An Assistant Professor from a larger institution of higher education here. It's in a field that brushes up with Human Sexuality but that's all I'll say for the sake of preserving my chance at tenure one day. It's not English so excuse any grammatical errors. I am a 30-something male who is (apparently) conventionally attractive. Well, we are nearing the end of another semester and I have a PSA for some of your readers.

Here's the deal: there have been semesters where I have been blatantly hit on as many as four times. And I don't believe there has ever been a semester that I didn't get some kind of awkward crushy attention from a student. I do my best to not show anything that could be misconstrued as interest in my students outside of the personableness I show to all my students. Why am I telling you this? Well, students out there, you may be nursing a crush on a professor. The attention, the power dynamic, the looks. Join the club. You are not the only one. It is truly annoying to have to deflect your advances. It was endearing at first but now it's irritating. By all means have your fantasies, students, but leave it at that. (I'm male. My female colleagues have it worse. I have the privilege of just being annoyed while they have to bear much more salacious come-ons.)

Which brings me to another PSA, this one for my colleagues. Wow! This hot student is practically throwing themselves at you! What ever do you do? You remember that the current job market for professors is brutal and that you will likely be slapped with a Scarlet A if you get caught with your hands down a student's pants. Maybe you'll get lucky and run into them in a bar a few years down the line, professor. But until then try to remember that ethical guidelines often exist for a good reason: you have power over your students. So before "Savage Love" readers cry that I'm being a stuffy prude, let I assure you I'm very sex-positive and that the ethical norm (and typically written rule) that professors shouldn't boink their current students is there because that power dynamic has been abused systematically for generations.

So to reiterate: Students: you are in love with the idea of your professor. Enjoy the fantasies but please leave it at that. Professors: it may be tempting but just remember that your entire academic career is not worth getting your genitals wet once or twice. "Savage Love" readers: I'm sure you have heard all sorts of anecdotal stories about students and professors having hot, consensual sex. My grandpa smoked until he was 90 and was totally fine so cigarettes are safe, right?

Professor Rhetorically Opposes Fucking Students

My response after the jump...

So what you're saying, PROFS, is that this story about two hot college girls having a threesome with their (apparently) conventionally attractive professor doesn't adequately explore the ethical issues, power differentials, and possible career ramifications?

You also seem to be saying saying that the awkward crushy attentions of hot female students are experienced as microaggressions by many male professors. (When asserting their superior erotic powers these hot female students evert the institutional power dynamic, thus threatening not just a male professor's career and institutional authority but his unquestioned sense of his personal power and entitlement as well? Very interesting.) While the much more salacious come-ons of presumably but perhaps not exclusively male students are experienced as macroaggressions by female professors?

Hm.

It seems to me that all students, hot or otherwise, male or otherwise, cis or otherwise, consciously othering or otherwise, owe their professors the courtesy of a trigger warning before busting a potentially power-dynamic-everting move, macro-, micro-, or otherwise.

Thanks for writing!