June 02, 2005

This whole story makes me want a shower
by Jeff Langstraat

Yesterday, five former hockey players from the Milton Academy prep school were sentenced to probation for statutory rape. Here's some background:

The resolution of the cases was a relief to officials at the academy, which has been under intense scrutiny since it expelled the boys in February and notified police that three oral-sex sessions had occurred on campus.

A school investigation concluded that two of the varsity ice hockey players charged and a 15-year-old boy received oral sex from the girl in a dorm room on Jan. 22 and in the boys' locker room Jan. 23. Charges were brought in only the third incident, on Jan. 24, when the two hockey players, joined by three teammates, allegedly requested and received oral sex from the girl in the locker room between dining and study halls.

There's a whole lot intertwined here, from teenage sex to the privileged culture of athletes to gender relations. None of it is pretty.

I'll start with the issue of teen sex. Anyone who's read stuff I've written knows that I tend to be fairly libertarian sexually. I also believe that sexuality education should be comprehensive, preparing students for life beyond their high school years--like the other things they study. I don't believe that waiting until marriage is necessary, but I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the decision to do so. The appropriate age for first sexual activity, in my opinion, varies from person to person. However, there's something about the picture of a fifteen-year-old girl on her knees in the locker room giving head to a group of guys that doesn't sit well with me....at all.

The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16. This young woman was fifteen and what happened was technically a crime. (The article also notes that one of the boys charged was also fifteen at the time of the incident.) I could engage a critique of age-of-consent laws here, but that's not really what I is notable here. While age is a big issue in this case, I think the more important issues deal with gender and the cultural elevation of athletes.

At Boston College, and probably other schools, there's a campus name for the hockey groupies: Puck Fucks. There seems to be a weird exchange going on: the athletes get easy sex and the women they fuck gain some kind of status (not a wholly positive one). That status, it would seem to me, is based on the acceptance of the athletes, even if that acceptance is only as an object of sexual pleasure. It's as though being associated with the athletes by performing sexual favors for them will result in gaining the same kind of status as the athlete; perhaps even a "real" relationship with him.

This whole thing stinks. It's truly a sick world when young women feel like their worth is found in performing sexual favors for the cool kids.

Posted by in Bio-Power, Celebrity, Crime, Culture, Gender, Kids, Sex
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