Sexual Harassment

The question of sexual harassment has been on my mind lately: the University of Iowa has seen two professors commit suicide this year after allegations of sexual harassment and I stumbled across this column in the LA Times by a University of California Professor who has refused point blank to comply with state-mandated sexual harassment training and is now apparently under threat of suspension if not outright termination of his employment with the University.

As a man, I resent absolutist leftist PC doctrine that stigmatizes me for the crime of having a penis. I remember walking throughout the UI Campus and always seeing that interesting bit of graffiti: 'men can end rape.' That always struck me as slightly offensive, because I don't rape, I don't know- nor would I associate with anyone who does- and as an undergraduate the whole culture of alcohol induced hook-ups and the potential consequences that go along with it just seemed completely alien to me, so I never bothered to participate. Having a penis, I thought, is a responsibility, not a right and I refused to consider misusing mine in any way. Why then, is it my responsibility to 'end rape'?

I don't think it is- individuals have to be held accountable for their actions- and not a whole group of people. Such stereotyping and stigmatization is the very essence of the things that the PC-crowd are trying to overcome- but of course, it's perfectly OK to stereotype and stigmatize men. (A sort of counter-patriarchal attitude that merely reinforces patriarchy rather than overcomes it, I think.) BUT WAIT: (I can hear some people saying this) The fact of the matter is that guys don't call each other on behavior like that. They make jokes about the 'good lay' they had the night before and make remarks that are frankly demeaning to women and so on and so forth. Until men police themselves, these problems will never go away- therefore men CAN end rape.

OK, fine- guys don't call each other on stuff like that. But again, I refuse to be lumped in with the pricks and assholes that participate in that culture that demeans women. I simply refuse- and I resent being lumped in with them just because I share the same biological characteristics as them. It's offensive, because I never bought in to the 'hook-up' culture on college campuses. I didn't want to go and get blind drunk and find someone in a similar state to share a bed with. I simply did NOT do it- and I didn't really run with the crowd that did. Maybe that makes me an outlier of some kind, but there it is.

And therin lies the problem with the tricky question of sexual harassment: I think the pro-PC, cloyingly liberal atmosphere you can find on some college campuses means that automatically, allegations of harassment are like a scarlet letter on the face of the accused. The collectivism of the PC crowd means that the right of the individual to present evidence to potentially refute these allegations is shouted down. And even if said individual is actually innocent- the mob has spoken and the career of the accused has been forever tarred- unjustly.

Such mob mentality obscures the objectivity necessary to sort out allegations from honest-to-God harassment in the workplace- which is what we need to fight against. And Universities, in their fear of liability need to grow a set and insist on objective investigations of these allegations- (the accused should be suspended- with or without pay, depending on the seriousness of the accusations) and if proven true- the harassers should be terminated. End of discussion.

Now, I know what some people might say: 'You're just a guy insisting that 'you're different'' And granted, re-reading this post, it may come across that way- but I think in order to move into a post-patriarchal world, we need to look at the actions of individuals and not groups, move away from stigmatizing people- and honestly, we need more men to stand up and say 'I'm different. I don't do that.' And maybe if enough guys do that, then we can counter this pervasive culture of mob rule that demeans women and is seemingly starting to scapegoat men.