May 6, 2011
This Week in Sex: The Return of the “Hooker Teacher”
Plus, Roe of Roe v. Wade goes pro-life, and we learn about “small penis syndrome.”
- ‹ prev
- next ›
An interview with the hooker teacher
If you read the news, you know it’s not all that uncommon. A schoolteacher turns out to be a sexually active woman with a history of sexual activity and promptly loses her job for it. What’s rare in this case is that Melissa Petro, the so-called “Hooker Teacher,” wasn’t ousted accidentally. She wrote about her past, and signed her own name, and then lost her job.
In September of 2010, Melissa Petro wrote in the Huffington Post about time she’d spent as a sex worker. Two weeks later, she was on the cover of The New York Post, under the headline “Hooker Teacher.” And, now, more than eight months later, Petro — a woman with two Master’s degrees and eight years work experience — has been subject to an intense slut-shaming campaign, and cannot find a job.
Petro, who’s back in the news this week after an interview on Salon.com, is a test case for our national weirdness about sex. After all, no one is suggesting that she did anything inappropriate when she taught, or that she was anything less than a great teacher. But, somehow, her past makes her ineligible for work with children.
Are we still so obsessed with some Victorian idea of the saintly, sexless child? Or do we all just think that a woman selling her body for sex “to make ends meet” is so horrendously base that it renders her impossible of the moral judgment necessary for teaching? In either case, our national motto concerning sex still seems to be, “don't be honest, and you won't be punished.”
Commentarium (34 Comments)
"It's small but it's nimble!"
"It's small but it's angry!"
Is there an accepted standard method for measuring a penis?
On the top side, from base to tip? Or on the 'back', from tip to scrotum?
Serious question! And someone should really put this stuff in writing. Make it an international standard.
ummm top side..duh
Bet it not - the underneath is longer. And everyone loves longer ...
My sympathy for Ms. Petro is limited. It's hard for people with education, experience, and a clean past to find good work. What was she thinking when she wrote about her sordid past? Did she truly believe no one would object?
She's being discriminated against, my sympathy is with her.
I agree. She's being treated almost as badly as Sarah Palin. No one deserves such shabby treatment from the left or the right.
See, your attitude is exactly the problem. People condemn sex work and call it "dirty" and "sordid," but when a woman wants to do something else, she gets punished because of her past - meaning the primary option available to her is MORE SEX WORK. If you read the article, you'll notice that the only job offers she got are in porn or related industries. Why, why, why does sex work have to be considered dirty? Why does she have to be so soundly punished for opening a dialogue on such an important issue? It should have presented an opportunity to overcome prejudice, and instead just enforced it.
There are about 1 million sex workers in America with about 10 clients each. Nobody would be selling if a lot of people weren't buying. As long as it is all on the down low it is somehow OK. Should just be a legalized managed industry.
It's about professionalism. The real problem is that she disclosed her past openly while working as a teacher. The standards are rightly very high for teachers to be positive role models and to keep their private lives private. Teachers drink and fuck and party just like anybody else, but it should never be a public distraction from their role as the primary adult influence (after family) of their students.
Good teachers and administrators lose their careers for other things as well,not just sexual habits or history, such as fighting, public intoxication, pictures or comments on Facebook or elsewhere, DUIs, etc. A criminal past automatically disqualifies any person from being a teacher anyway, and no matter how you feel about it, prostitution is a crime in most of the U.S.
Sex is sex and sex is good, but the feminist in me wants my daughters' professional role models not to proclaim that they used sex as a shortcut to their goals.
I applaud Ms. Petro for trying to open a dialogue, but I can't sympathize with her poor poor judgement in signing her name. Her identity was irrelevant to the discussion.
Although I agree that private lives of consenting adults *shouldn't* matter, the fact is that to enough people it *does* matter. Appearances count. Teachers are held to a higher, professional standard. I think it's a shame to lose a competent teacher, but I also think she made a bad decision to identify herself.
good points tsktsk. it's more about her poor judgement skills in choosing to write the op-ed piece that rankles me. if someone had tried to cause a scandal by "exposing" her as a former sex worker and she confirmed it, that would be different. she chose to identify herself without reason, and seems to be unaware of the repercussions for teachers with any sort of questionable past. it shows a real lack of perspective and awareness that make her less fit to teach.
From the HuffPost article: "I hope to never again make the choice to trade sex for cash even as I risk my current job and social standing to speak out for an individual's right to do so."
It seems she DID have an idea of the repercussions, which reflects even more poorly on her judgement.
Nobody gave two bits about her private life until she, herself made it public.
Plus that quote makes it sound like she's still open to the idea--in which case she's made a real cash cow of herself, for a bit anyway.
I should clarify that, while I find it hard to sympathize with her too much over the loss of her job, I do feel for her over the awful media treatment, which clearly reflects badly on who we are as a culture. With any luck, the publicity will ultimately draw attention to the writing work that she's pimping (sorry couldn't resist) in those articles. If her writing holds water, she'll be alright down the line.
