The Nonerotics of Pedagogy
by Mary Peterson
TW: extended and graphic descriptions of rape throughout
CW: porn, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct
In her recent book Complaint! Sara Ahmed argues that complaints about sexual misconduct arise from within situations where misconduct has occurred, rather than from external sources, such as feminist conspiracy or intellectual weakness. In a section entitled "The Immanence of Complaint", Ahmed gives examples of students who try to suppress their experiences of teacher-student sexual misconduct in order to move through degree programs successfully, only to find that the misconduct obtrudes into their schooling so persistently and aggressively that complaint is unavoidable. [1] I want to draw out a point related to Ahmed’s discussion of the immanence of complaint. Here, I draw a distinction that, while complaint is immanent, the sexualisation of students by teachers is imposed. That is, complaining is a natural response to sexual misconduct, but the misconduct itself is artificial, in the sense that no sexual dimension arises naturally from within the situation of teaching and studying. Rather, teachers impose sexualisation on students. [2]
Here, I analyse a pornographic video that I argue shows a clear causal direction to the teacher-student fantasy. I argue that the teacher wants to take his student’s virginity, so he imposes his will on the student: desire originates with the teacher and results in rape. I analyse a pornographic video because the orchestrated fantasy displays the features of artificiality and imposition present in teacher-student sexual misconduct. [3]
The video, produced by Pure Taboo, opens with the disclaimer: "This video contains fantasy content some viewers may find disturbing. Please close this window now if you may be disturbed by alternative adult content. Viewer discretion is strongly advised." The title of the video on Pornhub, which hosts an abridged 12-minute-long version of a 50-minute-long video from the Pure Taboo website, is "Teacher’s Dark Fixation with 18yo Student". The video was posted 2 years ago and has over 5.7 million views (as of 10/01/2022).
At the beginning of the porn video, a man sits at a desk and grades his student’s essay. He is at home and the room is dark, indicating that it is nighttime. The cover page of the essay contains the title and author’s information. "‘Willing to Wait’ by Betty Winters, Grade 11, Class C". The high school teacher flips to page one and begins to read, "There are so many things I want from life. Financial security…" the teacher’s voice fades into the student’s; the viewer sees the text of the paper and hears it read aloud. "…stability, love. I’ve never really had those kinds of things. We never had any money, which is why I go to school on an academic scholarship. I’ve never really had stability because of my chaotic home life. And I know there’s no such thing as a fairy tale romance, but yes, I do want to experience love. But love is something I’m ready to wait for. I’ve waited this long already. You see, I’m a virgin. Yes, an 18-year-old virgin. I’m not ashamed to admit that. I believe that this has shaped my life in many important ways. It has taught me discipline, patience and has allowed me to focus on things…"
The teacher starts to breathe heavily and loses his focus on the paper. He does not continue to read Betty Winters’ paper, but instead fills in her text with his desires by fixating on certain words. The viewer hears Betty’s voice echo, "I’m a virgin, virgin, I’m a virgin, I’m still a virgin". By the teacher’s reaction to the paper, the viewer knows that, in that moment, Betty Winters’ voice expresses the teacher’s thoughts, not her own. The teacher instrumentalises the student’s words to amplify his own sexual desires.
The teacher reads what he wants into the text. He interprets that she wants to have sex with him – and immediately – while she writes in direct contraindication that she wants to wait to have sex until she is in love. The student says ‘no’ but the teacher fantasises that she means ‘yes.’ The teacher understands that the student is not asking for sex, but interprets her as doing so anyway. He also applies an exploitative lens to his student’s writing: the teacher registers and responds sexually to Betty’s vulnerabilities, including her gender, age, position as a student, financial precarity, and chaotic home life. [4]
A beautiful woman, the teacher’s wife, walks in wearing a white silk robe. "Burning the midnight oil?" she asks her husband seductively. "I’ve just got a few pages left to grade and I’ll be right to bed, honey." "Hm", she says, leaning against his shoulder, "anything… interesting?" She seems aware of his desires and wears a white robe, virginal but scanty, as though to divert his attention to her. He shrugs her off and her face falls. She switches tone, from seductive to matter-of-fact. The wife reminds him to come to bed soon – he needs to drive her to the airport very early in the morning for her business meeting. She signals that she is an adult with responsibilities, expectations, and power. The implication is that her husband, the teacher, does not desire an adult, like his wife, but rather an adolescent, his student.
The wife leaves and the teacher masturbates over a high school yearbook, open to Betty Winters’ photo on a page with five rows of young women’s faces. "Yeah, that’s a good fucking little virgin", he says. He cums on the photo of Betty Winters. The shot lingers on her cum-splattered face. The teacher has first sexualised the student using her voice, and now sexualises her using an image. Betty Winters, one face among rows of other young women, is mute and objectified. A second title, "Biography of a Virgin" [5], flashes across the screen before the video moves to the next scene.
In this scene, the teacher leads Betty Winters into his office at school. It is daytime. He immediately starts touching her and pressing her against the desk. "I know you’ve been looking forward to this." She does not reply, but instead puts her arm up to shield against him and turns away. She furrows her brow, appearing uncomfortable and afraid. "I can feel it in your writing", he says.
As the teacher begins to advance on his student, she leans back to ward off his touch. "I know it’s a lot to take on the first time", he says, to which she echoes back, "yeah, it’s a lot…" Throughout the scene, Betty Winters says very little except to echo her teacher’s words. The teacher removes all of her clothing but remains dressed.
"Oh it’s time, it’s time", he says. "It’s time?" She repeats. The teacher positions his student on the ground in front of him, beside the desk. Pinning her hands on the desk, he puts his penis in her mouth and starts to penetrate her. He is fully clothed with his penis exposed through unzipped pants; she is naked. She gags. "Shh, shh", he quiets her. She is frozen, inert, and does not move her lips to engage his penis. She looks shell-shocked. "Yes, that’s such a good girl, you’re doing so well", he says.
The teacher takes off his pants as his student remains unmoving. "Then it’s even for both of us", he says, eagerly rubbing his face against her cheek. She turns away from him, her expression communicating fear and disgust. The teacher continues to talk as he does various sexual acts to the student. "Oh, it’s so much closer this way… It’s so much better when it’s real", he says, as if to himself. The student looks pained and makes pained noises. "Just try to relax, just try to relax, then it won’t hurt so much", he says. He is now penetrating her vaginally. He pulls out for a moment and readjusts her body, saying "keep the hole open, keep your hole open".
After a few thrusts, the student appears to acquiesce to her teacher. There is a perceptible shift from rape to a generic encounter, where the teacher and student might as well be any man and younger woman having sex on a desk. This narrative shift is sinister: the teacher initiates his student into the adult world of sex by raping her, and the student quickly ‘grows up’ to enjoy the experience. Moreover, the storyline cuts off after the rape, when the fantasy aspect of the video abruptly ends. The Biography of a Virgin ends because the virgin has been penetrated; the disturbing, misogynistic subtext is that the fantasy of Betty Winters gets killed with her virginity.
"Teacher’s Dark Fixation with 18yo Student" is a stark picture of a teacher sexualising his student. The porn viewer is led to share a teacher’s rape fantasy. It might be objected that this is a pornographic video, and porn does not necessarily reflect reality. Yet, the pornographic backdrop against which the fantasy is staged and enacted mirrors the artificiality and imposition present in teacher-student sexual misconduct.
What does this mirroring reveal about sexual misconduct at schools and universities? How does a rape fantasy such as this reflect the immanence of complaint? opp invites you to tackle these questions and others raised in this blog post. Write to the blog coordinator with your pitch at val@oxfordpublicphilosophy.com.
