Anonymous asked:
negat0ry-deactivated20150104 answered:
[cont] Your experiences are valid, and I recognize that you have been harassed by a certain type of man in STEM. But furthering stereotypes and pushing narratives greatly harms victims of “non-traditional” harassers and makes it harder for them to be believed.
how big of a deal do you think I think I am? yes, shy nerdy men are fully capable of committing harassment and of driving women out of jobs and degree programs. my experience doesn’t undermine the validity of anyone else’s.
one of the most important points I see in MIT’s investigation into lewin’s harassment is that they finally aren’t granting immunity to faculty members (and, with luck, any other predator) based on their reputations, either as academics or as people. so shy nerds committing harassment are more likely to be reported to MIT’s admins, and the admins are more likely to actually follow up, regardless of the accused’s shyness/charisma/number of patents.
MIT being a big name means this is more likely to happen at other schools, as well. if MIT can strip lewin of emeritus status, no man using his power to violate women is safe. if this sets precedent, shy nerdy men are just as screwed as charismatic science rockstar assholes, because precedent doesn’t care about the nerd’s ability to use a single woman’s posts on tumblr as a hiding spot from his own disgusting behavior.
fucking honestly, I am one shitty bachelor’s-of-engineering piece of uselessness typing into the void about one professor’s reaction to another’s disgusting behavior at my alma mater. I am working through my personal experience with my old school’s sudden change in treatment of academic harassment cases and getting annoyed that anyone even cares about one mediagenic comp sci prof’s sad backstory when he’s actively trying to sanctify the work of a predator. I am trying to figure out why lewin got blacklisted by MIT in every way possible while my adviser - an idiosyncratic non-mediagenic nerd - who wrote porn about assaulting a student with my name is still researching and publishing as an MIT affiliate.
I sincerely apologize for not feministing hard enough while I’m processing in front of my minuscule audience. I will sweep up my ideological failures as soon as I have the ability to do so.
