Almost exactly one year ago I first wrote about Debbie Lafave in an article entitled “Double standards”. In the past twelve months that article - and the accompanying pictures of Ms. Lafave - has been one of the most visited articles (and pictures) on this web site.

It seems that people can’t get enough of Debbie and why not? She’s cute and you know she’ll put out, but I think the reason most people can’t get enough is because they don’t understand what’s going on with this story.

And people want to try to understand why, with our puritanical, mixed-up views on sex, an attractive older woman would solicit sex from an under age male. It’s not supposed to work that way according to society! It’s a double standard, and it’s really causing people to be interested in this story.

See, if Debbie had a penis and was caught having sex with a student (boy or girl) the book would have already been thrown and she would have been locked away for a long time.

Instead Ms. Lafave will get three years of house arrest and seven years of probation. She will also be registered as a sex-offender, probably the harshest part of her punishment.

This sentence is so light as to almost not be a punishment. It’s a double standard.

In this country we have a terribly mixed up sense of what is and what isn’t acceptable. Is sex with a minor a bad thing or a not-so-bad thing? It depends. Does it depend on the minor or the relationship or the circumstances of the sex? No, not really. It appears that it depends more on whether the older party to the sex is a man or a woman.

Maybe it’s time for the United States of America and it’s people to think long and hard about situations like this. And, maybe it’s time we look more towards Europe for guidance.