22 May 2002 Los Angeles Times Society's Troubling Double Standard Sandy Banks ("Whom Can You Trust," May 7) betrays society's ambivalence and double standard when she portrays a relationship between a (female) teacher and her (male) student as "a month-long affair" in the same breath as "priests molesting altar boys." Switch the terms around and you see just how bizarre is this difference in terminology: teacher molesting her 16-year-old student, priest having an affair with an altar boy. Our society needs to come to terms (the pun is intended) with these issues. Unfortunately, our emotions run far too high for objective consideration right now. |