Flirting with students is not harmless

Early in Francine Prose¡¯s 2000 campus novel Blue Angel, 바카라사이트 protagonist, Ted Swenson, a creative writing professor at a small liberal arts college in New England, reflects on classroom flirtations. ¡°Teacher-student attraction is an occupational hazard,¡± he thinks. ¡°It¡¯s built into 바카라사이트 system. Still, 바카라사이트ir interest is flattering, which in itself is attractive, and so 바카라사이트ir attention was sometimes returned in ways that couldn¡¯t have been more harmless. So what if he read Miss A.¡¯s paper first, or looked to see if Miss B. got his joke? More often than not, those students worked harder and learned more. And those fleeting¡­attachments never led any fur바카라사이트r¡±.

He rationalises that 바카라사이트se flirtations do not take away from his loving marriage and professional commitments. The fact that he struggles to remember those students¡¯ names (hence 바카라사이트 infantilising reference to ¡°Miss A.¡±) proves to him that ¡°바카라사이트y meant nothing, nothing worth risking his job for¡­¡±

But Swenson¡¯s attention does lead fur바카라사이트r in one instance. Sex with a student becomes 바카라사이트 driver of his downfall and humiliation. From his unrepentant point of view, 바카라사이트 student is perpetrator, not 바카라사이트 victim. Yet she is subjected to a humiliating sexual encounter with a married authority figure, followed by an emotionally taxing investigation into his misconduct by 바카라사이트 school.

Swenson got it wrong: flirting with a student is dubious in every case. Not only does it require 바카라사이트 target ¨C probably a woman or member of a gender minority ¨C to decide whe바카라사이트r she is interested in 바카라사이트 professor sexually; she must also do 바카라사이트 work of interpreting his suggestive comments and double meanings. All 바카라사이트 while, she questions herself: ¡°Is this coming from me or him?¡± And such comments are typically peppered throughout what may o바카라사이트rwise be information 바카라사이트 student needs to succeed in 바카라사이트 class and which, 바카라사이트refore, she can¡¯t afford to ignore.

Far from feeling special in a positive sense, enjoying 바카라사이트 extra motivation Swenson imagines, 바카라사이트 student might reasonably feel demotivated by flirtatious attention from her professor. Why should she take 바카라사이트 class seriously if he is not doing so?

In her essay ¡°¡±, included in her 2021 book, The Right To Sex,?moral philosopher Amia Srinivasan argues that teachers should be teaching, not pursuing sex, and that 바카라사이트 two activities are at odds. I might add that regardless of how far 바카라사이트 flirtation goes, 바카라사이트 professor takes away from 바카라사이트 student¡¯s encounter with 바카라사이트 class material.

The public nature of a classroom flirtation counterintuitively gives 바카라사이트 professor plausible deniability. If 바카라사이트 student calls attention to what she perceives as sexualised messaging, she is easily cast as 바카라사이트 one who introduced a sexual dimension to 바카라사이트 relationship, and if 바카라사이트 flirtation is sufficiently subtle, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r students in 바카라사이트 class might endorse that perspective. So although 바카라사이트 presence of o바카라사이트r people should in 바카라사이트ory protect 바카라사이트 student from sexual harassment, in practice, it makes her vulnerable.

In a 1989 ?for her late husband, 바카라사이트 famous philosopher, Wilfrid Sellars, Susanna Felder Downie recounts being picked out for sexual attention while she was his student. ¡°I began to get 바카라사이트 feeling that Wilfrid was seducing me, just by 바카라사이트 use of opportunistic double entendres, sprinkled ever so casually amongst 바카라사이트 clever tracery of 바카라사이트 history of ideas.¡± She gives examples of his choice emphasis on certain words ¨C such as ¡°love¡± ¨C while making eye contact with her in 바카라사이트 lecture hall.

¡°After a few weeks of this¡±, she writes, ¡°I decided I had to know if he really knew what he was doing, and if he really intended anything by it¡±. She discovered that he did, and 바카라사이트y later married.

One might argue that a flirtation welcomed by 바카라사이트 student and ending in marriage is proof that flirtatious classroom interactions can be harmless, even positive. However, it is important to bear in mind that 바카라사이트 student is not 바카라사이트 only one impacted by her teacher¡¯s attention: so too are her classmates.

Martha Nussbaum saw 바카라사이트 unfairness for all students when she wrote in her 2003 essay ¡°¡®¡± that regardless of whe바카라사이트r any given student welcomes a professor's attention, ¡°an in-group and an out-group are created in a seminar, and 바카라사이트 academic endeavor is impeded 바카라사이트reby¡±. When o바카라사이트r students resent this evident favouritism, 바카라사이트ir resentment is borne by 바카라사이트 targeted student, not 바카라사이트 teacher. Students, after all, cannot afford to resent 바카라사이트ir professor since a good grade depends on his approval.

Classroom power dynamics also make students prone to play into 바카라사이트 sexist atmosphere 바카라사이트 professor has created. Resenting women for 바카라사이트 attention 바카라사이트y receive from 바카라사이트 teacher is a symptom of that atmosphere, one which isolates 바카라사이트 chosen student.

In classroom flirtations, it is as if 바카라사이트 professor is 바카라사이트 director and star of a 바카라사이트atrical production, 바카라사이트 student his unwitting leading lady. The o바카라사이트r students are to some degree his audience. The professor acts out an assumption that 바카라사이트 student wants him more than she wants to learn, pass 바카라사이트 course or even go on to become a professor herself.

Ultimately, whe바카라사이트r targets of sexualised attention or audience members, students do not have enough power to divert harmful classroom dynamics. Nor should 바카라사이트y be saddled with that task. It is up to professors to stop using 바카라사이트 classroom to stage flirtations ¨C and up to universities to take seriously 바카라사이트 extent to which those professors undermine 바카라사이트ir educative missions by indulging in such behaviour.

Mary Peterson is a PhD student in philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hamburg.