Eye-opening for those of us who don't have to deal with this ourselves
Sexual harassment from Bora Zivkovic, who's done so much good for science blogging and then used it to harass women. What a shame. Comments worth reading too, one woman after another talking about dealing with the same damn thing.
More context here.
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6 comments:
"Alert! Some Big And Important And Exciting News!":
"In this new role at Scientific American, Bora will recruit talented science bloggers [especially women] and serve as moderator [and body-rater] for the community, encouraging discussion [and other oral exchange] and facilitating the exchange of ideas [and bodily fluids] with both the bloggers and Scientific American readers."
Wanting to get laid is both sad and fairly commonplace. Objectivising women as sex-objects is also incredibly commonplace but not a necessary condition - it is a chosen personal disposition. Using your status to get laid, however, is simply immoral. My personal recommendation to any male in the workplace is never, ever, come on to someone, however much you like them. Invite them for a social drink, fine. but don't ever believe that any attention is either desired or desirable. And you'll never get anywhere unless you are interested in a person rather than an object of desire.
Shame seems an appropriate word.
btw, Eli, have you sharpened the mousetraps recently?
"What a shame!" conveys quite a different meaning than would "Shameful!"
In reality, we all have to deal with it ourselves.
Culture changes. What was regarded as acceptable behavior for men, to women and others, ten years ago, or 30 years ago, or 50 years ago, is different. But the men in the workplace may not be different.
Then there is the issue of genuine office romance.
Then there are the issues that come out of working with people who are human, including some who regard any attempts at romance as unwelcome (generally from a limited population of people), and those who just don't get that others find their behavior offensive.
Even those who might be categorized as innocent bystanders are affected.
Shameful or not in any case, it's a shame, and saying so is not a comment on whether the conduct involved was shameful.
Bora's Sci Am shenanigans so fondly recall Steve Martin's Wild And Crazys Guys skit, that one hopes Bora's severance package will include a ticket to Prague so he can join forces with Lubos Motl to revive the act on the Moldovan caberet circuit.
I think it's all a shame and it's shameful.
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