A New York maths teacher claims she was fired from her job over a topless selfie that was mysteriously obtained by school students.
In 2016, Lauren Miranda reportedly sent a semi-nude selfie to her then-teacher-boyfriend who worked at a different school. Miranda never posted the snapshot online and has publicly declared it was obtained without her consent.
Earlier this year, Miranda was castigated about the photograph by school officials at Bellport Middle School on Long Island and placed on paid leave. Miranda was informed that she couldn’t keep her job because the semi-nude selfie made her “a poor role model” for students.
Only last week she was fired and is suing The Suffolk County Administrators and Board of Education in a $3 million lawsuit for gender discrimination.
Nothing much has changed in regards to sexual discrimination against women – – no matter how much time passes.
Just over a decade ago on Australian soil, a Sydney teacher, Lynne Tziolos was fired from her job at Narraweena Public School for posing in a nude embrace with her husband (also a school teacher) for Cleo Magazine’s “Buck Naked” sealed section. Interestingly, the Department of Education didn’t feel the need to fire Tziolos’s husband over the photoshoot. Double standards much?
All these cases boil down to proprietary attitudes over the sexual female body. Society responds to female sexual expression and promiscuity by perpetuating damaging stigmas designed to control us. I refer to it as the ‘mythical pure female’ syndrome.
Everyday women receive subliminal messages informing them that the ‘pure’ female is highly valued and what exists between her thighs is merely a currency for the patriarchy to place value on.
Virginity is sold to women as an asset yet for most of us it’s an awkward, (often physically painful) event we’d rather forget.
Men’s ‘virginity’ on the other hand isn’t an asset. A male is revered by other men if he’s been around the block a couple of times. How convenient!
The dissemination of the ‘pure female lie” equates to women being endlessly shamed for fucking whilst men are endlessly rewarded for it.
The arrogant perception that a penis entering our pussy for the first time is somehow life-changing is born out of the belief that women are just a commodity.
If we don’t have ownership of our own virginity. How on earth do we expect to have ownership of the rest of our sexual selves and how we are outwardly perceived?
Women can’t win. If we choose a life of prudery, we are apparently repressed. If we choose a life of overt sexual expression via nude selfies and whatnot we are attention-seeking whores.
If you hold the belief in 2019 that it’s demeaning for a teacher (or any woman for that matter) to be semi-nude or naked in a selfie (whether public or private) – – you’re suffering from a severe bout of sexual repression.
Sexual empowerment is self-determined. What empowers one woman may disempower another.
I am a survivor of rape and childhood sexual abuse. I have healed myself by living a sexually expressive life.
I have metabolised my sexual trauma by writing columns, blogs, books and a one-woman show that I performed in the West End of London. I also regularly participate in erotic photoshoots.
My brand of ‘fierce female sexuality’ doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.
How dare I control my image and narrative by exploiting my sexual self online?
Instead I should wait around to be the victim of revenge porn and have my explicit images shared without permission.
If you’re an obese or famous woman – – getting nude online is an act of bravery. But if you’re just a normal chick – – you’re a sex-worker and a “poor” role model for others. .
A woman’s sex life says nothing about her morals or integrity.
They’re a pair of nipples for fuck’s sake, surely the world has bigger fish to fry?