The Hostile State, The Hammer Of Title IX, And Feminism As A Form Of Institutionalized Castration
In the original story by David Lat at Above The Law, a Drexel University professor, Lisa McElroy, apparently inadvertently sent her students a link to anal bead porn instead of a link to a "great article on writing briefs" that her message to them described.
Tamara Tabo writes, also at Above The Law:
Nevertheless, Drexel put the professor on leave pending an investigation under the school's sexual harassment and misconduct policy. David later interviewed Professor Michael A. Olivas of the University of Houston Law Center, an expert in education law. Professor Olivas explained why, under Title IX, universities have little choice but to undertake an investigation in situations like this. Title IX is, of course, the federal civil rights law that forbids sex discrimination at schools receiving federal financial support.Lisa McElroy probably did not intend to create a hostile environment for anyone. She may not have actually offended most of her students. Common sense and compassion will probably lead to a quiet resolution to the case. I hope so.
But what if Lisa McElroy were a man? Would observers be as quick to give the benefit of the doubt?
...As a university employee, my personal experience with Title IX has been discouraging, frustrating, alienating. I have been recruited to join complaints against male colleagues, most recently against someone with whom I was friends outside of our workplace. I have, when I refused to be a complainant, been interviewed as a witness. I have, when interviewed as a witness, been grilled over a multitude of conversations and social interactions that took place away from campus, in the company of adults, that I never expected that I would one day have to explain in a formal setting.
...Title IX doesn't make me feel safer. It makes me feel paranoid. I can hardly imagine how much more paranoid it makes my male colleagues.
What we effectively have now is institutionalized discrimination against men. Due process in campus sexual assault claims? Sorry -- not if you're a man. And if you are a man in college -- one receiving federal funding -- and if you and the woman you had sex with in college were each drunk, there's only one of you who's guilty, and it's the one of you with the penis.
Feminism was supposed to be about equal rights. Feminism has led to -- and too many feminists demand these days -- a witch hunt to root out men who don't think and act in "approved" meek eunuch-like ways. In effect, feminism is has become a form of de facto castration, with the state administering the cut or the dose of the castrating drug.
via @Overlawyered
It's not clear if the professor was using a home computer.
If she was she may need to talk to her husband about what he copies and pastes.
If she was using her personal business computer she just got educated.
Bob in Texas at April 16, 2015 6:40 AM
re the point of the blog about "institutionalized discrimination against men":
Not sure if the practice has stopped but it was not unusual for a male professor to enjoy the hero worship of his female students, and frat boys are boys and basically immature when it comes to treating female students appropriately.
Add in the practice of hiring wusses and then having the above be 'normal' behavior on college campuses and you have "institutionalized discrimination against men".
A college has to do this simply to survive. They decided a long time ago not to simply say "The students are over 18 years of age and are considered adults and thus responsible for their own behavior.".
Bob in Texas at April 16, 2015 6:48 AM
Does it make me an old fuddy-duddy to not know what anal bead porn is?
mpetrie98 at April 16, 2015 7:20 AM
mpetrie98,
Yes. But probably one with better tastes than others.
Ben at April 16, 2015 7:56 AM
"What we effectively have now is institutionalized discrimination against men." . . . . . . which was the objective.
Since women can no longer claim to be disadvantaged because they are in the minority on college campuses, the next reasons to disadvantage male students had to be manufactured, and this is one of them. We should not go about thinking that this was somehow an unintended consequence of these policy directions, which are all (lest we forget) driven by Federal government mandates.
llater,
llamas
llamas at April 16, 2015 8:02 AM
California continuing its quest to brand all men as rapists.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 16, 2015 8:07 AM
"But what if Lisa McElroy were a man? Would observers be as quick to give the benefit of the doubt?"
Need more information to answer that question. Straight man? Gay man? Black man? White man? Native American? Transgender? Rich man/poor man? Conservative? Liberal? Christian? Muslim? Democrat? Republican? Celebrity? Athlete? Old? Young?
All of these characteristics would have to be weighed against the same in the person claiming to be abused, triggered, traumatized, micro-offended, or whatever, to determine if she/he is a bona fide victim. This is why these investigations can be so micro-detailed and complicated.
If the male professor is a Democrat, Progressive, Native American, transgender-female>male, convert to Islam; and the offended party is a micro-triggered African-American lesbian survivor with a history of trauma related to being called "ugly dyke" by a Native American male, there may be no wrongdoing at all; and the offended party may be entitled to free counseling and additional financial assistance.
However, if the party claiming to be offended is a straight, white, Christian Fundamentalist male, then the professor may actually be the victim here, and the complainer may be guilty of rape, especially if the inadvertently linked porn happened to be a selfie.
Ken R at April 16, 2015 12:14 PM
Ah. Now I understand what she meant by "Start me like a lawnmower, baby!".
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at April 16, 2015 12:23 PM
I have seen it take years for a tenured but incompetent faculty member to be fired. Can't be counted on to show up for class? Let's give 'em a break. First the professor must have several rounds of evaluation, constructive feedback, and opportunities to get right. But it only takes one slip of the tongue to be branded as a sexual harasser and drummed out of the corp.
I was lucky. The university merely put me on probation, cut my pay, and required me to be reprogrammed (at my own expense). Among my sins: Telling an off-color joke to a male colleague, after hours, off-campus. When he (not me) repeated the joke on campus and attributed the joke to me, I was found responsible. That's social justice.
DrPinWV at April 16, 2015 6:08 PM
Women on campus who are students or professors, who are not radical feminists, but don't want to take the men's side in anything, will unfortunately find that they will also become victims of the Reign of Terror.
It would not surprise me to see campuses turned into something from the 16th century in Europe, where there were institutional spies everywhere, and a slip of the tongue, or a misconstrued comment would likely as not get you burned at the stake, and your land confiscated by the people behind it. Try to get through a day on campus without saying something which might offend or traumatize or trigger some professional victim, or someone who simply doesn't like you, or wants your position. And they will surely get you, the minute you differ from the radical feminist orthodoxy.
I don't know what is going to change this. We have had hysteria and witch hunts before, but they were usually conducted by men; and then better men stepped up to say, "no more of this." Now, all the men have been marginalized and silenced; and too many women look less at fairness and judicious outcomes, than at their emotional satisfaction at wielding power, and trying to rid themselves of anything that they disagree with, or bothers them in any way. Men put "due process" into the law and Constitution. Are women and a few cowed men now going to take it out?
William at April 16, 2015 8:38 PM
Does it make me an old fuddy-duddy to not know what anal bead porn is?
It's about people who collect beads and are extremely fussy about the way they organize them. People with OCD get really turned on watching it.
JD at April 16, 2015 10:14 PM
The quickest way to unearned status is by claiming victim status.
Amy Alkon at April 17, 2015 4:46 PM
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