Teacher-student Relationships

As Miller’s Girl is soon to be released and is getting popular through edits, let's talk about the portrayal of teacher-student relationships through film.

(@millersgirl)

Although I’m sure everyone can already see that the relationship between Cairo Sweet (played by Jenna Ortega) and Jonathan Miller (played by Martin Freeman) is inappropriate, the film industry has not always portrayed these relationships as inappropriate.

In many television series and films, abnormal age gaps and weird power dynamics are often normalised and looked past. One inappropriate relationship that was completely overlooked by a fandom and even ended up together is Aria and Ezra from Pretty Little Liars.

Ezra was Aria’s high school teacher while Aria WAS a student. This relationship is already inappropriate with the disgusting power imbalance and difference in maturity. The show made it even worse by not giving Ezra any kind of consequence apart from being arrested once. However once he was placed under arrest, the school did not press any charges so he was freed. When Pretty Little Liars first streamed their main audience were tweens and teens, most of us being so young fell for Ezra’s grooming and even rooted for the relationship between Aria and Ezra. Although being young we still all knew that a teacher and student being together was wrong. But somehow we and the show managed to make reasons that Aria and Ezra were an exception because they were in LOVE. Looking back at the show now as we are older, we can see how wrong this relationship was and how wrong it was for us to root for them.

However as a younger audience we can be easily influenced to think that these sort of relationships are okay. For the show writers to show us how Ezra groomed Aria and then let them end up together is sickening. These writers and producers are adults and for them to think it is okay to show a younger audience or any audience that this sort of couple is appropriate is not okay.

(@prettylittleliars)

So let this serve as a reminder that relationships like these are not okay, no matter how often the media tries to romanticise them!!!