“I know that male professors on campus are discussing the fact that they are afraid to interact with female students… they feel that they can only hold office hours with the door open and that they are hesitant to hire female students on research projects or go on academic trips”. This opinion was voiced to me by a male professor from Allegheny who I was doing winter research with. We were discussing the impact of the #MeToo movement and the larger cultural reckoning that has happened because of it. He brought up this sentiment and asked me and the other female student who was working on the project what we thought of professors who were thinking along these lines. My response was one of dismay, shock, and anger, as well as a lingering feeling of discontent. Was it other professors or was it him thinking this? And if it was him thinking this, if I responded in a way that didn’t address this properly, would it affect the chance that he would provide me with academic opportunities in the future?
The #Metoo movement that has enabled many victims of sexual harassment and assault to come forward and have their story heard, suddenly ran into an argument meant to silence and delegitimize this cultural reckoning. This response goes directly against the recommendations of Time’s Up assertion. Stories meant to change the silence that has all too often permeated our culture became an excuse for gender discrimination. The argument contains within it a threat, if I no longer have power over, then I will not associate. The professors at Allegheny expressing this sentiment are not alone. And this response needs to be shut down and called out as gender discrimination, which is against Allegheny’s code of conduct.
The response is problematic for a number of reasons, it not only silences, it supports structured power relationships, and plays into the culture of toxic masculinity. Michael Kimmel in Men, Masculinity, and the Rape Culture says, “If men are afraid of what other men will think of them, they are also afraid of what women will do to them...It’s not women’s presence that is threatening to me, it’s their equality”(150). This speaks directly to the sentiment that these professors are expressing. Before this movement, I doubt that this sentiment would have been expressed and discussed as much as it is now. It is being talked about because now victims are coming forward, telling their stories, and being believed. They are being treated with equality, their experiences of a situation, their truth, is being believed as readily as men's. This moment in time is exposing them to the fact that when situations happen, the power dynamics influence how a behavior is perceived. Does this inherent power structure mean that actions perceived in this way are acceptable? I would argue no, it means that they need to become aware of this situation and work to rectify their behavior. Privilege does not excuse inappropriate behavior.
I also found this argument to be flawed and ineffectual because it ignores the fact that sexual harassment and assault happens in male to male relationships, as well as women to women relationships. Not to mention, specifically male professors were singled out in this scenario, ignoring the fact that women professors also hold power in the professor/student relationship. This argument is not really about sexual assault and harassment, it is about the latent sexist beliefs of these men. It plays into the culture of victim blaming, female students should be punished and their academic opportunities limited.
I responded to his argument with the statement that these male professors had nothing to fear if they hadn’t participated in behaviors of sexual harassment and assault, which I am realizing is not necessarily the best response to this argument, because he came back with the idea that the professors aren’t to blame because they didn’t recognize it as sexual harassment and there was also the implicit connotation that female students could lie. I pointed out that that was statistically unlikely to happen, but he was speaking of the differences in the perceived viewpoints of the two parties. Many men have not realized what constitutes sexual assault and harassment. As I stated before, I don’t think this is an adequate excuse, but it is a problem.
This leads me to my final point, there is a desperate need for a dialogue to happen. And education to take place. Everyone needs to communicate with each other, but power dynamics needed to be taken into consideration. I was uncomfortable with the conversation, but I also saw how important it was and I think it’s necessary to hear that professors are thinking along these lines because it signals an issue that needs to be addressed.
Kimmel, Michael. “Men, Masculinity and the Rape Culture.” Transforming a Rape Culture, by Emilie Buchwald, Milkweed Editions, 2005.
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