<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
The word "abuse" implies, to me anyway, that something bad was done to
someone else. A professor and a student having a consensual
relationship, regardless of who initiated it, is not abuse. It's
unethical, sure, but it's not abuse. Abuse would involve the professor
refusing to pass the student unless the student had sex with him or
her. Or, conversely, the student seducing the professor then
blackmailing him or her into giving the student good grades in exchange
for not telling the professor's significant other.<br>
<br>
>From what I remember of this whole escapade when it was happening,
there was no coersion involved on either side. Just two adults
engaging in sex in one form or another. <br>
<br>
I do remember trying my best to avoid the whole media frenzy, though,
because I thought there were more important things that the media
should have been focusing on at the time. Such as the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act, or the migratory habits of nocturnal owls.<br>
<br>
Paul<br>
<br>
g. crabtree wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid00d401c71cca$bba17280$6401a8c0@gmc" type="cite">
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1">
<meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2995" name="GENERATOR">
<style></style>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Why is the relationship
between former President Clinton and Ms. Lewinski "consensual" when the
tryst between a collage professor and a student is not? A boss and an
underling? A guard and a prisoner? I was of the impression that any
time there was such a huge disparity between the status of two people
with regard to their stations in life that the concept of "consent"
became at best vague and at worst unattainable. What divide could be
greater than the gulf between a 23 year old naif and the nearly twice
her age leader of the free world? I would content that the gulf between
them far exceeds that of the rift between a 17 year old girl and her 21
year old boy friend and we all know where that lack of restraint leads.
While the actual acts that occurred in and near the oval office may
have been technically legal, there is no doubt that the concept of
abuse is not out of the question. What is also certain is that it was
an absurdly ill considered, vulgar, and characterless move on the part
of someone who might reasonably have been expected to know better, even
by liberal democrats. I very much agree with Tony in that when Ms.
Lewinski looks back on this glittering moment in the spotlight it won't
be with pride.</font></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>