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Professors’ Group Says Efforts to Halt Sexual Harassment Have Stifled Speech
New York Times ^ | March 24, 2016 | ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Posted on 03/24/2016 8:00:21 AM PDT by reaganaut1

The growing federal emphasis on combating sexual harassment on campus, along with universities’ broadening definitions of inappropriate sexual behavior, has had a chilling effect on academic freedom and speech, especially on female professors in areas like gender studies, a report released Thursday by the American Association of University Professors said.

The report says that in the last few years, the government has been regulating not just sexual conduct but also sexual speech, and that the emphasis on complying with federal law has led to some professors being investigated by universities for making statements that some students find offensive but that the report says should be protected. A heightened focus on speech, the report said, has led to episodes like one in which students demanded trigger warnings before being exposed to graphic lesbian sex in “Fun Home,” the memoir by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel.

“We need to protect academic speech and the freedom that goes with academic speech, as well as due process,” Risa L. Lieberwitz, general counsel of the association and chairwoman of the subcommittee that drafted the report, said in an interview Wednesday. “Universities are acting in a way that is overly precipitous as well as applying overly broad definitions of sexual harassment because they are afraid of scrutiny.”

The 55-page report is based on research conducted by members of committees on academic freedom and tenure and on women in academia. The report says the association does not mean to underestimate the gravity of sexual harassment complaints, but calls for the government to draw a sharper line between behavior and speech and to commit to protecting academic freedom.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: college; freespeech; sexualharassment
It's delicious that government overreaching on sexual harassment is "chilling" the speech of "female professors in areas like gender studies". If you say that the 78 cent wage gap is a myth or that sometimes accusations of rape are made up, the womens' studies professors will be the first to crucify you.
1 posted on 03/24/2016 8:00:21 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

duh


2 posted on 03/24/2016 8:02:00 AM PDT by Doogle (( USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: reaganaut1

It’s not how they’ve “halted” sexual harassment, but how they’ve redefined it to mean even the most innocent incidences of sexual mention, even if not direct to the supposed “victim,” and even if merely imagined.


3 posted on 03/24/2016 8:03:02 AM PDT by fwdude
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To: reaganaut1

The word “Vagina” is a trigger for me, and it’s use violates my Safe Space.


4 posted on 03/24/2016 8:04:13 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: reaganaut1

ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS


5 posted on 03/24/2016 8:06:39 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The Democrats are going into full Alinsky mode against Trump.)
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To: fwdude
It’s not how they’ve “halted” sexual harassment, but how they’ve redefined it to mean even the most innocent incidences of sexual mention, even if not direct to the supposed “victim,” and even if merely imagined.

Yes, but showing lesbian porn in class should be protected.

6 posted on 03/24/2016 8:07:18 AM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: reaganaut1

One of the problems occurs when minorities practice sexual harassment. It pits two favored parties against each other.

Feminist students have to deal with Hispanic males making suggestive comments when they are downtown.


7 posted on 03/24/2016 8:07:47 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: SkyPilot
The word “Vagina” is a trigger for me, and it’s use violates my Safe Space.

Well buckle up. That's the whole premise behind Hillary's campaign. She has a vagina and she's not afraid to use it!

Sorry...I should have issued a trigger warning before that statement.

8 posted on 03/24/2016 8:09:07 AM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: pgkdan

True. Some sexual harassments are more equal than others.


9 posted on 03/24/2016 8:11:59 AM PDT by fwdude
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To: reaganaut1

Liberals are learning that when you try to limit speech that you disagree with, it will eventually limit your own freedom.


10 posted on 03/24/2016 8:13:02 AM PDT by jimmygrace
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To: pgkdan

Dang it, man. Now I’m gonna have to spend the rest of the morning with my Play-Doh.


11 posted on 03/24/2016 8:14:49 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: reaganaut1

Exactly! As another poster said, some sexual harassment is more equal than others.


12 posted on 03/24/2016 8:24:25 AM PDT by rcofdayton (.)
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To: reaganaut1
The problem is that the code to end sexual harassment invented many more categories of SH than there was before.
The original intent of SH laws was to make sure women shouldn't have to sleep with the boss in order to get a raise or promotion.
Instead it became a speech code thing, huge and impossible, trying to address every possible little grievance that feminists and SJW's could come up with.
It's out of control and it's causing a lot of damage.

13 posted on 03/24/2016 8:29:23 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: Billthedrill

Lol


14 posted on 03/24/2016 9:10:04 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: fwdude

ICAM! My mother and I were discussing this very thing years ago. She said that in her day it was known as harmless flirting.


15 posted on 03/24/2016 9:13:59 AM PDT by Jean2 (ox)
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To: reaganaut1

Here’s a real example:
Political correctness means a woman can report men for little things and see him slapped disproportionately hard for sexual harassment.
Report a man in a dress / transgender for sexual harassment, even blatant ones like criticizing your appearance and downgrading your femininity based on not looking like a 1950s dressed up doll or talking about graphic things such as the details of surgery reconstruction (bleeding neovagina like having a period) - and liberals act as if it is the woman’s fault.

You see this, too, when women aren’t allowed to complain about a mentally ill man with a penis in changing rooms and bathrooms - because its rights trump hers.


16 posted on 03/24/2016 9:21:36 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: pgkdan

To say students have to pay to read porn that isn’t even per their sexual preferences strikes me as a violation of their First Amendment rights, if not sexual harassment.


17 posted on 03/24/2016 9:45:22 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: reaganaut1

One halts sexual harassment the old-fashioned way by bringing up moral individuals in a family.

Or, one can simply get your big brother to beat up the pervert. He will get the message.

Either way is ok with me.


18 posted on 03/24/2016 10:07:25 AM PDT by doldrumsforgop
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To: reaganaut1

Who could not see this coming? The entire goal of Political Correctness is to stifle speech and thought as desired by those in power.


19 posted on 03/24/2016 10:25:22 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (The Confederate Flag is the new "N" word.)
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