People who come from a privileged upbringing should be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
Sadly, that rarely seems to be the case.
“Default” assumption about any character is white and male in good physical shape unless explicitly stated otherwise in the original text. Even if the character is non-human.
I wonder how they feel about James Earl Jones voicing Darth Vader.
There’s always the One Black Friend.
Or how they feel about JEJ taking over the role of Mufasa from whoever did it in the animated version.
Yes, I know.
Perhaps they’d prefer the original. 
Bonus:
I’m down with it.
The more things change…
And is the person who is truly being a dick have one or not?
Clearly their equipment is inadequate, whatever it is. 
So the guy who has been doing sexist harassment against me enlisted the help of a safety officer (a person who helps enforce code of conduct at meetings, helps take reports if there’s a breech of code of conduct) to try to get in touch with me. He asked his personnel to email and bother me. I think he basically wants me to know he’s watching. To try to scare me.
Being a woman in science sucks. I asked for an apology from the safety officer, and he was like “I had no idea what was up.” Then asked me how he can avoid something like this happening in the future. He, a man getting paid to help marginalized people stay safe, asked me, some random woman how to do his job. Why the fuck are people doing this job of ostensibly protecting women if they don’t know how? Why is he taking people’s money to do this? This is dangerous, and could hurt victims worse.
Because it maintains the illusion of care so they can continue harming women, which benefits men.
Right? Just like HR, they are not there for the employees, but to cover their ass in case of lawsuits.
I’m sorry you’re still having to deal with this bullshit, @infundibulum. I’m sure that being great at what you do threatens this man, which is why he won’t stop. Just another reminder of how academia has just as many problems as the corporate world…
At least he was open to feedback? We’ll see if it sticks by how he handles such situations in the future.
Your harasser seems to have the same issue I’ve seen a lot on-line: he doesn’t know when to shut up already and drop it, and apparently he can’t stand the idea of someone not wanting to listen to him.
I told him I recommend having a mentor if he’s serious about this kind of work. Then I gave him the names of a bunch of qualified women. Being a safety officer isn’t just “Well I’m a good person and I wanna help.” It’s being serious and intentional about situations and feedback.
Either he’s utterly in love with me in a scary, obsessive way or he really needs that damn last word. Maybe I’ll buy him one and send it over if I ever see him in a bar XD
But for real, the way this fucker pings me every few months in ways that don’t break any rules, but are clearly intended to intimidate … well, they work. I know he’s watching. I know a tenured, powerful man 20 years my senior is sitting in his office at a prestige institution, thinking of ways to fuck with me and get away with it.
Christ, what an asshole.
Just keep documenting.
Me, I would be tempted to put a sign on my office door saying, “It has been XX days since my harasser has attempted to contact me.” Low-level misbehaviour really annoys me.
The part that really bothers me is he will tag in earlier career colleagues while harassing me. It’s a game of chicken. He can’t hurt me, and he knows it. We don’t work in the same field. We don’t work at the same university. He has no power over me simply telling the truth and reiterating that he makes me feel uncomfortable.
So he tags in early career researchers in the hopes that I’ll be afraid to say that he is harassing me and I feel unsafe if it might muddy their names, too. Or gets his personnel to bug me on his behalf. He’s effectively using trainees as meat shields. It’s sick. What he doesn’t seem to learn is that I am perfectly happy to say “Harasser, this is unwelcome contact. Stop now.” If he has tagged in early career folks, I completely ignore them, and speak directly about his behavior.
The case for Susan Storm Richards: http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/Susan_Storm1.html