Attitude Correction
From Columbia University, a tale of classroom “gender misconduct”:
I met with my dean the next afternoon. She told me the same thing my professor had: I had called myself handsome and this was unacceptable. My dean tried to make me agree that I would never do this again.
Describing oneself as handsome – jokingly, in Chinese, in Chinese class – is a sign of “white privilege.” And will get you reported to the Gender-Based Misconduct Office by an anonymous classmate.
She told me if I want to make those jokes, I should come to her [during] office hours to do so.
Parents and alumni, please take note.
She told me if I want to make those jokes, I should come to her [during] office hours to do so.
Um . . . she’s offering seminars on standup comedy?
“Even if I were to agree with you, you know I can’t say anything…”
“Even if I were to agree with you, you know I can’t say anything…”
And so one anonymous complaint leads to a student having to sit through three meetings, in three different offices, to endure three lots of scolding, by three individuals whose jobs have made them absurd.
I don’t really understand how calling oneself handsome can be gender-related misconduct. But then I guess that trying to rationalise things like this is a symptom of my cis-male patriarchal oppressive tendencies. What matters to these mentalists is that “you are always wrong” and can be called to account at any time.
“she’s offering seminars on standup comedy?”
If she is, she doesn’t seem to get the importance of timing…
If she is, she doesn’t seem to get the importance of timing…
I’d like to book a small outburst of humour. Nothing major, just a pun, around 3:15 Thursday afternoon.
MC, it isn’t, it’s irony, and the guy could have gotten a friendly slap-down from anyone in the room. But social studies graduates can’t distinguish those from divisive put-downs, so all are verboten.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand how the Misconduct officer can call someone in for retraining, off an anonymous complaint over a throwaway remark, and still believe that the white guy has any privilege.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand how the Misconduct officer can call someone in for retraining, off an anonymous complaint over a throwaway remark, and still believe that the white guy has any privilege.
Careful, you’ll set off the…
THOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXON
THOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXON
THOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXONTHOUGHTCRIMEKLAXON
Oh bloody hell.
Mirror mirror.. on the wall.. who is the doollalliest of them all?
Why are they shaming his body image?
If she is, she doesn’t seem to get the importance of timing…
I guess she wasn’t kung fu fighting….
‘She told me if I want to make those jokes, I should come to her [during] office hours to do so.’
Hmm?
Maybe she found him handsome and wants to see him again?
(Ducks under the table just in case the klaxon goes off and a neutron bomb hits his office)
Totalitarian insanity.
So, making are reference to oneself in an age where one’s subjective personal identity trumps all logic and reason is now an offense? (If the photos accompanying the link are of the alleged miscreant, it’s pretty clear he was joking, BTW). Does a triggly-puff who describes herself as “beautiful” receive the same treatment? Somehow, I think not. The object is destroy any positive self-image which the “wrong” type of people might entertain and make sure they express their loathsomeness constantly. And here, I thought the flagellants disappeared hundreds of years ago.
Have you read the Sexual Respect Policy
It’s insanity. It’s pandering to a special kind of snowflake – at great expense to the parents, who’ll have to stuff up the cost as it’s partly why tuition costs are so high.
My God! If they find that offensive, what would they make of this sort of thing? http://bit.ly/28JffHd University life has changed since my day…
“Nothing major, just a pun, around 3:15 Thursday afternoon.” sorry, someone’s block-booked for a double entendre.
University life not much different from my day (early 80’s), just manifested differently. Reading this guy’s story put me back in the UF misconduct office after I got run off the road by a couple of Puerto Ricans driving a BMW while riding my bike. Due to the manifestation of PC of that day, I ended up on probation. I presume the other guys got some form of punishment but I was not allowed to know what it was.
The totalitarian attitude is revealed here in all its Kafka-esque horror. The denunciation by an anonymous informant. The replacement of clear and objective rules by arbitrary and subjective judgements (i.e. the abandonment of the rule of law). The concealment of the arbitrary and subjective nature of judgements with bureaucratic terminology and procedure. The linguistic vetoes and prescriptions that make objections illegitimate. The attempt to re-educate the dissident or deviant.
And let’s not forget that this totalitarian attitude has insidiously entered not only UK law (i.e. hate crime) but also the private sector. Look at almost any corporate policy on bullying or sexual harassment, and you will find that there is no objective definition of what constitutes these offences – all that matters is the subjective perception of the complainant.
I guess she wasn’t kung fu fighting….
In fact it was a little bit frightening.
(Sorry for not pre-booking.)
Does a triggly-puff who describes herself as “beautiful” receive the same treatment? Somehow, I think not.
WrongThought™ has been detected. Please report to the scolding booth for moral realignment.
