Student-Teacher Romances

But to be honest its just a story. It’s not real just animated characters and people who have come up with that story in their head.

I think you are underestimating the impact that stories can have on people - I mean, we have propaganda for a reason! Stories do influence us!

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not trying to be rude but that is the one of the stupidest things i have ever heard. so because it’s a story, we’re allowed to promote hateful, illegal, inappropriate, problematic crimes? if an author publishes a book about that it’s not suddenly okay because, “oh they made it up in their head, and you’re allowed to make up illegal crimes in your head”. i know you’re probably not understanding this but i advise you to educate yourself because that’s a really impulsive opinion.

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I’m under the impression that not many parents seriously discuss with their children the issue of an adult grooming underage kids or teens in order to sexually take advantage of them. So I imagine not many even know what grooming is let alone how to recognize if it’s happening to them.

I think that a 14-year-old who has read positive portrayals of an illicit relationship between a teen and their teacher would be in more danger of being taken advantage of by an authority figure in their life (teacher/tutor/etc.) as opposed to a 14-year-old who hasn’t been exposed to the idea that these kinds of relationships are exciting or something to aspire to.

I mean, if an 8-year-old can be misguided into thinking they can fly by watching Superman and jump off a balcony (my cousin as a kid… he survived, btw) then it’s not much of a stretch to think a teen could be misguided into thinking their teacher trying to seduce them is hot instead of creepy…

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I definitely agree. It is not okay to glorify something like that. Especially for 13-year-olds to read, and think it is okay

Actually, where I’m from, I’m pretty sure a student-teacher relationship is legal if the student is at least 18 (it’s obviously not ethical and it would likely go against a teacher’s contract, but it wouldn’t be considered statutory rape). I think that’s why stories like My Teacher, My Gangster purposely make the MC older. I’m not saying that makes it OK, I’m just saying that it could then be legal (depending on where it’s based).

I haven’t read PBMS, but I’ve seen or heard of other stories where the MC is essentially blackmailed into having sex and the authors (typically young authors) try to justify this as not being rape and being acceptable by saying the MC had a choice.

Ryan-Gosling-Facepalm

You can say that it’s “just a story”, but what bothers me is that a lot of Episode’s core readers are young, impressionable teenagers. They start to believe that certain relationships are fine or even “relationship goals” even though the male character treats the female like garbage. In 99% of these situations, if the male character was unattractive the readers would be thinking “Ewwww he’s such a creep” but because he’s hot, they suddenly think his behaviour is fine. :woman_shrugging:

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I see the last part happen on TV a lot, especially. Take a show like Supernatural, for example. You have Lucifer, the Devil himself, and people love him. Even after he’s done all these terrible things, for literally being SATAN, they try to justify his actions. Oof. He’s a bit attractive, right?
Then take Metatron, who hasn’t done many great things (but not as terrible as Lucifer), and everybody hates him. Understandable. And he’s not the most conventionally attractive.

I doubt that this would be quite the same if the actors were switched. The double standard is frustrating. Why can’t people see past looks and recognize a crappy human bean/character when they see them?

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I think in most of the world, it’s technically legal if the student is 18. It’s legal in the country I was born in and it’s legal where I live now. Though like you say, the teacher can still be fired for misconduct… and it’s still creepy as hell.

I just wish there was a way to allow younger people to be able to express this fantasy that they’re absolutely allowed to have, while also making sure they all realize that any teacher who tried this in real life needs to be in the pedophile watch list…

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They do this for Damon Salvatore. He tried to coerce Elena to touch him in the first episode with his powers. He also repeatedly killed for his benefit which I find is sick. He also used his powers to influence Caroline’s mind and used his powers to rape her. I find this honestly disgusting and so is the guy who plays him, he has repeatedly disrespected Nina Dobrev, who plays Elena many times after they broke up and he married his wife.

As a person who knows someone who has been the victim in this situation (my best friend was raped by our teacher when she was 8) this continued for many years, until we had the safety talk in school and we were about 13 at the time (the assault stopped when she was 12) she finally learnt that what happened wasn’t her fault. Sadly our teacher wasn’t found guilty (not enough evidence, but he was suspended) but my friend to this day blames herself. This is because of this society isn’t showing enough support and isn’t being talked about! Either people put paedophilia in a “good” light (it revolts me) or they completely ignore it! This world needs to sort their bs out! If you are a victim please don’t be afraid to open out, we will believe you!

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I think there’s a way: depicting this scenario as an Episode. Depending on context and the story itself, one teenaged character would maybe have a daydream or fantasy sequence about hooking up with the teacher, or maybe make them have a guilty pleasure of READING those types of stories (no rapey elements, maybe purely romance). Obviously those situations would be different than actually playing out in real life. As long it’s effectively mentioned/stated that these behaviours IRL and in fiction tend to be VERY VASTLY different, something like that could help.

I’m not sure if this is better, but depicting a character whose interests could match with some may be the safest option (other than avoiding them entirely)

I have only just discovered this subgenera exists and was immediately fucking horrified and then enraged at the lack of responsibility on Episode’s part in promoting and making money off of this garbage. These people are constantly reminding writers about guidelines and yet they have no problem making coin off of statutory rape. Some of these stories have millions of views you can’t tell me the people monitoring the app don’t see them. These stories promote rape and normalize the predation of adults and people in positions of power toward young and vulnerable people. Can someone working for this company please explain to me how that doesn’t violate guidelines? How that is in anyway appropriate for 13 year olds?

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I am a big fan of Vampire Diaries and Caroline. I do not believe that Caroline was raped by Damon. In fact, I am positive that she was not.

Honestly

Please, don’t ever say “it’s just a story”. Stories, and art in general, are capable of moving your soul, to change your mind and point of view in a lot of things. Stories teach you, make you company, help you make catharsis, they shape your life… they will never be “just stories”.

I don’t have much to say on the topic except that aside from disgusting, it is a very dangerous thing to have in stories, and I do not want the generation of people that grow up reading on episode to normalise statutory rape or even worse, to romanticise it. But it seems they are already doing so.

I want to leave everyone here a link to a thread that discussed the topic in the old forums, the first post explains everything quite clearly: http://oldforums.episodeinteractive.com/forum/main-category/general-chat/1394655-statutory-rape-is-problematic?view=thread

Oh my God! I never thought anything could be like THIS! I mean, yeah I saw stories about student-teacher relationship on Episode, but I actually never read them. It kinda makes me feel nauseous and uncomfortable. Like, why would you even get in a relationship with whom who you respect? With the one who’s providing a service to you by educating you.
I don’t have much to say as I’ve never read such stories. But by all means, every individual has his/her own perceptions. I, though, personally think that there shouldn’t be any student-teacher mushy-gushy stuff going on! I think it will somehow manipulate the reader’s mind. I mean, c’mon! What the heck even happens? The student falls in love with teacher and the latter too falls in love with him/her and they enter into something forbidden and then someone somehow finds out and then they together fight against all odds to keep their love alive and then it’s happily ever after, just like that? Woah, if it was that simple in today’s world, there wouldn’t have been rules and regulations against student-teacher relationships. Tsk, tsk. Oh, man!
Anyways, I’m in the negative zone in this topic. I’m not being pessimistic, but being realistic. Would you ever do something like that with your teacher?! OMG! No, thank you very much. I would like to graduate with flying colors without any hustle and bustle.

~AS007

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Not to say that Damon wasn’t a bad person (particularly at the start), but I would disagree that he raped her. I believe that it was consensual. Caroline wasn’t a great person at the beginning of the show either, and I do honestly think that she enjoyed the popularity and “prestige” that came with sleeping with a hot rich guy who had a cool sports car that he could drop her to school in.

Although, the redeeming quality of this character is that he did go through significant character development throughout the show. My biggest problem with a lot of “bad boy” stories is that the men don’t realise that their behaviour is toxic and never change for their own benefit. Any change that they do try is superficial, and they drop it as soon as they get the girl, who accepts them for who they are and allows them to mistreat her. I don’t mind Damon as much because he became a lot more sensitive, caring and a better person before Elena considered him to be a real viable romance option. A lot of “bad boys” in stories (especially on Episode) just seem to wear the girl down until she accepts their poor behaviour.

Closing due to one month of inactivity :slight_smile: