I’ve written before about the female primary schoolteacher in the UK who was caught offering Dominatrix services at night. It seems like this story is coming to its end. The Mail Online is writing about the whole mess and the disciplinary hearing where she was found guilty of unacceptable professional misconduct for ‘advertising sexual services on the worldwide web’ by General Teaching Council (GTC).
This story started back in 2008 when Faith-Anne Lesbirel advertised her services on the internet on the website Informed Consent, which is a large BDSM community site in the UK. Parents discovered the services she offered and complained to the headmistress of the school where Lesbirel was teaching.
Lesbirel claimed that she offered a non-sexual service as no sex was ever performed during her sessions and the reason for the charge was that she performed research before offering certain scenarios to he clients.
She was given a reprimand that will stay on her record for two years, but she will not be striken from the national teaching registry.
Personally I believe it is a half victory for kinky people. Lesbirel is still able to stay in the teaching profession, even if I think it might be hard as she is a public person at the moment. But the message sent by the board was quite clear. Her activities affected the trust that people had for the school and the profession, but they didn’t affect her personal abilities as a teacher. This was something I argued in the first post I wrote about this story back in 2008.
There is a valid reasoning when the council claims that it has affected the school and the profession, but the reasoning is also a bit flawed because it’s purely based on moral standards. BDSM is, when juxtaposed to certain contexts, considered immoral, especially when you make a connection between your profession and your sexuality.
Being a Dominatrix is not illegal in the UK and Lesbirel didn’t mix her nightly activities with her teachings. She offered her services on a website targeted towards BDSM people, which means that there is an interesting twist to the story. Parents found her on informed consent, but their ability to take care and provide for their own children’s intellectual development has never been questioned – Why not?
Parents are also role models for their children and are allowed to exercise their sexuality without even getting near being questioned as parents.
Lesbirel’s first sin was that she was dealing with BDSM, which is totally wrong compared to the norm. The second sin was that she charged people for it, she charged people for something where she didn’t perform any sexual services. I wouldn’t call a whipping or ball crushing sexual services even if the receiver got an erection from it. I would argue the same thing when people get an erection or experience something that might be similar to sexual arousal when doing a bungy jump. One could look at BDSM as a sort of extreme sport as well, which involves your mind and maybe some sexual arousal too.
It becomes clear in stories like this that the general perception about BDSM is that it always has to do with sex and it is a highly immoral activity based on violence – Two elements that is the essence of immorality itself.
So why should a teacher be held to higher moral standards than a parent?
Some of you might argue that a teacher represents society and has to have higher moral standards for that reason, being a role model and all. Well, isn’t BDSM a part of society and isn’t the school supposed to teach acceptance and understanding?
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?