing yourself on someone against their will. That is always wrong. The other is a legal definition of what constitutes appropriate sexual behavior, which various from culture to culture, and as has been mentioned, even in our own country, from state to state. And sometimes the law is imperfect, because the law requires black and white lines to be drawn over human behaviors that are gray. And sometimes lines get drawn in somewhat arbitrary places. The law must treat every 16 year old as they have determined a 16 year old is to be treated, even though 16 year olds themselves vary a lot in their maturity (or even the same 16 year old can be different the day after his/her 16th birthday than the day before his/her 17th). Laws are also influenced by things like religious or other moral preconceptions that categorize things into right and wrong regardless of whether everyone would agree that actual harm is done. Simply, things aren't that simple.

So when you say "Just because charges may not be brought in some states doesn't change the fact it's rape" -- well, if the laws of a particular state say that a particular activity is not rape, then indeed, legally it is not rape. Whether it is rape in the non-legal sense depends on whether you believe the activity was consensual. You can say that nothing sexual that a 16 year old does can possibly be consensual, even if they say it is. That may be some people's judgment, but not everyone's.

Now, the fact that a teacher is also in a position of power and can affect the student's grades is another issue, and a serious one, as are similar issues between employers and employees. But that's a whole other conversation than one of whether sex with a 16 year old is or is not automatically rape.