One thing that has always bothered me about the portrayal of pedophilia in the western media is why we take a different approach depending on the gender of the offender.

I recall many times in Australia (I use this example since that is where I am from) male teachers have been be arrested, charged, incarcerated and become the objects of scorn for playing around with their female (or male) pupils. And rightly so. I don't care if the student 'wanted it' or not... that's why we have such a thing as the 'age of consent' - below this age victims do not have the capacity to give their consent.

However, on more than one occasion female teachers have been found guilty of the same behaviour. In a recent case, the female teacher received a token fine, was told she couldn't teach for a while and the case was quickly forgotten. I was enraged when I heard that someone speaking in her defence had said that 'what teenage boy wouldn't want to have sex with his teacher'. The thinking seemed to be that when men fiddle with kids they are sick criminals, but when women do it, it was a lapse in judgement and hopefully they won't offend.