MovieChat Forums > Private Lessons (1981) Discussion > Note the tagline on the poster: "What ha...

Note the tagline on the poster: "What happened to him should happen to you"


That line just about says it all in terms of how Western civilization has changed in the last 40 years.

In our society, until fairly recently, being seduced by an older attractive woman was considered a rite of passage and an enjoyable experience to be envied. I recall hearing about men being arrested for seducing underaged girls, but never until the Mary Kay Letourneau case in the late 1990s did I ever hear of a woman being arrested for seducing a teenaged boy.

When I was 15, I was seduced by the 21 year old exchange student from Jamaica who was boarding at my best friend's house. She waited until my friend had fallen asleep one night when we were having a horror movie marathon and then she came out into the basement rec-room in her underwear and propositioned me and that was that. I never looked at it as "rape" or as "she took advantage of me" or found it psychologically damaging in any way.

Cue the cries of sexism, but it is entirely different from a girl being seduced by an older man. That usually happens for all the wrong reasons and it is indeed damaging to the girl. An older man seduces a teenaged girl because he is horny and she is easy to control and influence. An older woman seduces a teenaged boy as a teaching experience. Totally different motivations.

Any boy who claims he was damaged by being initiated by an older woman is probably just lying because he's angry that the woman doesn't want to continue a relationship.

reply

I vaguely remember this movie shown on pay cable (by a defunct company called Prism) in 1982 when I was in my early teens.

No surprise that it's been taken out of circulation. I haven't seen it since it was shown on cable in 1982.

I think this is the same reason we are not seeing any new teenage high school films anymore.

Depictions of technically under age teenagers having or even thinking about sex is just too problematic for movie studios today.



reply

I would've given ANYTHING to have had that happen to me for Christ sake!! Try that shit in 2024 and you're on FOX News over it and going to Jail

reply