What is the correct response?

[S L Forsburg]

Linnea wrote:

> This is true no matter what field we are in I fear. I see far too many
> headlines that read "Grandmother wins election" and that sort of thing. I
> have a friend who is a symphony orchestra player, principle flautist in
> fact, and a tenure-track faculty member at the university. She has "made"
> it. Not only does she have to deal with some of her colleagues playing the
> "woman first, professional second" game, but she has to deal with members
> of the public doing it as well.

And of course this is a big issue of being a woman in science. 

I am reminded about the NYTimes article about the (woman) physicist
who "slowed down light".  The first sentence described her hairstyle.
What possible difference to her science does her hairstyle or dress
make?  

> I really try not to dispair, but I am REALLY having trouble being nice to
> people who do exihibit these behaviors anymore. And of course, by all
> means we have to be nice to people. Otherwise WE are being unprofessional.

Oh yeah.  Why is it I am accused of being humor deficient when I
simply get tired of being the brunt of inappropriate jokes? One
sees how the stereotype of the humorless feminist arose....

This leads me to a comment raised by one of my postdocs.  A seminar
speaker was making rather vulgar jokes about sex in his talk--nothing
too extreme, but the sort of innuendo that really belongs more in a
locker room than in a professional presentation and sufficient to make
her feel a little uncomfortable. (His talk, by the way, was
not about sex per se.)  What is the appropriate
response to this?  
  
Walking out?
Commenting to the speaker (or his host) about it later?
Letting it slide by?  

It happens  often enough, and it is another example of "women have
no humor" because they don't see why it's offensive.  To me 
sexual innuendo is  insidious  and reduces interactions
with women colleagues from an intellectual to a  sexual basis. 
 None of us wants to think that a male
colleague is eyeing us as a potential sex partner or thinking of that
instead of our science.  It's possible to joke about sex, certainly, 
but that's something that you do with your friends, not with your
professional colleagues.  As is the case for many such complicated
issues, there's a substantial grey area. 

Commnets?

-- 
-susan
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S L Forsburg, PhD  forsburg at salk.edu
Molecular Biology and Virology Lab          
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA 
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/lab.html

Women in Biology Internet Launch Page
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/bio.html
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