departmentofdouchinessdckwaddivision

posts about #departmentofdouchinessdckwaddivision more →
NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

la.donna.pietra
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I saw this phenomenon in reverse, sorta, at UCSC in the mid-'90s. One of the professors in the Literature department was very out, which was cool. He also made it abundantly clear that hot guys could boost their grades or get letters of recommendation by sleeping with him. He ignored women entirely, both professionally and extracurricularly.

I guess it was a little like being in a skeevy straight professor's class circa 1956 as a guy. It was still pretty discomfiting.
Reply

la.donna.pietra was starred la.donna.pietra was unstarred

la.donna.pietra
11/03/08

@la.donna.pietra: Er, the third sentence should have "which was not" appended to it. I'm kinda tired today. Way too many details related to moving.
Reply

la.donna.pietra was starred la.donna.pietra was unstarred

starlessnight (of the living dead)
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
It sounds kind of odd to say this, but I kind of feel relieved that there is a "intelligent = not attractive" stereotype. It makes being pretty one less thing to worry about. I put my whole being into math and physics to be on top and to prove my worth that way. I'd hate for that to mean nothing since I'm not that pretty. My father has always been of the opinion that I need to work a lot harder on my looks because it's not enough to just be good at math, and it's not enough to go to an ivy league school. I'd hate for this attitude to become typical. If all that's expected of me is intelligence, I can do that. But if the bar were raised to include beauty too, I'd be a failure.
Reply

snarkhunting is becoming a sarcastic bitch
11/03/08

@starlessnight: Yeah, but unfortunately it means that "attractive = not intelligent," which makes it somewhat more difficult for pretty women to be taken seriously.
Reply

TheFormerJuneBronson
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I'm not in a good environment for the lengthy response this deserves, but to answer the question, hell yes, it's still an issue, at least in literary studies. I've seen dickishness from men and women both, but it particularly rankles when it's men, who often come into English programs with a chip about their masculinity. I've met some wonderful men in literary studies, make no mistake, but it's often the ones who start first year wearing bow ties and suede elbow patches who are the worst. The troublesome women have often been sixties feminists who believe that their female students should suffer as they did. I don't have much respect for that attitude either.
Reply

G Gordon Liddy
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I had worked in a neuroscience lab for close to 4 years, and was on route to start my PhD in it, when this summer during field work I was sexually harrassed so bad by the male grad students I had to quit and change fields to Public Health. The professor was present during all of the harassment, and just laughed. I didn't have enough physical proof to press charges against them. Now it turns out the professor has been lying and saying I left b/c I was "withholding data" from him, and the Department is more than happy to sweep it under the rug and ignore. Academica is a sick place for women.
Reply

G Gordon Liddy was starred G Gordon Liddy was unstarred

snarkhunting is becoming a sarcastic bitch
11/03/08

@G Gordon Liddy: God, I'm so sorry.
Reply

southernbitch
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
well, i went to art school first, where fucking and drinking and drugs were kinda the norm between some profs. and some students. then i transferred to polisci and experienced actual factual creepy profs for the first time. not nearly as fun.
Reply

southernbitch was starred southernbitch was unstarred

Maulleigh
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
When I was at San Jose State in the early 90s, I had to take a Biology 101 class and listen to taped lectures in the lab. On one, the professor made some sexist crack (I wish I could remember what it was). He was an older guy who'd probably been there forever.

I went to his office and complained to him. At the next huge lecture, he asked the entire hall if they found his lectures sexist. Of course no one raised his or her hand.

*sigh*
Reply

Maulleigh was starred Maulleigh was unstarred

returnofthemac
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I have literally been told that women have no place as a biology major. That f'in asshole still teaches on campus and has been quoted MANY times saying something of a similar nature..
Reply

returnofthemac was starred returnofthemac was unstarred

gold_gato
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
And in grad school I didn't experience sexism as much as a holier than thou attitude.
Reply

gold_gato was starred gold_gato was unstarred

gold_gato
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
Ugh, my freshmen year in college a prof tried to date me, and did it via live journal, posing as a kid in our class. Awkward. I was young and not all together 'with it!' so I handled much differently than I would've now.
Reply

gold_gato was starred gold_gato was unstarred

rah29
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I can't say I've personally experienced sexism of that blatant kind in graduate school, apart from the fact that my professors and fellow PhD students are overwhelmingly male. The institution I'm at, however, is incredibly sexist in a very established way. There are plenty of male-only clubs and drinking societies, to which women are invited on the basis of their attractiveness (or sometimes not at all--there is quite a significant subculture among the older ranks of closeted homosexuality, in a traditional old-boy 'bachelor' sense). The institution rewards its old boys and it's very difficult for women to gain that kind of status; it permeates everything, from academic life, to whether the bursar will do you a favour, to whether maintenance will bother showing up to fix your shower. So I'm quite convinced that overt sexism is absolutely out there among my colleagues and professors--the environment fosters it. I think I've just been lucky so far.
Reply

