>>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?
>A good response is to match humor (sic) with humor. It's hard, but it can
be done and usually makes the initiator look like an idiot and the
responder look golden. An example, in a very large class here for first
year biology majors, designed to "introduce them to the field", a male
ecologist said that her was wearing his "ecology clothes" defined as items
only a man would wear. It was meant as a joke, but it wasn't funny
considering that half the students in the room were women. After convincing
the woman ecologist sitting next to me that even as a joke it was
inappropriate - she got up and stated that she was an ecologist and didn't
suffer from male pattern baldness! This isn't coming across too well,
because I've forgotten the fine details, but it was funny and I'll bet
(hope - pray?) the male ecologist got the message. Muriel
Ambition will cure AIDS before compassion does.
Muriel Lederman Phone: 540.231.5702
Associate Professor, Biology Fax: 540.231.9307
Coordinator, Biological Sciences Initiative email: lederman at vt.edu
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg VA 24061-0406
