When we write "romantic storylines" about teacher-student relationships without acknowledging the abuse, we gaslight real victims into thinking their trauma was a fantasy.
There’s a specific kind of electricity that exists only in adolescence: the moment a teacher stops being just a dispenser of facts and becomes a person. For many of us, the first teacher wasn’t the one who taught us to read—but the one who made us want to write poems about the way light fell on their desk. my first sex teacher mrs sanders 2 link
The student does not love the real teacher; they love the role of the teacher. The teacher appears all-knowing, stable, and put-together (unlike the student’s chaotic home life or messy friend group). The student projects every unmet need onto that figure: safety, wisdom, protection, and passion. The student does not love the real teacher;