She has humble roots as a school teacher. She has since risen to infamy as a child sexual predator. However, after scandalously evading prison for her crime, one would expect Debra Lafave's life in the spot light to die down. But even in an ankle bracelet, as an unemployed house-arrestee and a registered sex-offender, Debra Lafave's grip on popularity looks to be in full bloom.
On the surface, hers seems to be a Paris Hilton-type fame. Both Hilton and Lafave are of the twenty-something blonde bomb-shell breed and each flout resumes accessorized with an assortment of sexual indiscretions. Like Hilton, who's enlightened us all with Confessions of an Heiress, Lafave also promotes higher learning, and has recently taken it upon herself to advocate the immediate need for the public to read 'a book or an article' about bipolar disease. But the similarities do not stop here! Lafave's originally conceived theory, which insists that there is a link between bipolarity and sexual misconduct, proves that, like Ms. Hilton, she has no idea what she is talking about.
Paris Hilton seems bred for the kind of sexual deviance for which she's been known, after all, her family does own a hotel chain. It's quite possible that acting irresponsibly is all Paris is capable of. And that seems to suit her perfectly; she has enough money to support three lifetimes of sloth and sex.
Similarly, it's obvious that Debra Lafave won't gain recognition through achievement. But unfortunately she hasn't the funds to support the lifestyle of a hotel harlot for long. And she herself knows that she won't pay the mortgage by being famously beautiful. An embarrassingly unsuccessful stint at modeling taught her that. There seems to be a plan in place, however. Notoriety is the trick of Lafave's trade.
Why would a young woman, functioning in a normal job and married to a successful man, simultaneously destroy her career and marriage for a short lived relationship with fourteen year old? Debra Lafave would have you believe that it was an intense psychological cocktail of bipolar disease and anorexia which motivated her to have sex with her student. But since neither of these conditions is linked with predatory sex, Lafave has left us to interpret her acts as a deviously creative way to garner attention.
And it's working. Oddly enough, becoming a pedophile is a very effective way to turn heads.
STARmeter Rankings publishes a weekly roster of public figures based on the attention they receive on the widely popular Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Apparently, it's a tough list to climb. Even with American Idol in full swing, Paula Abdul is ranked just 561. Wildly popular Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall sits at 549, and even Oprah hasn't climbed any higher than 547. At 521, Debra Lafave basks above them all.
Initially, it seems unfair that a person guilty of such behavior receive more attention than a philanthropist such as Oprah. But thankfully, the attention Lafave will be getting isn't the kind she's likely to want. Lafave urges us all to read more about the illness that makes 'good people do bad things.' But the Makes & Models motorcycle magazine she tastelessly posed for 6 years ago is probably the only thing people will read with Lafave in mind.
She will be getting attention in the world of documentary film-making however. After School, a Powerhouse Pictures project currently in production, will examine the Lafave case as well as others like it, in an introspective look at student teacher sex-scandals. Here, it will be Owen Lafave, Debra's ex-husband, whose voice will be heard, as he narrates the film, which, incidentally, is ranked number one on IMDB's Documentary MOVIEmeter.
Lafave didn't follow the career path of the typical school teacher as a role-model. She didn't make it as a motorcycle model either. But she has become a model of study, a primary source of discovery in to the double standard we have as a nation and a society as a whole. And hopefully, as part of a social problem in desperate need of remedy, Lafave will harvest all of the attention she can get.
Elizabeth Licorish
Comments Directed to: Elizabeth.Licorish@gmail.com