rah29 was starred rah29 was unstarred

andBegorrah
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
Stupid fucking underfunded office computer won't let me reply to anyone, but I need to acknowledge that not being in the hard sciences or a similarly male-dominated field (especially those in which issues of othering, for example, are not analyzed and discussed as part of the damn discipline) has a lot to do with it. Also, jerks still exist everywhere - EVERYWHERE - and while there are certain ideological and practical factors that make academia a particular refuge for such bullshit, it is by no means a special or lone case.
Reply

andBegorrah was starred andBegorrah was unstarred

laurascr
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
Im a poli sci major and this year more then any other year (Im third year) Im starting to feel like Im breaking in to an all boys club. Profs are chummy with the guys and practically ignore the girls. Whenever I say something intelligent they act suprised, but its all so subtle that I feel as if I were imagining it! Argh!
Reply

laurascr was starred laurascr was unstarred

Grim Reaper of the Forest
11/03/08

@laurascr: I didn't experience sexism in high school, that I noticed, but I saw a whole new world as an international relations major. I couldn't tell if professors would just call on the guys, or if the guys were all arrogant assholes who would sit up front and interject all the time. Either way, it was definitely a boys club.
Reply

rednrowdy
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
i was a fine arts major, so it's a bit different in that world. during undergrad i remember one of my music history professors (who was gay) exclaimed out loud after i correctly answered a question, "she sings AND she THINKS!" the whole class was a bit aghast.

grad school was a different ballgame. again in fine arts and performing, but what i experienced wasn't sexual harassment as much as it was open and loud body snarking. teachers who felt the need to tell you that you could never be hired because of how you look. most of the time it was super passive-aggressive stuff and never openly uttered.
Reply

rednrowdy was starred rednrowdy was unstarred

CollegeBookworm
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
So far I've been quite lucky. The women's studies program at my school is quite large, and probably has more influence than many such programs, since the president's wife was the original program director. In addition, I'm primarily in the English department, and often in WMGS cross-listed courses. Not going to be an issue there, you know?

However, despite the fact that I think my Comp Sci professor this semester is a great teacher, and despite the fact that he's never discouraged me, I've lately noticed that he is extremely heteronormative in his examples. In Comp Sci, yes. We had a whole problem set that included creating 'marriages' and when using a joint bank account example, it naturally is a man and his wife. It's starting to bother me.
Reply

CollegeBookworm was starred CollegeBookworm was unstarred

lizzzz
11/03/08

In reply to NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia
I am actually studying an angle on this right now- there's something called the "leaky pipeline" phenomenon in academia, which mirrors the "glass ceiling" phenomenon in business. Women comprise approximately half of all PhD graduates currently, but only about a quarter of full professors. The predominant explanation for this currently is that subtle forms of sexism such as preferential treatment in mentoring and access to resources are to blame, but because these factors are subtle and difficult to measure it is very difficult to actually establish that this is the case.

I think it is really challenging to discuss issues of sexism (or racism, or almost any other form of discrimination) in modern society, because overt forms are so looked down-upon that they are not often seen anymore (thankfully), yet we all know that discrimination still exists and is still harmful.
Reply

lizzzz was starred lizzzz was unstarred

HarpMadness
11/03/08

@lizzzz: Yes, it's not that it isn't there anymore, it's just they aren't beating you in the face with it as much. When I was an undergrad, a woman working on her Ph'D came to speak at a women's conference. She had been raised in Japan, but went to college in the US and she gushed about how there was no sexism in the US. Someone finally, politely, had to tell her that there is, it's just not as overt as what she had experienced. That got me to thinking about how in some ways it's easier to confront the guy in a class room telling you that women aren't as smart as men than the guy who really thinks that and just refuses to mentor you or is really tough when grading women's work. It's harder to prove.
Reply

HarpMadness was starred HarpMadness was unstarred

warbean
11/03/08

@HarpMadness: That's really interesting. I'm currently in a lab where my advisor claims that the dropout rate for female PhDs is because they marry older men who get their degrees first, and then follow them to wherever they get a job. He won't believe that there's much else to it, nor will he stop making remarks about the fact that the female grad students in his lab are "nicer to look at" than he is. It's extremely frustrating because I do believe that he's very pro-women in academics, and is a great advisor in most respects, but he doesn't realize that his "jokes" are part of the problem. One day I'll call him out, but I'm biding my time until I've at least passed my quals.
Reply

warbean was starred warbean was unstarred

Yes_Tim_Gunn
11/03/08

@warbean: uh oh. I am "one of those women who married an older man who got his degree first and followed him to his job".

And it does make finishing freaking hard. But dammit, I'm getting that Ph.D. AND keeping my awesome marriage.
Reply

Yes_Tim_Gunn was starred Yes_Tim_Gunn was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#departmentofdouchinessdckwaddivision

Jezebel

SUBSCRIBE TO Jezebel

NYT Writer Finds Out Jerks Still Exist In Academia

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment