Debra Beasley LaFave is a 23-year-old reading teacher in the Tampa area. Apparently bored by sex with her new husband, and turned on by the fact that it was forbidden, she initiated a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy who was one of her students.
Two things: One, it shows men have no monopoly on doing stupid things, although we certainly can claim the vast majority of the market. Two, if she wanted taboo sex, she didn't have to commit felonies. That's what the internet is for! Most likely, this all resulted because she wasn't conversant with using the web. Another tragedy that could have been avoided by making high-speed internet access freely available.
Mithras,
Presumably you were writing tongue in cheek.
Porn including internet porn doesn't cause normal folks to go off the deep end and commit crimes. On the other hand I find it dubious that it would on the flip-side, be a kind of safety valve that would prevent the mentally disturbed and criminally inclined from committing crimes.
This Beasley LaFave character is obviously both emotionally immature and narcissistic at a minimum to find some kind of meaning in a sexual relationship with a 14 year old boy. Despite all the media/movie glitz about a young man and an older woman this creepy woman exploited a child who is probably going to be a little screwed up from the experience.
Porn probably doesn't have much to do with causation here but sociopathology did.
Posted by: mark safranski | June 29, 2004 at 11:51 AM
No tongue anywhere. I wasn't referring to porn; I was referring to the ease of finding (legal) sexual partners who would be willing to fulfill her sexual fantasies. (This assumes that for her some sort of legal sex would be a satisfying substitute for sex with an underage boy.) But as for your point about porn, I sure do think it's a release for many people who might otherwise act out their sexual fantasies in unhealthy ways. That effect is probably not quantifiable, but I think it's real.
As for the rest, I am not too interested in judging her character so much as her evident lack of brains. She didn't figure that she'd get caught when she was having sex in the back of her SUV with a teenager while his best friend drove? And I don't know whether the poor young man in the case will be scarred for life, as you assert - of course, I had a somewhat similar sexual relationship when I was his age, so maybe I'm scarred and just don't know it.
Posted by: Mithras | June 29, 2004 at 12:12 PM
I'm not certain. I don't think porn is a gateway to illicit behavior as social conservatives assert - I think the tendency toward self-destructive or exploitative behavior long predates the act.
Porn or a legally acceptable adult substitute would not be ameliorative to this kind of personality most likely because the " thrill " of genuinely ilicit, risk-assuming behavior is absent. As you pointed out, the woman here was either as dumb as a box of rocks or wanted to flirt with getting caught and suffering devastating legal and social consequences.People usually end up finding what they really seek.
On the other hand, I'm not a sociologist and I'm not familiar with the literature in the field which probably could suggest some answers. Whatever the reason, she's not somebody I want working with minors.
Posted by: mark safranski | June 29, 2004 at 01:30 PM
I don't think we're disagreeing on a lot. I think she probably needs to be kept away from kids for a while (this all assumes guilt, while I presume she is innocent until proved otherwise).
Posted by: Mithras | June 29, 2004 at 03:06 PM
Nobody's talking about the main reason this story is such big news: she's kind of a hottie, and I doubt I'm the only one thinking that my 14-year old self would've considered her just what the doctor ordered.
That said, it's reprehensible, illegal, etc., etc.
Posted by: Ian | June 29, 2004 at 03:47 PM
My thoughts exactly, Ian, except for the reprehensible part. If it were a male teacher and female student, we wouldn't even be reading about it.
Posted by: Mithras | June 29, 2004 at 04:06 PM
On the other hand, consider the fact that the availability of the Internet meant that she could satisfy her desires with persons other than her students. Unlike, say, Mary Kay Latourneau or Pam Smart.
Hmmm...when I was in high school, I had the hots for our gym teacher (sigh)
Posted by: raj | June 30, 2004 at 04:38 AM