Rant #2,345: Mirror, Mirror (Part 2)

Yesterday, we spoke about how out of view actresses use the Internet to keep in the wide gaze of the Web-loving public.

Today, we look at a breaking story, where an everyday woman proved her ignorance about the Internet by exposing herself--figuratively and literally--to a lot of scorn.

Lauren Miranda, 25, middle school teacher in Bellport, Long Island, was fired after a topless photo of her turned up and was made public.

The photo, which she says was obtained by a student and circulated by that student, was brought to the attention of school officials, and the math teacher was summarily fired.

The teacher said her rights as a woman have been violated by this action, and she is suing the school district for several million dollars inn damages as a result.

The story went worldwide on the Internet yesterday, and foreign outlets--including numerous Hispanic sites, since the woman is Hispanic--put up the photo, and didn't cover it up enough to leave it to your imagination what she had to show.

Most of those photos are gone, and what you have in its place is either a much more covered up photo or a current photo of the teacher, pleading her case.

Let me just say that I don't ever remember having a teacher in middle school who looked like this, and it kind of made we want to go back to school.

Back to reality ...

The teacher claims that she is being discriminated against because she is a woman, and similar photos of bare-breasted men don't get a peep out of anyone.

She is proud of her body, proud of her breasts, but since she is a woman, she is held to a different standard than her male counterparts.

And she also reiterated that she suspects the photo--which was taken a few years back for her boyfriend, who is also a teacher in the district--the student somehow got off her phone or her boyfriend's phone.

Look, she makes some interesting points--yes, a topless woman is looked at differently in our society than a topless man--but she does neglect one thing.

Teachers are held to higher standards than, let's say, hairdressers. They are still expected to be prim and proper, maybe beyond current reality, and the way they look and dress and act is very important to keep up that image.

Whether right or wrong, in this society we live in, a woman's bared chest is a lot different than a male's bared chest.

Yes, I know, a lot of people today want to assert their beliefs that there is no difference between men and women, but most of us know that that is pure balderdash.

What's more, if you have a topless picture of a female teacher lurking around, she loses all credibility, no matter how good a teacher she is, and Miranda evidently was quite a good teacher from the reports I read, but you can throw that all out the window now.

And she taught middle school yet. This is the time period where boys really first assert their own sexuality, seeing that their female counterparts are quite different than they are, and can you expect this teacher to be able to teach her middle school students with a topless photo of her going around the school?

Furthermore, and perhaps this is the most important point of the whole mess, no matter how good a teacher she is, how could she be so ignorant as to keep the photo on her phone, or at least keep the photo on her boyfriend's phone?

With such cellphones having Internet access, everything kept on that phone is open to hacking and going viral. That picture was a prime element to go this route, so how stupid could she--and her boyfriend--be to keep it where it was so accessible?

I have not heard about any punishment given to the student, but, of course, the kid should probably get some penalty for hacking into one of the phones, or somehow obtaining the picture through one of the phones, and making it public.

But how could the teacher even think that she could go back to teaching in the school and the district with the photo in circulation?

For someone who appears to be pretty smart, she also appears to be pretty ignorant about how things work.

In the old days, you just know that Playboy Magazine would be beckoning at her door, and from what I have seen from those photos that were put up yesterday, yes, she has the goods to carry such a thing off, but in today's world, nothing surprises anyone anymore, so she will probably keep her shirt on for now.

But sorry lady, you cannot teach in this school district anymore.

Let's hope that this otherwise good teacher learns a hard lesson from this--whatever you put on your phone can be available to anyone.

Better to take such photos, if you actually have the need to take such photos, with a non-Internet-connected camera ...

But better yet, not to take them at all.

She may have ruined her career over this stupid misstep, and you may really love your body, love your breasts, and have no regrets in taking the photo, but in the long run, it really isn't worth it, is it?