Six hours should do it.
“I’d like to book a small outburst of humour. Nothing major, just a pun, around 3:15 Thursday afternoon.”
OK, but it’ll have to be followed by a Two-Minute Hate and some more Scoldification.
So, the other unasked question in all this, is what is the proper way to use new vocabulary in a second language class? (I assume the Mandarin word which we translate into English as “handsome” has generally the same connotation, i.e. “visually appealing,” generally and often used in reference to males.) Is there any sentence where the use of the term in relation to a human being would not be a violation, (or construed as such by someone on safari for grievances)? Do we purge “handsome” from the Chinese (or English, or French, or German) vocabulary instruction? Why wasn’t the instructor reprimanded for requiring students to verbalize such a “hateful” term?
Theo’s comment above @14:39 is spot-on. It’s not about offense; it’s about destruction of perceived enemies, at best, or sadistic manipulation of a cowed administration for pure pleasure of seeing innocent people pilloried.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand how the Misconduct officer can call someone in for retraining, off an anonymous complaint over a throwaway remark, and still believe that the white guy has any privilege.
———–
By choosing to state that she/he/it so believes then she/he/it then acquires the power to scold, which is she/he/it’s raison d’être
Six hours should do it.
She has nice legs.
Or did I miss the point?
She has nice legs.
Twelve hours.
Well, for the love of mercy, don’t send in the comfy chair, decent dry Bordeaux, and a selection of NFL cheerleaders.
The comfy chair??
Well, for the love of mercy, don’t send in the comfy chair, decent dry Bordeaux, and a selection of NFL cheerleaders.
I think reverse psychology only works so far unfortunately.
“had called myself handsome
She told me if I want ………….., I should come to her ………………. to do so.”
I have seen that film!!!
“sorry, someone’s block-booked for a double entendre.”
Block-booked? Crikey, that must be a big one.
R. Sherman,
someone on safari for grievances
Social Justice Warriors at universities are on grievance safari in a fenced-off game preserve where the “wardens” have the domesticated “game” tied down.
The single entendre is still wide open for a few minutes after lunch, however…
“She has nice legs.”
Trigglypuff???
The lady in the photo above. I don’t recall seeing Triggly-puff’s lower extremities to offer an opinion.
When I was in college in the late 80s, I was scolded for saying there was such a thing as race. We were all one race back then. Such quaint times. At least I wasn’t forced to have any thought-crime meetings with higjer-ups.
D’you think they might have a slot for black comedy?
I don’t recall seeing Triggly-puff’s lower extremities to offer an opinion.
Triggly-puff has extremities?
Something resembling floppy appendages, Hopp. Like flippers.
Wait a minute. Isn’t a white man learning Chinese cultural appropriation?
#SoMuchToDenounce
And so one anonymous complaint leads to a student having to sit through three meetings, in three different offices, to endure three lots of scolding, by three individuals whose jobs have made them absurd.
It’s also worth noting that Columbia’s Gender-Based Misconduct office, the third venue for Mr Sweetwood’s protracted institutional scolding, employs no fewer than 14 people. And yet there will be students who wonder, apparently in all seriousness, how it can be that university is so expensive.
The real education is in paying off the student loans. That comes later.
I think those 14 people might work in yet another, similar admin bloat office, David, over and above the gender misconduct one, as the dept names differ, as do the prime contacts and the office street addresses. Best guess: multiply by 2.
‘Describing oneself as handsome – jokingly, in Chinese, in Chinese class – is a sign of “white privilege.”’
Wow! If I could describe myself as anything, in Chinese, in Chinese class, I’d think I was making progress in the language. By the way, are we talking here about Mandarin or Cantonese? There is a difference. And I doubt that the complainer was ethnic Chinese. (He’d be unlikely to need ‘Chinese’ classes?)
So the cause of the kerfuffle is probably one of those professional complainers. Oh, and isn’t learning a language other than one’s native tongue now called ‘cultural appropriation’, the same as cooking foreign foods? I do wish the righteous would get their story straight.
Also at Columbia, this.
A few years ago I asked a friend to write my name in Mandarin and this is what he produced:
.
It probably actually means, “Stupid white culture-appropriating wanker” or something.
FYI, this topic is also being discussed at
http://althouse.blogspot.com/
this morning.
Also at Columbia, this>
Ah, Shaun King, aka Talcolm X.
Talcolm X.
Heh.
Piper: My wife, a native Mandarin speaker, says that is the standard phonetic representation for “Paul”, using the “simplified” characters.
F the 4th: Thanks!
.
Can she decipher this one? I copied it, so it may be, uh, “inexact”.
Multiculturalism is great and wonderful and you’d best not participate in it in any way.