I have some questions I didn’t know how to vocalize during the presentation in class. Mainly, where do we—as educators—draw the line between being human beings and turning into professional robots?

It was a concern that I had a hard time voicing in class. When we dealt with the example of the male teacher on Grindr, where his presence on a social media app directly related to sexuality was not an issue with his administrator, my first thought was “wow that’s great, there was no judgement!” But on the other hand, the mention of “that photo you posted from when you were in Mexico” (I’m assuming either drinking or maybe on the beach in a bikini), we start to see a possible issue along gender lines.

As female teachers, if a student finds an image online where we are enjoying ourselves on vacation at the beach in our swim suits, are we protected from sexualization of our bodies? Or are we expected to conform to a shame-based system that feminism has been fighting since the 1800s? Do we avoid a dialogue about body-positivity and respect of other bodies that aren’t our own?

It’s difficult to express because I find it upsetting that I even have to ask the question.