Baby's sexual seduction of Johnny was unethical - Part 2

This article follows up Part 1.

There I argued that when Baby Houseman seduced Johnny Castle, she ignored the following ethical considerations.

* The Kellermans' rules for the dancers

* Her father's relationship with Max Kellerman

* Her own relationship with Neil Kellerman

* Her father's recent favors to her

* Penny and Johnny owed money to her

* Penny's precarious condition

* Her age difference with Johnny

In this Part 2, I will point out several more ignored considerations.

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Baby's Receiving More Free Dance Lessons

Certainly Baby wanted Johnny to enjoy mutual sexual pleasure with her, but she also was motivated by several prospects that would benefit mostly herself while costing Johnny time and trouble.

The free dance lessons that Baby had received from Johnny ended when she had performed at the Sheldrake Hotel. She would receive more free lessons, however, if she involved him in a sexual relationship.

Baby might have calculated that her getting free dance lessons would be fair compensation for his getting all the orgasms in their sexual relationship.

Johnny earned his livelihood as a professional dance teacher, and generally deserved payment for his lessons. The time he spent giving free lessons to Baby was time he could not spend giving lessons to paying customers.

Baby surely gave Johnny much sexual pleasure, but she was an inexperienced and clumsy amateur. Furthermore, she was a less beautiful female than he was a beautiful male -- even though she as the female was supposed to be more beautiful. The quality of sexual experience that she provided to him was vastly inferior to the quality of dancing experience that he provided to her.

Furthermore, her lack of orgasms was largely irrelevant to the calculation of fair compensation for the free dance lessons. Sure, his sexual experience with her would have been somewhat better if he had seen her having orgasms, but he did see her enjoying great and genuine pleasure even without superfluous female orgasms.

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Baby's Rivalry With Lisa

Baby was constantly involved in a rivalry with her older sister Lisa. Baby sniped publicly at Lisa for being egocentric, superficial and materialistic. However, Lisa clearly surpassed Baby in romantic achievements and prospects. Lisa surely would marry a successful man and enjoy a happy family life, whereas Baby well might end up as an old maid.

However, Baby's sexual seduction of Johnny gave her a rare opportunity to surpass Lisa. Although Baby initially kept her relationship with Johnny secret, eventually she would fall to the temptation to show it off to Lisa. Baby would let Lisa know that she herself was having sex with a professional dance teacher, the boss of the resort hotel's Entertainment Staff, whereas Lisa was merely flirting with the hotel's waiters.

Baby's ultimate humiliation of Lisa would be to perform a spectacular dance with Johnny at the talent show, where Lisa would perform just a dopey hula song.

Although Baby would enjoy tremendous emotional pleasure from surpassing and humiliating Lisa, this sibling rivalry did not interest Johnny in the least. He was essentially just a prop that Baby would wave triumphantly in Lisa's face.

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Johnny's Inability to Resist Sexual Opportunity

Males enjoy some advantages over females in the battle of the sexes. Males are larger and stronger. Usually the male is older and more experienced. In 1963, males usually earned more money and were more independent.

Females risk pregnancy and worse consequences from venereal disease. Females' reputations are damaged more by sexual activities. Females feel the emotional pains of sexual relationships more acutely.

Such imbalances are considered in the ethical evaluations of sexual relations. For example, when a movie producer makes romantic advances on an aspiring actress, his own perception that she complies willingly is treated skeptically. She might go along with him sexually only because she expects that he might promote or ruin her actress career. Society and the movie business might condemn his conduct ethically because he exploits his own professional advantages in relation to actresses' disadvantages in order to obtain sexual compliance that is not really willing.

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One major disadvantage for males is that their resistance to sexual temptation is much weaker. Male sex drives are faster and stronger. Males jump at sexual opportunities without pausing to consider alternatives and consequences.

Johnny had controlled himself and refrained from making any romantic advances toward Baby. After he returned her from the Sheldrake Hotel to Kellerman's Hotel, he indicated to her that their relationship was ending.

Just a short while later that same  night, however, she was able to come to his cabin and quickly seduce him by merely asking him to dance with her there. Sure, he took the first overt action by removing her blouse, but he simply was not able to resist the sexual opportunity that she offered to him -- despite several potential consequences for himself.

Baby as a female took advantage of Johnny's inherently weak male resistance.

Keep in mind that Johnny had not wanted to involve himself sexually with her, and she knew that he had not wanted to do so. That is the major consideration in evaluating the ethics of her actions.

All societies teach females wisely that they should not exploit males' inability to resist sexual opportunities. Females are supposed to wait passively for males to initiate romantic relationships and to escalate them sexually. Females are supposed to behave modestly and respond reluctantly, because female sexual initiative causes many social problems.

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This post concludes my series about Baby's seduction of Johnny being unethical.