harborshore: (Default)
harborshore ([personal profile] harborshore) wrote2010-01-07 01:53 am

and now you will understand why i was procrastinating...

Because writing ficlets was a hell of a lot more interesting and less infuriating than trying to take my philosophy textbook seriously.


Choice quotes (the parenthesis are my comments):


In the last two decades, sexual harassment has become a significant ethical concern in science as more women have entered the scientific profession (yes, those darned womenfolk, they really complicate things)...Behaviors that have been viewed (have been viewed?) as sexual harassment include rape (WHICH IS A CRIME) and unwanted sexual advances (ALSO A CRIME), requests for dates, quid pro quo arrangements, dirty jokes, sexual teasing, and lewd looks (Webb 1995).

We lack consensus on this issue (REALLY?), in part because men and women have different perspectives on sexual harassment (...uh, okay). This issue has become a battleground for opposing viewpoints and attitudes on the relations between the sexes... Sexual harassment is also legal (his typo, not mine--isn't it an interesting typo though?) in the United States and other countries.

...Since false charges of sexual harassment can still ruin careers and reputations, due process and fairness should be observed while reporting or adjudicating harassment, and trivial (I would like to know what constitutes a trivial accusation of sexual harassment, Mister Resnik) or unwarranted accusations should be avoided. While scientists should avoid sexual harassment, it is important for scientists to feel comfortable in a laboratory setting (I don't even know what to say about that one). Research and teaching can be significantly hampered when scientists feel too uptight to make conversation or socialize with their colleagues or interact in a normal way. (!!!!)

And then he finishes the section by advocating tolerance. I told [livejournal.com profile] liketheroad I was mostly helplessly laughing, because seriously, this dude is hilarious.


Except that I'm supposed to cite him and take him seriously, which I am not all that comfortable doing. Surprisingly.

He also had some fabulous gems on affirmative action, or as he prefers to call it, "preferential treatment." The gist of that one was basically that if scientists use "irrelevant characteristics" like race or gender in hiring someone, that someone was more likely to be underqualified and therefore more likely to be a bad scientist. So the fact that white dudes are hired based on them being white dudes all the fucking time means that they are...excellent scientists, got it.

[identity profile] novembersmith.livejournal.com 2010-01-07 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
RRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Ahem. As a member of the scientific community, I have to say, my experience is that 'trivial or unwarranted accusations' are MUCH MUCH MUCH LESS COMMON than women being afraid to speak up because they think they won't be believed or taken seriously. Just... asd;lfkja. I just had one of my friends go through a terrible, terrible sexual harrassment hearing and she was the first one to press charges against this guy, even though he'd been harrassing female students for years. The professor kept telling all the students that no one would believe them, that no one would care. He was finally, finally called out on it, and he still didn't get fired, even though there was DEFINITIVE PROOF of sexual harrassment -- they just forced him into early retirement.

/ragerant

Ahem. I do not blame you for procrastinating. I admire you for being able to slog through that without defacing (or burning) the book.
ext_3762: girl reading outside in sunshine (feminism)

[identity profile] harborshore.livejournal.com 2010-01-07 08:59 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I am being so so careful with the book, because I plan to fucking return it on Saturday so that I will get my goddamn money back. I didn't buy it until now so that I would be able to do that--a look through one of my friends' copies told me I wouldn't like it, but I had no idea just how much I would hate it.

And ugh, I'm so sorry he did that to your friend! GOD. A friend of mine went through roughly the same thing--she was also the first one to take it further than a professor in the department (all the other girls were going to the one woman, quite understandably, but she was not tenured and the asshole WAS, and she was new, etc.). It didn't lead to anything then either, he's still there.