"the feminist in me wants my daughters' professional role models not to proclaim that they used sex as a shortcut to their goals."
What's wrong with any woman using any path she chooses to her goals, as long as she is ok with her choices?
@TskTsk, like RR, I found it odd that you claim the teacher mentioned used sex as a shortcut to her goals...How exactly did she do that? Unfortunately, there is a demand for sex and while prostitution is not legal in most states, there is a supply. If one's goal is to earn money, and one can do that by being a prositute, where exactly does the "shortcut" figure in? By being a prostitute, what hardships is she bypassing? Whatever your feelings on sex work, I find it off-putting that you assume her being a sex worker was some kind of "shortcut" to getting what she wanted. Clearly, the reaction she has received now, not to mention the threat to her well-being during that sex work, can't be seen as the rewards reeped for her "shortcut". Regardless of the stigma against women who engage in sex and refuse to be shamed by it, sex work is just as valid as any other line of work.
Did she make a decision detrimental to her career by exposing herself as a former sex worker? Apparently so. But to imply that she "took the easy way out" by becoming a prostitute is a gross misinterpretation of the story and only shows the negative way our culture has influenced your view of women and sex, the same that it has the media, who you agree has been treating her unfairly.
"Otherwise, go forth into the world like the beautiful small-dicked snowflake that you are; somewhere, there's a shallow vagina'd woman for you."--i love you. you make finals week go by so much less painfully :)
agreed
Perhaps I'm one of those "shallow vagina'd" women. In my past, I enjoyed sex much more with the average length guys I've been with than the two above average ones. The latter made me feel like my organs were being skewered - no exactly a pleasurable experience. Guys stop obsessing about the length of their penises and start worry about what matters - the girth!
agreed! my vagina is not an infinite cavern.
that is an awesome sentence.
If it fits in a thimble it's too small, if you have to masturbate with a tweezers it's too small, if your date can floss with it, it's too small.
WOW.. It's small *BUT NIMBLE*.. the *but nimble* is the selling point...its already small... so now you want it to be small and fast too?
It may be short, but it's really skinny!
Quote from woman saved by Christ:
"I've been saved by the Blood of the Lamb through Jesus Christ."
She is obviously not delusional at all and therefore we should outlaw abortion!
What is up with that quote??? Does it even make sense? (no) The Blood of the Lamb (any lamb? a special lamb? ) saved her (from what? becoming a mormon? making a horrible social faux pas?) through Jesus Christ (this is where it really get tricky. does Jesus bleed lamb blood? is he some sort of human/ovine monster? and why haven't our scientists been able to recreate this genetic anomaly?) All of these I think are perfectly sensible questions as to the meaning of that sentence.
C'mon... You can try being a little fair.
In Christianity, the Lamb is an analogy for Jesus the Christ, whose innocent blood was spilled (y'know he was killed, right?) as an act of taking the punishment for mankind's evils. The ancient Hebrews sacrificed valuable lambs as an act of penance and thanksgiving to God. The Christian belief is that God offered his own son, Jesus (product of a little holy hanky-panky with a virgin girl), as his own ultimate "lamb" to cover all of the evils once and for all and save believers from the punishment their evils deserve (not to mention saving all those poor little lambs).
Thereby, she's saying that she's been saved from eternal punishment and condemnation because Jesus was killed 2000 years or so ago.
It's still weird, but it at least deserves a little credit for a level of poetry.
I've seen a micropenis (at least, I think it was. It was about the size and girth of half of my thumb). I felt terrible for the guy. He was depressed and had not slept with anyone in years. I honestly don't know how it would have worked. I tried to give him a blowjob, but could not hold on to it enough. I never told anyone about it, but I am telling the anonymous internet about it now. Since then, I tell guys who are self-conscious about "small" (but normal) penises that they have no idea just how good they have it. It could be so, so, so much worse. Still feel awful for that poor man.
Forgive the incredible vagueness of the reference but . . .
In 96 or 97 the Village Voice had a very well written and researched article on Roe's transformation. Roe was a working class woman -- the lawyers she was working with were upwardly mobile activists. The lawyers needed someone and that was Roe -- she was a means to an end. Roe felt alienated from her erstwhile allies -- they hopped on planes and had meetings at expensive restaurants all while she jumped from lowly paid job to to lowly paid job. She felt used by the lawyer. Eventually an evangelical -- not a papist -- found her, listened to her, empathized with her and made her feel like an end in and of herself. Thus began the transformation.
I believe that the article was called 'How we lost Roe'
"Oh Catholicism. It makes you so nuts."
Um, for the record, McCorvey (Roe) is a born again Christian, not a Catholic. They are two VERY different things. I'm not saying that the Catholics are on board with abortion, but we aren't "born again" and don't generally go around talking about being saved. Believe it or not, Catholicism is very different in practice than a lot of other Christian denomiations.
So please, insult appropriately!
Jezebel is correct...However, I would wager that some people are just nuts because they are. Their religious zeal may be their preferred outlet for their craziness, since it is obviously socially accepted and stereotyped.
I think there's something that needs to be said about women with large vaginas.