These scenarios ought to be treated equally in the eyes of the law.

Over the past couple of years we have read many stories about male and female teachers that have had affairs with their underage students. Unfortunately not many people have ever sat down and had a serious philosophical discussion about this issue. More often than not discussions on this issue have been reduced to emotional reactions unguided by any sort of reason. It is my purpose in this debate to shed some light on this subject and see if we can't come to some kind of a consensus. ======= Scenarios 1-4 ======= 1. A 25-year-old male teacher has an affair with his 15-year-old female student. 2. A 25-year-old male teacher has an affair with his 15-year-old male student. 3. A 25-year-old female teacher has an affair with her 15-year-old male student. 4. A 25-year-old female teacher has an affair with her 15-year-old female student. ======== Contention 1: Gender based discrimination of sexual relationships is unjust. ======== All of my scenarios involve teachers abusing their power and status to get sex from their underage students and thus are all equally as wrong. For us to give special privileges to women out of deference to sexist views we may have about male and female sexuality is unjust. Therefore we cannot simply give female teachers a free ride because they may be "hot" or because we think that male students may enjoy these escapades. Male students may in fact enjoy these experiences and derive great bounties of happiness from them but the exact same argument can be made with relation to male teachers and female students therefore we can't draw a valid distinction. ======== Guidelines ======== ----> My opponent will contend that all of these events should be treated differently in the eyes of the law, not because the law currently mandates this, but because there is some underlying principle that makes a valid moral distinction between them. With this in mind current laws about this issue will be entirely irrelevant to this debate. Appealing to current laws as the basis of an argument will not be accepted. ----> For the purpose of clarity an affair will refer to the physical act of sexual engagement between two people. Kisses and other forms of affection will not qualify as affairs. ----> For the purpose of clarity let us assume all four of these events are completely identical apart from the gender of the people involved. -----> For the purpose of clarity the "law" in question will refer to legally enforced laws that govern a society. ----> Scenarios 1-4 were all consensual. In other words no one in scenarios 1-4 was raped or forced to engage in sex without their consent. ----> The resolution states that, "These scenarios ought to be treated equally in the eyes of the law." By this the resolution affirms that these teachers should all be prosecuted to the same extent with no differences in the way they are dealt with. -----> The term "eyes of the law" is a widely accepted idiom and any attempts to mess around with its meaning will result in disqualification. -----> Any violation of the guidelines or attempts to engage in semantics will result in a disqualification. If you are not clear about the resolution or the debate then leave me a comment in the comments section. All the best, Freeman Thank you, and good luck to whoever accepts. ======== Definitions: ======== Affair- a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship.