Post-Backlash Feminism

The dynamic between men and women on American campuses tends to be, as a friend recently put it, "thoroughly ensconced in pre-feminist thinking." The American Academy is a sexist world and women must relentlessly lobby for themselves and their female students against the misogynist advances of academic policy in general, academic men in particular.

Trained in the wake of the Political Correctness movement, my academic career has occurred along side discussions of sexual boundaries on campus, free speech, multicultural sensitivity, and power dynamics between professors and students. The latter is especially charged, as one might imagine, but I can remember thinking that some rules of restraint had been made pretty clear: no ogling students in class, no touching students in one's office, no pornography in class, no sex between professor and student(s)...

And yet, those things regularly take place. In fact, nothing has really been wholly resolved, in this regard, and now I think of it, the American university is awash in sexual predation and harassment--and policies so porous that tenured men get away with pretty much whatever they want. As a post on Feministing.com recently commented, "male entitlement," is nearly inescapable?particularly within the halls of the American university.

But what about outside the university? What happens when female students and male professors move their relationships into virtual spaces, like Facebook?

In my institution one particular male professor has a highly performative, deliberately provocative, often pornographic presence on Facebook, and this persona emerges in his relationships with young female "friends." His profile is public (one does not have to "friend" him to see it or comment), and he is part of the institutional network, so happening on his offensive posts is not difficult, and, frankly, happened accidentally for me.

The flavor of his offensive posts: he offers to "come tackle" one young woman's "sweet ass"; routinely posts his desire to "c-m" when he finds a pic particularly pleasing; and posts double entendres, like finding a woman's photo "fetching" and wishing he were twenty years younger so he could "show [her] what he means." Finally, he posted the results of a quiz he took determining which body part he might be. Turns out--I am not making this up--he was a "dick." He was delighted, and posted a celebratory reaction, describing himself ejaculating.

While none of his FB friends is to my knowledge currently enrolled at the university, this professor maintains professional relationships with at least some of them. For example, one young female FB friend is currently awaiting a letter of recommendation from him.

His behavior is offensive by any measure; he is clearly trolling FB for young women in order to establish flirtatious (to say the least) relationships with them. That he's targeting ex-students is disturbing, and suggests an investment in exploiting whatever measure of power he had over them in the classroom. That one is beholden to him for letters of recommendation probably violates EEOC policies, and would certainly act as a deterrent to her reporting his posts or asking him to behave.

That he is performative and entirely public about this behavior suggests a glib indifference to taste and restraint grounded in seniority and tenure. Not to mention gender. Finally, that he announces himself as an employee of this institution and is linked into its network puts his very public behavior out there for prospective students and their parents to stumble across.

Would I send my daughter away to an institution I knew tolerated such offensive (and abusive, according to the rules of FB) behavior? Under no circumstances. Will this profile discourage other parents and students? There is no way to measure. What one can say for sure is that until such sexism and predation ceases within the halls of academe, we have little chance of stopping it elsewhere. Perhaps the only upside in cases like this one is that in virtual spaces like Facebook folks often expose themselves for who they are?and as individuals we ought to avoid.