When I picture a pedophile I imagine a leathery-looking man sporting a terrible spray tan, with a creepy mustache, wearing sweat pants while driving an ice cream truck — not a middle-aged English teacher. Perhaps that’s why Melinda Dennehy is getting off so easy for sending multiple nude photos and racy texts to a 15-year-old male student. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t fit the societal mold of who a pedophile is supposed to be, and I think this is largely the problem when it comes to treating sex offenders equally.
The forty-one year-old high school English teacher and single mother of two will not be serving any jail time. Instead of facing a trial with felony charges and the seven years in prison that her actions suggest, she has been ordered to stay away from the teen and his family. She has been given two years probation.
The boy who received Dennehy’s provocative photographs informed police that she also sent him text messages offering to perform explicit sexual acts on him. He also added that she kissed him on the mouth in a classroom at least two times.
What I find most interesting about this story …
… are the reactions it is garnering. The general consensus seems to be big thumbs up to the 15-year-old boy for having the opportunity to see his sexy English teacher naked. One commenter on a Melinda Dennehy story over at The Huffington Post went so far as to say:
““Where were these awesome teachers when I was in school?”
This boy was sexually abused by a person in authority, an event that will forever shape his future interactions with women, in a worst-case scenario.
If the tables were turned, and a man sent photos to a young female student, I guarantee that there would be zero condescending remarks. I doubt that the punishment would be probation. It speaks volumes of the gender roles embedded in American culture. When a woman is sexually abused there is shame and outrage. When a boy is abused, people shrug their shoulders as if to say “he’s man, he can take it,” or worse that it’s somehow a helpful step into manhood. Abuse is abuse even when it’s coming from an attractive woman.
The bottom line is that Melinda Dennehy took advantage of a child.
This isn’t the first case of a female teacher serving little to no jail time for having sexual contact with a child. In 2006, Debra Lafave, a middle school teacher was sentenced to 3 years house arrest for having sex with a 14-year-old student on multiple occasions. Pamela Rogers Turner, a P.E teacher, served just 9 months for having a continuous sexual relationship with her 13-year-old male student.
It never fails to amaze me that female sexual offenders get a far less of a “sentencing” than male perpetrators do. I’m naturally not standing up for male perpetrators — on the contrary: I’m crying equal rights in punishment for both males and females in these types of circumstances. A child predator is a child predator no matter the gender.
did they take away her kids at least? This is so fucked up…
Except that this is really not a child predator. For one, paedophile really only refers to *children* – that is, below puberty. Technically the term for a lover of teenagers is ephebophile. A 15-year old boy really isn’t a child with no say in the matter.
To me, this is abuse of power, not child predation. It’s not right to screw with a power situation like teaching, even if bother people are adults (say, university prof/TA and a legal-age student). She should definitely be in trouble for that. But I really don’t believe it’s on the same scale as molestation of a five-year-old.
Pedophelia is pedophelia. She deserves as harsh a sentence if it WAS a five-year-old. Calling her a “ephebophile” only serves to diminish the severity of the abhorrent crime she committed.
What the hell, is she at minimum barred from teaching and other jobs where she might have contact with teenage boys? At the very least she has very poor judgment, but she also can’t seem to refrain from acting on inappropriate impulses. Teachers *know* what is and is not acceptable contact with students. It’s not like this was just a bad call that can be excused. She knew very well how wrong this was, and chose to do it anyway. Adults, especially adults in positions of authority over kids and teens, are held to a standard that assumes they can weigh the consequences of an action and choose the responsible path. Obviously this woman fails miserably in that department, even aside from whether or not she is a pedophile. Not the kind of person who should be entrusted with the education and wellbeing of minors, is she?
Pingback: Susan Sarandon, Ping Pong Balls, and the Cougar Double Standard – Zelda Lily, Feminism in a Bra
It’s sad people don’t situations like this seriously. A teacher is a person of power in a student’s life and to use that power to garner sexual favors is a blatant abuse of one’s position. It’s not cool, it’s not funny. This is a woman who felt the need to exercise her position of power on a teenager in order to get her rocks off. Male and female teachers alike should be punished similarly for this sort of transgression.
I’m a professor and right now I have a colleague who is dating an undergrad. Granted, he’s in his 30′s and not taking courses from her, but I still think she’s playing a dangerous game because of the positions of power within the relationship. Sadly, our school doesn’t have a specific policy in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Other schools I’ve taught at have stated you couldn’t date an undergrad/former student until they’d graduated.
She served 9 months,how ironic,oh wait a minute,I don’t know what irony is?
Women are generally forgiven for having poor impulse control. Think about it, a woman who can’t control herself is called “wild” or “free”. A man “dangerous lunitic”. I can’t tell you the number of women I have seen just freak out and do things that would get a man 10 years in jail.
Oh no, this is like a Mrs. Robinson thing so it’s sexy and ok! And I absolutely agree, if the genders had been reversed the teacher would have been locked up for a good long time. It makes me wonder how the media and the public would respond if something like this happened in a same-sex situation. I’m sure the teacher would be accused of “turning the child gay” or something.
Pingback: Here You Come Again | CityRag
Pingback: Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Speaking Out on The Oprah Winfrey Show – Zelda Lily, Feminism in a Bra
Google the “new world order” please people ! is anyone out there willing to change the world for the better?
Google the “new world order” please people! Spread the truth on…