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posted by janrinok on Monday September 22 2014, @04:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the ashamed dept.

Margaret C. Hardy reports that the life sciences have recently come under fire with a study that investigated the level of sexual harassment and sexual assault of trainees in academic fieldwork environments and found that 71% of women and 41% of men respondents experienced sexual harassment, while 26% of women and 6% of men reported experiencing sexual assault. The research team also found that within the hierarchy of academic field sites surveyed, the majority of incidents were perpetrated by peers and supervisors. "More often it is the men of one’s own field team, one’s co-workers, who violate their female colleagues," writes A. Hope Jahren:

There is a fundamental and culturally learned power imbalance between men and women, and it follows us into the workplace. The violence born of this imbalance follows us also. We would like to believe that it stops short of following us into the laboratory and into the field — but it does not. I listen to my colleagues talk endlessly about recruiting more women into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines, and postulate what the barriers might be. Sexual assault is a pernicious and formidable barrier to women in science, partly because we have consistently gifted to it our silence. I have given it 18 years of my silence and I will not give it one day more.

Many of us work in fields related to this study - what are your experiences?

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by velex on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:02AM

    by velex (2068) on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:02AM (#97098) Journal

    No (s)he's, not. (S)he's making an objective observation. Normally I'd dismiss you as the typical heteronormative "put your blinders back on!" white knight troll, but you've been modded up twice. You probably have a cisgender blindspot visible from LEO. (You know, a kind of cislunar orbit.)

    Female privilege is part of this problem.

    I routinely get extended female privilege during half my waking hours, so I think I know a little of what I'm talking about. I've even been championed by white knights before, always against my wishes.

    You know what? White knights can be downright creepers sometimes. Some of us don't need or want champions.

    Disclaimer: Don't take me for an MRA. That movement is just as sexist as feminism.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 23 2014, @04:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 23 2014, @04:28PM (#97217)

    Original AC back to respond. But I promise that after this post I am out of the discussion for good!

    You probably have a cisgender blindspot visible from LEO. (You know, a kind of cislunar orbit.)

    I'm not even sure what a "cisgender blindspot" is so I have no idea if I have one or not.

    Female privilege is part of this problem.

    Whats-his-name (Yog-Yog-whatever) made a pretty blatant accusation that all women are manipulative bitches. I would say that is an indication he has some rather serious emotional issues that need professional help. Whether female privilege is a problem, or not, is neither here no there when it comes to his issues with women. What I find truly disturbing is that he could potentially be just one step away from an Elliot Rodger type outburst. That puts us all in danger, men and women alike. (Don't forget that most of Rodger's victims were men.)

    I routinely get extended female privilege during half my waking hours, so I think I know a little of what I'm talking about. I've even been championed by white knights before, always against my wishes.

    You know what? White knights can be downright creepers sometimes. Some of us don't need or want champions.

    Fine. Tell the "white knights" in your life that you don't need or want their help. If they are reasonable people they will get the hint. This still has nothing to do with whatever issues Yog-Yog-whatever is struggling with.

    Disclaimer: Don't take me for an MRA. That movement is just as sexist as feminism.

    I am not even sure what an MRA is so it is unlikely I would take you for one. All the jargon surrounding this issue! Yikes!

    • (Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Friday September 26 2014, @09:25AM

      by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 26 2014, @09:25AM (#98521) Journal

      Hi, “yogurt” here (yes that's the origin of the name, then it was d&d-ified [wikipedia.org] to sound Lovecraftian [wikipedia.org] like this [wikipedia.org] and this [wikipedia.org] and this [wikipedia.org] so it's a playful joke of a name. Read that last part again please). Anyway I just wanted to point out a few things.

      After reading what you wrote to velex I don't think you read my comment, you certainly didn't understand any of it but maybe you'll try reading it again without adding so much of your own stuff to it. You can add that stuff afterwards if you still think it applies but try to actually read the words I wrote on their own first. It doesn't mean you have to agree with what I wrote but I'll leave that to you after you've actually read it.

      Possibly a lot more important to you: since you made a thing out of psychology what's with the serious emotional issues and murder stuff? You repeat it in various strongly implied forms and use it like some sort a defensive invocation; a psychologist would most likely think you were projecting [wikipedia.org] your own internal state onto others. Is it your preferred “explanatory” rebuttal when you encounter something you don't agree with or possibly don't understand or don't want to understand or deal with? Are you convinced everyone you disagree with (or who disagrees with you) must be mental cases? Sure I'm cranky and a bit acerbic (and not nearly as much as I could be) but I'm an old dying loser who has realized nearly everything about the last forty years has been nothing but lies and completely wasted so what's your excuse for your obvious misanthropy? :D

      If you do have emotional scars that's neither uncommon or anything special, are you aware of how many people have lost a loved one, a spouse, or a child, or other family members? And those are just the normal causes, in addition comes all the horrible things people do to each other. Most people above forty (and many below) have encountered serious grief at least once during their life (and some even die from it, it's powerful), are you saying they can't hold opinions contrary to yours? That they should shut up and seek medical treatment because you say so? All I'm doing right now is holding up a mirror in front of you, I won't charge you :)

      Beside that would you honestly write the reply you did to me to someone who was violent, a psychopath or sociopath, a killer, a rapist, a sadist, or similar? Do you think it would make them likely to seek help instead of seeking you out or attacking someone else in your place? Most likely you aimed to hurt or to vent or maybe both, if someone does that to people around them who actually feel close to them (or worse: are dependent on them) then it's abusive and damaging …and unfortunately very common. If it's being done to you you should get away from them because they won't stop and you risk becoming like them. If you are female or underage the social services will try to help you (it might not be successful, they have their own peculiar and rigid world view and attract predators) but if you're an older male teenager or a grown male they likely won't believe you or will ridicule and belittle you (they even do that to male victims of rape) so then you're on your own: just run away as best you can (think twice and yet again if you're thinking about joining any armed service —not just in the US— because it's bullshit & more lies —and you'll have to hide it if you realize— but on the other hand you get weapons experience and possibly a better starting point, unless you die. Aim for a navy and ship duty if you can).

      --
      Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
  • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Tuesday September 23 2014, @06:36PM

    by etherscythe (937) on Tuesday September 23 2014, @06:36PM (#97294) Journal

    It goes two ways. On the one hand, divorce court heavily favors the female's interest. On the other hand, the glass ceiling in business heavily favors male interests. Then again, women often use sex as a weapon or a punishment. And again, men have more of a problem with committing domestic violence and sexual predation.

    Really, we need to out and abolish the double standards in our society, in both directions.

    --
    "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"