I have some sympathies for what she went through and she (nobody in fact) deserves to be unwillingly touched or made her/his work place turned uncomfortable by people making inappropriate comments but geez, the article is really over the top:
I am struggling with hearing that an event I categorized as “A drunk ass tried to grab my boobs,†is now being discussed by witnesses as, “He tried to sexually assault her in a bar while intoxicated.†I had created a euphemism for myself, and having that euphemism striped away is making me realize that I have been hiding from myself the true degree to which I have been harmed.
So she had managed to get over an extremely mild incident with no problem until her "friends" tried to spin it in the most horrible way and now she cannot cope with it anymore. Score 1 for feminism. So let's see ... when I was a kid a car bumped hard into ours so maybe it helps if I keep repeating to myself "I had a potentially lethal car crash as a child" before going to sleep every night and see how it improves my life. Yay!
During my July 2012 talk at The Amazing Meeting ... I briefly addressed many of the issues that hold women like me back ... What shocked me was the form and degree of backlash.
I don't remember that talk but I don't doubt her when she says she received backlash. But reading the rest of the article, I really cannot bring myself to trust the adjectives she uses.
because I admitted that gender related comments hurt my self esteem, there were authority figures who demanded I be punished. While my direct supervisor and the dean we report to have always made me feel respected and have supported me, there were others within my profession who demanded I publicly apologize; that I be formally punished for what I said.
So the people who actually had the power to hurt her career were very supportive. Also, on "authority figures in Academia can hurt ma career!" I'm again skeptical of her evaluation of the situation: they cannot create obstacles in her getting tenure, because as far as I know she can request them *not* be in her committee. BTW, who are "others within my profession"? Since it's public we should know them right? Does anyone have anything on this?
And I did name names and I did use specifics … and my words were distributed widely enough that word of what was happening got back to me nearly a dozen timezones away. When I learned what was happening, I spontaneously (and thankfully silently) burst into tears.
That's possible but they sound more like rumors and rumors are unreliable.
[qulote]I felt I had to get a lawyer in order to make sure my career wouldn’t be ruined – someone to find ways to use the existing guidelines to protect me. I exhausted my (admittedly small) savings. I started working more and more in isolation. I was diagnosed with PTSD. I tried to hide in my work, and that alone may have kept me going.[/quote]
Okay let's see. Someone tried to grab her boobs. She made a complaint and named names. She heard "naming names" has put her in trouble. She thought her career was over even though she doesn't mention a single actual event. Were her papers unfairly rejected? Were her grants unfairly denied? Was she privately told she won't get tenure? I don't know maybe but she doesn't mention any of that.
And I hate myself for wishing this would all just go away, instead of wishing that there could be justice. But I guess I fear that justice has a price I don’t have the life blood to pay for.
Read that again. It’s fucked up. But it’s who I am, … and when I read the hashtag #RipplesOfDoubt a few weeks ago, I realized how often we women make that decision. I’m fucked up, but I’m not alone. Too many of us fill our heads with euphemisms and excuses. It’s so much easier to think, “It’s a drunk guy being a drunk ass.†It hurts so much more to say, “I had someone try and sexually assault me.â€
There we go again with over-the-top reactions and this time she is targetting herself with destructive self-doubt and negative emotions. Really, well done. Score 2 for online feminism.
I am a survivor.
Sure, what the heck, let's ruin another word. So now survivor means having survived a drunk guy almost grabbing your boobs.
